Members Bargaining Report

Members Bargaining Report

Your Bargaining Team Update

Your CPSU bargaining team met with the University on 23 June 2009. At the meeting, the CPSU tabled and outlined clauses relating to general staff career development, classification, general staff workload, and employment of fixed term and casual staff.

What the University Said

The University provided a positive response to the CPSU’s request for a clear amount of time release for bargaining representatives to prepare for bargaining meetings. The University also provided an outline of their approach for bargaining negotiations, which is that the current agreement is working well overall and whilst some changes were required there is no need for a substantial overhaul of the Agreement, of which they said an important sign is a lack of disputes going to arbitration before the Industrial Relations Commission.

The University raised concerns that the CPSU draft classification clause is complicated by the insertion of a committee process, and that there haven’t been significant complaints about the current process as far as Human Resources are aware to justify an overhaul of the classification process. The University also stated that the process should deal objectively with the classification of the position, irrespective of whether the position is classified downward.

The CPSU responded by stating that the problems with the current process are what is lacking in it, and that the process being proposed was flexible enough to be consistent as well as transparent. The CPSU also stated that the proposed process would also result in greater general staff satisfaction with the outcomes of the classification process. The CPSU also proposed that there should be protections to ensure that general staff maintain their salary in the outcome of a classification review.

There was also brief discussion on fixed term employment and unsatisfactory performance, with discussion to continue at the next meeting.

What’s Next?

The next bargaining meeting will be held on 14 July 2009. The CPSU committed to table an unsatisfactory performance clause, and present the general staff development and general staff workload clauses previously tabled. The University committed to provide clauses on fixed term employment and classification.

We welcome your comments and questions
contact your Lead Negotiator, Greg Stark.

Yours in Union,

Vale Rees Griffiths

The CPSU MQ Branch Committee regrets to inform members of the passing of CPSU Delegate Rees Griffiths. He will be missed and the thoughts of all members will be with his family at this time.

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