AUSTRALIAN universities will be required to offer all staff the choice of an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) and union involvement in HR matters will only be at the express invitation of university employees, under recently released Federal Government guidelines
AUSTRALIAN universities will be required to offer all staff the choice of an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) and union involvement in HR matters will only be at the express invitation of university employees, under recently released Federal Government guidelines.
The Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) also require that money allocated to universities under the Commonwealth Grant Scheme (CGS) must be directed to provide teaching and learning and not used to subsidise union accommodation or activities.
“The Australian Government provides around $8 billion a year in funding to the sector and has a responsibility to ensure these funds are expended efficiently and effectively to ensure the Australian taxpayer is getting value for money,”said Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews.
Speaking at the Australian Higher Education Industry Association’s 2005 conference, he told delegates that “the higher education sector is not immune from the global pressures faced by other industries” and “ongoing workplace relations reform is needed to ensure the sector’s long term sustainability”.
The HEWRRs also require workplace policies and practices to include a fair and transparent performance management scheme which rewards high performing staff, and stipulate that workplace relations consultative committees must include direct employee involvement.
Unions condemned the guidelines, claiming they were a “subterfuge for anti-democratic controls over universities, cost cutting and disenfranchisement and disempowerment of the workforce”.
John Cahill, general secretary of the Public Service Association, said they would further accelerate Australia’s brain drain and push university education towards mediocrity.
“What they have been unable to do by persuasion they are now trying by coercion. They are eliminating choice,” Cahill said.
“Their long term aim is to reduce labour costs through reduced wages and lesser conditions. The claim they want more flexibility for university managers. The sort of flexibility they are promoting will increase staff turnover and decrease staff morale. Neither outcomes are good for education.”
