By Candice Boyle
VICTORIA University has defended a $3.6 million grant that will help transfer some teachers onto Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs).
The university came under fire last week when the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said the Federal Government grant would force some teachers onto AWAs.
NTEU Victorian division secretary Matthew McGowan said it was disappointing that university management was trying to mislead staff about the circumstances of the grant applied for under the Workplace Productivity Programme (WPP).
“Management advised staff this week about the WPP grant, including that the university wants to have 25 per cent of staff on AWAs by 2010,” he said.
“What management didn’t say was that the university’s application for the WPP grant included having 10 per cent of new staff offered employment on an AWA-only basis. This means no AWA, no job.”
But according to the university, this is not the case.
Victoria University deputy vice-chancellor Jon Hickman said all individual employment agreements entered into by VU staff would be voluntary and fair.
“We will be talking to staff directly, and through the NTEU in the context of our next enterprise bargaining negotiations, about flexible employment arrangements,” he said.
“Staff members wishing to enter into individual employment arrangements have already approached the university, and where there is mutual benefit, the university is eager to accommodate them.”
Mr Hickman said the bulk of the money obtained under the WPP would be used to train and develop staff to ensure they were “future ready”.
But Mr McGowan was not convinced, saying the WPP was about implementing the Government’s industrial relations agenda within the higher education sector.
“Education Minister Julie Bishop has recently complained to universities that very few AWAs have been taken up by university staff. Now the Government has been caught out funding a program aimed at forcing staff onto AWAs,” Mr McGowan said.
