Susan Price
Three months before it takes control of the Senate, the federal Coalition government has launched a pre-emptive attack on university staff and the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), sending the sector into industrial turmoil.
According to a joint media statement released by federal education minister Brendan Nelson and workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews on April 29, the government is demanding that universities offer AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreements — individual contracts) to all new workers employed after April 29 and to all current employees by August 31, 2006.
In addition, all universities will need to comply with the government's new Higher Education Workplace Reform Requirements (HEWRRs) by September 30, in order to qualify for a 5% increase in Commonwealth Government Subsidies in 2006. This represents around $4 million in additional funding being used to blackmail universities.
This unprecedented intervention in universities and their dealings with staff will be met with stiff resistance from the NTEU. On the day of the announcement Chris Game, the union's NSW state secretary, called on universities to reject the government's measures. "Universities should not trade academic independence and integrity in order to access extra money offered by the government as a lure to force industrial reform."
Andrews launched the government's attack in his address to the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA) conference in Brisbane.
In his speech, Andrews made it crystal clear that the aim of the federal government was to take back what it lost through the NTEU campaign against aspects of the Higher Education Support Bill in 2003. That campaign forced the government to shelve the requirement for universities to include a clause in their workplace agreements to allow the offering of AWAs.
Andrews also made it clear to the AHEIA audience that an additional aim of the government's attack is to undermine the gains made by the NTEU through "pattern bargaining" (whereby conditions won at campuses with stronger NTEU branches are spread to other campuses) and the use of mandatory settlement points. Andrews described these gains as a "culture" that "restricts management discretion and induces uniformity of conditions, making workplaces generally inflexible and prescriptive".
In addition to requiring universities to offer AWAs, the government is attempting to undermine the role of unions in the workplace. Union involvement in workplace relations and staffing matters will only be at the express invitation of university employees, and unions will be considered a "third party" (unlike the federal government!).
Workplace consultative committees, for example, will no longer have union representation alone, but must include "direct employee involvement".
The government is also attacking the right of staff to proper consultative processes in workplace change and restructuring. This will strengthen the ability of university managements to vary employment arrangements in respect to course offerings, and the forms and mix of employment. Limits on casual employment are also likely to disappear as a result.
There is pressure to restrict the number of clauses in enterprise agreements, in order to "avoid excessive detail and prescription."
As well, under the guise of rewarding excellence, the government intends to introduce "performance-based agreements" and "tailored, flexible working arrangements" that are "aimed at individuals rather than groups". This is a basic attack on the principle of collective bargaining and collective outcomes that benefit all staff. There is a real danger that fair and transparent processes for managing unsatisfactory performance will be replaced with arbitrary processes, in the name of "efficiency".
In addition, union activity on campuses could be severely curtailed by a requirement that money allocated to universities under the Commonwealth Grant Scheme not be used to subsidise union premises or activities.
These attacks will potentially restrict the right of unions to maintain branch facilities on campuses, to access time release for branch presidents to undertake union activity, or at worst, to even use university premises for meetings.
The ideological basis for this attack on unionism is illustrated by Andrews' statement to the AHEIA that "universities and their managers will find themselves competing with union officials for the leadership of their employees".
The HEWRRs apply to all workplace agreements made and approved or certified after April 29. In order to meet the requirements and to be eligible for additional funding in 2006, any university with an agreement already certified, and which expires by the end of September, must have in place a certified agreement and workplace policies and practices that comply with the government's requirements by September 30.
Any certified agreement that expires on or after October 1 (such as the University of NSW general and academic staff agreements, which expire on March 31, 2006) must also have workplace policies and practices that comply with the HEWRRs in place by September 30, except where compliance with the requirements would be directly inconsistent with the university's obligations under its existing certified agreement.
All university workplace agreements made (or varied) and certified after April 29 are to include a clause that expressly allows for AWAs to operate to the exclusion of and to prevail over a certified agreement. The suggested clause is even provided on the department's website! This could force some universities to negotiate up to 5000 individual contracts with their staff.
Grahame McCulloch, NTEU general secretary, stated on May 5 that "While minister Nelson claims his workplace reform proposals are all about rewarding 'high flyers' ... his key proposal is that AWAs must prevail over the conditions in an enterprise agreement — the sole legal effect of which is to ensure AWA conditions can undercut those in an enterprise agreement".
Andrews also outlined in his speech to the AHEIA that the reintroduction of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Better Bargaining) Bill 2005, will further restrict university staff from taking industrial action that may be judged to be harming a third party, such as students. This means an attack on all levels of industrial action, including workplace bans on the release of results, for example.
Under the masquerade of ensuring flexibility to guarantee Australia's competitiveness in a global market, these attacks will mean a race to the bottom for the workplace rights of university staff.
While the federal government is not a majority funding source for universities, it now expects to have majority control over workplace relations. In no other sector is the question of funding tied to workplace requirements being implemented before the legislation has even gone to parliament.
In response to the government's attack, the NTEU is planning a campaign including protests and strikes across the country in June. In NSW, the NTEU has won the support of Unions NSW for its campaign. Campus branch meetings will be occurring across the country over the coming weeks, along with city-wide meetings of NTEU members.
The federal government's attacks on the NTEU and against student organisations are part of a generalised ideological onslaught against collective organisation, collective representation and a collective voice of dissent.
In order to defeat PM John Howard and his government's agenda, solidarity between university staff, students and the broader union movement is vital.
Given that workers in the higher education sector will be facing the same attacks on their workplace rights as other workers (and, like the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the NTEU has been singled out by the government for special treatment), it is important that the NTEU fosters alliances with all sectors of the labour movement under attack. This should include a commitment to solidarity with other unions, and a preparedness to take action in defence of union leaderships that are likely to be faced with prosecution under the federal government's proposed industrial legislation.
[Susan Price is an activist in the NTEU and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.
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