The agreement, which will run until 30 November, agrees to set up a working party to discuss unresolved issues, to be convened by the Partnership Resource Centre, the Department of Labour.  TEU members in the affected polytechnics, as at 4 June, also will receive a one-off lump sum payment of 0.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says the negotiations have been a long and difficult process, as members battled concerted employer and government attacks on basic employment conditions.

“Because of TEU members’ willingness to stand up for their rights, including through unprecedented levels of industrial action, the collective agreement now upholds core work conditions. This is a major achievement for the whole ITP sector,” said Dr Ryan.

After a year of dispute, in May the TEU and the six polytechnics – NorthTec, Unitec, Wintec, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, WITT, and Whitireia – went to facilitation. The facilitator effectively recommended the TEU’s position, which was that there be no changes to existing conditions and that a working party be established to discuss the employers’ claims around discretionary leave and total teaching days.

TEU national industrial officer Irena Brorens says the settlement is important because the ITP MECA employers did not succeed in reducing core conditions of employment. This was the main issue behind the fractious negotiations and strikes last year.

“TEU members also now have a renewed collective agreement. Before this ratification vote, all TEU members covered by the MECA had been forced on to individual agreements, which was a precarious place for them to be.”

While Ms Brorens says it is good to have these negotiations resolved, she believes a 0 pro-rated lump sum payment is inadequate compensation for members who have now not seen a pay rise since 2008. She is also concerned that the offer does not resolve the unfairness of non-union members at BoPP and Unitec having received pay increases last year when union members did not.

Ratification Vote

Thanks to all of you who participated in the eballot process for this ratification ballot.

The result of the cumulative vote across all six branches is that a new MECA has been ratified. The term will be 01 June 2010 to 30 November 2010.

Thanks also to all of you who took action, stood on picket lines and supported the bargaining team and your colleagues to ensure that we have collective agreement with no loss to your conditions.

This has been a long and frustrating bargaining process for all of us involved but with your commitment and support, we have achieved this outcome.  The bargaining team does realise that many members are disappointed about the remuneration outcome being a lump sum payment and the amount, as opposed to a significant across the board salary increase to the salary scales. Your bargaining team’s task in the next round is to deal with this issue once we have concluded the working party process.

What happens now

• The TEU advocate and the chief executives  will sign the new MECA

• All TEU members covered by the MECA will now cease being on individual agreements and will be covered by the terms and conditions of the new MECA. This will also apply to any new staff who have joined the TEU since 01 March 2010.

• Arrangements will be made with your Human Resources department to action the $700 lump sum payment as per the settlement.

• TEU representatives and employer representatives will arrange a meeting with the Partnership Resource Centre to start the process for the Working Party.

• Once the first working party meeting has been held the TEU bargaining team will arrange for the local working parties to commence their discussions.   Each of the local working parties will be led by either Sharn Riggs TEU National Secretary, Chan Dixon TEU organiser or Irena Brorens TEU National Industrial Officer, all of whom have been involved these negotiations.

Please remember that no decisions will be made in these working parties without consultation with members and any proposed changes will need to be ratified by members.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me, on irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz

Tū Kotahi – Stand as One

Irena Brorens, MECA Advocate

On behalf of your bargaining team – Glennis Birks (Wintec), Rod Fearn (WITT), Sarah Hardman (UNITEC), Sharon Phillips (Whitireia), Eric Stone (NorthTec), Robyn Tucker (BoPP), Chan Dixon Co – Advocate (TEU Organiser).

June members’ meetings to discuss the employer’s offer

Over the last two weeks we have had meetings at each of the ITP MECA branches to discuss the employers’ offer of 04 June 2010.  Thanks to all members who were able to come to one of those meetings during a very busy time for all of you. At the meetings a majority members voted to send the proposal to settle the MECA to a ratification vote.    Given the busy end-of-semester timing and the number of meetings we have needed during this long industrial dispute, we have decided to run an electronic ratification ballot.

So, once you have read this report and viewed the proposed changes you will then be asked to vote via an email ballot, which will be sent to you separately.

NB: PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE TO THE SALARY OFFER WHICH HAS OCCURRED SINCE THOSE MEETINGS

Summary of the proposed terms of settlement for the MECA

• Six month term 01 June – 30 November 2010
• Working party to discuss unresolved issues, convened by the Partnership Resource Centre (part of the Department of Labour)
• A one-off lump sum payment of $700 (pro-rated on proportion and length of fixed term) for people who were members of TEU as at 04 June 2010.  (Please note that this would not apply to hourly paid employees).

The proposed settlement includes items that were already provisionally agreed during negotiations:

• Updating of clause 6.5.7 Leave for Approved Statutory Authorities to better reflect existing Statutory Authorities
• Changes to calculations of holiday pay for short term employees to reflect nine  week leave equivalent (5 weeks annual, 4 weeks discretionary) this change would not take effect until 01 February 2011
• Agreement on hourly rate divisor for members on hourly rates to address the minimum legal annual leave entitlement of four weeks per year.

Background to the proposed settlement

In May we went to facilitation as directed by members at meetings earlier in the year.  The Facilitator recommended that the parties conclude bargaining by way of a 12 month term, during which a working party be convened to address the employers’ claims around discretionary leave and total teaching days. In effect, the facilitator’s recommendations were exactly the position the union had put to the employers several months earlier.  The Facilitator made no recommendation on a salary increase.

We were buoyed by the Facilitator’s recommendation, as she reinforced what we had been calling for throughout negotiations – that a working party was the most constructive forum in which to engage in complex discussions about current and proposed core conditions such as teaching days and discretionary leave.

Analysis of the employers’ offer at the meetings

The employers have taken on board much of the Facilitator’s recommendation, and have agreed to a working party approach, albeit within a shorter term than the recommendation and with a broader brief for the working party.

Pros

Ratification of this proposed settlement will mean the following positive outcomes:

• The employers have not succeeded in reducing your core conditions of employment, which was the main platform of our industrial action.
• A renewed collective agreement as a MECA.  At the moment all TEU members covered by the MECA are on individual agreements (IAs) mirroring the expired agreement.  While you would remain on that, everything in your IA remains frozen, including the salary rates, unless you individually renegotiate the terms and conditions of it.
• A renewed collective agreement means that any new employees have to be offered the collective in their first 30 days of employment, rather than what is happening now, which is that new employees are being offered different IAs, usually with inferior leave conditions.  A renewed collective agreement prevents this ‘divide and rule’ which creates two classes of employee.
• Even though the term is only six months, the MECA remains live for 12 months after that expiry, which means that members are covered by the collective for longer than the six month term and the employers will have to continue to offer the MECA to new employees for all of that period.
• TEU has suggested throughout bargaining that the complex issues which the employers have raised would be best addressed through a working party process.  This is because it is out of the heat of bargaining and can look at all sorts of options to address any perceived problems. The working party can look at our issues and not just be confined to what the employer sees as “problems”.
• The working party will be convened by the Partnership Resource Centre, which is an independent body with expertise in assisting parties to address complex issues such as those we have faced in this long-running industrial dispute.  There will be site sub-working parties to discuss the issues that will be linked back to the national working party.  Any proposals which come out of the working party will of course at the end of the day need to be supported by you, and ratified by you if they are put into the bargaining process once the term expires.

Cons

• The offer of a $700 pro-rated lump sum is inadequate both in terms of the amount offered, as well as it not being on your actual rates of pay or backdated. The $700 is pro-rated on your proportion (e.g. a 0.5 FTE will get $350) and pro-rated for fixed term employees based on the remaining length of term within the appointment (e.g. if your fixed term finishes at the end of October you will get around $580). It is not offered to hourly rate employees.  Please note that the employers have increased the offer from $500 to $700.  This is because in our feedback to them about the outcome of our round of meetings, we clearly told them that their money offer was problematic.  They have subsequently come back to us and raised that to $700 pro rata.
• The term is only six months, and we believe the Facilitator’s recommended 12 month term would have been a more constructive timeframe in which to address the matters which the working party is charged with investigating.
• The equity issues in pay offers at BoPP and Unitec are not addressed in the offer.

There were lots of really good questions at the meetings. If you weren’t able to get to one of the meetings please feel free to ring your bargaining team representative or email either Irena Brorens on irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz or Chan Dixon on chan.dixon@teu.ac.nz

A copy of the proposed terms of settlement and the terms of reference for the working party are attached. A full copy of the tracked proposed collective agreement can be viewed on the TEU website http://www.teu.ac.nz/?p=11035

Ratification Process – Email Ballot

You will be sent an email ballot from the TEU it will come up as Tertiary Education Union – do not reply. The subject will be ITP MECA Ratification Ballot. If you have not received this email by 01 July, please contact the National Returning Officer Susannah Muirhead on susannah.muirhead@teu.ac.nz

Please ensure you participate in the ballot process and complete your vote by 4.00pm 08 July 2010.

If you have any questions about this proposed settlement please contact irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz.

Thank you, for your support to the TEU negotiating team.

Tū Kotahi – Stand as One

Irena Brorens, Advocate – irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz

On behalf of your bargaining team – Glennis Birks (Wintec), Rod Fearn ( WITT), Sarah Hardman (UNITEC), Sharon Phillips (Whitireia), Eric Stone (NorthTec), Robyn Tucker (BoPP), Chan Dixon Co – Advocate (TEU Organiser)

Latest Employer Offer and Members’ Meetings

Hello TEU members,

Since our last newsletter on the 27 May the TEU has met with the ITP employer representatives and had various communications to discuss the Employment Authority recommendations.  The good news is that the employers have not rejected the recommendations completely but they have proposed some significant changes.

1)         ERA Facilitator’s recommendation

• That the parties settle a collective employment agreement on current terms
• That the term of that agreement be one year from 30 May 2010
• That a working party be convened during the life of the agreement to address the issues raised in the employers’ claim regarding total teaching days and the use of discretionary leave.
• No recommendation was made as to a salary increase

This is a summary and the whole of the facilitator’s recommendation is appended for your information to this newsletter.

2)         Employers’ Proposal to Settle the MECA

• That a MECA on current terms be settled
• That the term is for six months from 01 June 2010 to 30 November 2010.
• That a working party to discuss the issues which remain unresolved between the parties be convened
• That changes that had provisionally been agreed to in October 2009 be included.
• That a lump sum payment for TEU members as at 01 June 2010 of $500 pro rata.

This is a summary and a copy of the latest letter from the employers is appended for information

3)         TEU’s response

If this were agreed it would provide a MECA again for six months. TEU would also initiate again nearer the expiry and this will mean there would be another 12 months of an applicable MECA unless the parties reach a settlement prior that. That means collective coverage for at least 18 months.

This means that all your current terms and conditions would remain unchanged and you would no longer be on individual agreements. All TEU members would move back to being covered by a collective agreement (MECA).

All new academic staff whose work falls within the coverage of the MECA would have to be offered the MECA terms and conditions.  In addition any new staff who are TEU members, but who have been employed on individual agreements since 01 March 2010 on less favourable conditions will automatically be covered by the terms and conditions of the MECA.

The working party will provide the parties with an opportunity to discuss the issues that remain unresolved in an environment that is not linked to bargaining.  As you are aware, this has been TEU’s position during this bargaining and was picked up by the ERA recommendations.  The bargaining team has already provided feedback on the wording for the terms of reference.  We recognise that the wording is not ideal and may still be problematic for members.

The salary offer that has been offered by the employers as part of this package is significantly less than inflation and less than what has been paid to staff on IAs in some of the institutions. This will need to be discussed at the meetings being arranged.

4)         Round of Meetings

The TEU bargaining team is now setting up a round of members’ meetings as it is essential now that we have a full discussion with you on the state of this long running dispute.  These meetings are currently being organised and your Branch President will notify you of the date and time at your branch. These will not be stopwork meetings.

At the meetings there will be a full presentation of the current offer and the ERA recommendations and the legal issues associated with them. There will be time for discussion and debate about the pro and cons of the proposal and what the options are.

Please attend these important meetings as you will be asked to vote so that we can make a decision about how we deal with proposal.  However, please note this is not a ratification vote. It will be a vote on the employers’ proposal which will enable the TEU team to determine where to from here.  The meetings will also cover other options that will need to be considered.

This has been a long and difficult dispute and we need to determine what happens next.

Thanks again for your ongoing support. Please attend your branch meeting.

Tū Kotahi – Stand as One

Irena Brorens, Lead Advocate – irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz

On behalf of your bargaining team – Glennis Birks (Wintec), Rod Fearn (WITT), Sarah Hardman (Unitec), Sharon Phillips (Whitireia), Eric Stone (NorthTec), Robyn Tucker (BoPP), Chan Dixon  Co – Advocate (TEU Organiser)

Ms Urlich recommends that a collective agreement be put in place for one year from 30 May 2010, without any change to conditions, and that a working party be set up during the term of the agreement to investigate discretionary leave and teaching days.  She has not made any recommendation about salary increases.

The recommendation reinforces what TEU was saying throughout last year’s difficult negotiations, which is that the MECA employers have not properly utilised the discretionary leave clauses in the expired MECA.

TEU advocate Irena Brorens says the recommendation of a one-year collective agreement with no loss of conditions is significant, given the employers’ attempts over the past year to significantly change leave entitlements and teaching day protections. 

“Having a collective agreement in place is crucial – we have already seen one of the MECA employers trying to employ current members on lesser conditions, and employ new staff on much lesser conditions, such as the statutory minimum 4 weeks leave and minimum sick leave provisions. A renewed collective will put a stop to that.”

Ms Brorens says the next steps should be to get back in discussion with the employer group about the recommendation.

“Although the recommendation is non-binding on the parties, we would expect that six large public institutions would accept the recommendation of the Employment Relations Authority. So we need to discuss with them the next steps forward.”

The Employment Relations Authority issued its recommendation late on Friday afternoon, following two days of facilitation earlier last week.

[download the facilitation recommendations here]

We are delighted to report that the recommendation reinforces what our union has been saying throughout last year’s difficult negotiations, which is that the MECA employers have not properly utilised the discretionary leave clauses in your expired MECA.

Authority member Marija Urlich, who presided over the facilitation, recommends that a collective agreement be put in place for one year from 30 May 2010 without any change to conditions, and that a working party be set up during the term of the agreement to investigate discretionary leave and teaching days.  She has not made any recommendation about salary increases.

The recommendation of a one-year collective agreement with no loss of conditions is significant, given the employers’ attempts over a year to significantly change your leave entitlements and teaching day protections.  Having a collective agreement in place is crucial – we have already seen one of the MECA employers try to employ current members on lesser conditions, and employ new staff on much lesser conditions, such as the statutory minimum 4 weeks leave and minimum sick leave provisions.  A renewed collective will put a stop to that.

Having a settled collective agreement and engaging in the working party creates a good foundation to create stability at all six branches involved in this long-running dispute and will help to restore some of the goodwill which has been lost over the past year.

Our next steps are to get back in discussion with the employer group about the recommendation. Although the recommendation is non-binding on the parties, we would expect that six large public institutions would accept the recommendation of the Employment Relations Authority.  So we need to discuss with them the next steps forward.  Of course we will keep you updated as things move along, although at this stage we have not arranged a round of branch meetings.

Meanwhile, we can be satisfied that the facilitation has reinforced what we have all been saying during our long dispute.  The recommendation is attached.

If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact your team representative or Irena Brorens on irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz

Thank you once again for your ongoing continued support.

Tū Kotahi – Stand as One

Irena Brorens, Lead Advocate – irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz

On behalf of your bargaining team – Glennis Birks (Wintec), Rod Fearn (WITT), Sarah Hardman (Unitec), Sharon Phillips (Whitireia), Eric Stone (NorthTec), Robyn Tucker (BoPP), Chan Dixon  Co – Advocate (TEU Organiser)

Thanks to Sarah Hardman at Flickr for the photo

Facilitation has finally come round…

Dear TEU members

Facilitation to try to resolve the ongoing ITP MECA dispute is taking place tomorrow and Wednesday in the Employment Authority in Auckland.

You will find a Position Paper from both the MECA employers and our union attached to this newsletter. (removed)

We will report back to you as soon as possible after Wednesday.

Irena Brorens, Lead Advocate – irena.brorens@teu.ac.nz

On behalf of your bargaining team – Glennis Birks (Wintec), Rod Fearn (WITT), Sarah Hardman (Unitec), Sharon Phillips (Whitireia), Eric Stone (NorthTec), Robyn Tucker (BoPP), Chan Dixon  Co – Advocate (TEU Organiser)

That is Tertiary Education Union national industrial officer Irena Brorens’ response to Unitec’s surplus announcement on the eve of a legal facilitation that will attempt to resolve a 13 month long employment negotiation between Unitec, five other polytechnics and 800 members of TEU.

“Unitec cannot continue to justify their efforts to reduce terms and conditions to staff, when staff have demonstrated that they are both highly productive and economically efficient.”

“If Dr Ede really wants to use Unitec’s $8.24 million surplus to build capabilities he needs to talk to his own staff who delivered the surplus to him at the same time as successfully educating over 23,000 students.  They can help to continue to deliver international quality education if they are given the right support,” said Ms Brorens.

Union members at the six polytechnics, NorthTec, Whitireia, Wintec, WITT, Unitec and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, have been taking industrial action at different times since September last year to protect their working conditions. Last year they offered to accept zero percent pay increases at four of the polytechnics in return for retaining their existing employment conditions. However the employers have remained adamant throughout the dispute that they wish to increase teaching hours and limit leave provisions for their staff.