Transcript
Speaker: G'day, everyone, and welcome to My Union Road and EBA. This is a podcast to chronicle the progress towards a new enterprise bargaining agreement at Monash University and is brought to you by members of the Monash branch of the NTEU. We're here to take the old agreement and hashtag change it. And unlike our namesake, my dad wrote a porno, do everything we can to avoid being fucked in the process. Those involved with the podcast would like to acknowledge that it is being recorded on the unsaid lands of the Kulin nations,
Speaker: on whose lands we live, teach, and work. We would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional custodians and elders past and present, and to the continuation of the cultural, spiritual, and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
Speaker: Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This week we're just doing a short episode because we're focusing on the parbo. But before we get into parbo talk, we just have a couple of housekeeping things to address. The first is that you may have noticed that the episodes of late have been a little bit more spaced out. And we just want to say that this is likely to continue for at least the next little while. Everyone involved with the podcast volunteers their time to putting it together. And with the start of semester, the parbo and a bunch of other things,
Speaker: Our time's just been a little bit more limited. We will definitely still be putting out episodes, but the regular two week cycle may not be possible. But we'll always keep you updated with what's going on and the progress that we're making with EA negotiations. The other thing that we wanted to do was just to answer a couple of questions that have been sent through to us via the inbox. The first question that we've gotten is around the progress of the job security and casual conversion clauses that we put forward. As you may have read in the last bargaining email,
Speaker: in the last meeting in the first week of semester university management gave a presentation with their aspirations around some of these issues. We'll have more to say about this in the next episode but the shortest possible version is that it's a promising start but with many questions still left unanswered. Another question that we have gotten is why we don't settle wage negotiations before moving on to other clauses.
Speaker: Usually wage increases are actually only spoken about at the end of bargaining. So the union's bargaining team is actually moving up negotiations on wage increases because of the cost of living crisis. The bargaining team also wants to do everything they can to ensure that negotiations finish up as quickly as possible. So we need to make sure that we are doing everything that we can on the union end to ensure that we're making progress. So essentially we're trying to balance these two aims.
Speaker: In saying that, because of the rate of inflation, the union gave management a deadline on a response to pay rises in an effort to get some answers on such an important element of negotiations, while also still moving things forward in other areas. The unions now started the parbo process because of management's lack of response around wage increases. If you want to hear more about protected action, check out our previous two episodes on what protected action is and what the process that we need to do to be able to take protected action looks like.
Speaker: On Tuesday the 14th of March, the ballot opened for all members registered at Monash branch to vote on nine different protected actions. Instead of doing a full episode this week, Kate and I and the rest of the podcast team will be making phone calls to all union members at Monash informing them about the parbo and asking them to vote yes.
Speaker: We're making calls to members because members can only take protected industrial action after a secret ballot, where at least 50 % of members vote and more than half of those voting vote in favour of each action. So it's really important to get enough people voting. And the university sees the percentage of people who have voted and the percentage of people who voted yes, so a really strong showing will send the message that we, as a union, are really serious about EA negotiations.
Speaker: It's important to note that voting yes doesn't mean you're obliged to take that particular action. It simply gives us, as a branch, the option to take that action at a later date. The ballot for protected industrial action is being held electronically and opens Tuesday the 14th of March. This ballot is for the NTAU members in both professional and academic roles at Monash.
Speaker: and there will be a list of nine different actions on the ballot. You will receive an email from the balloting agent conducting the ballot called TrueVote at 9 a .m. with a unique login code.
Speaker: It's super important that as soon as you see this email, you open it, you click through your unique link to vote using your unique code, vote yes to all questions about different types of action we may agree to take after the ballot, and submit your vote according to the instructions, making sure you see that confirmation screen.
Speaker: And importantly, please let us know if you're voted by filling out the form in the email from the NTEU or sending a brief email to the branch at monash at nteu .org .au. We'll then know who we don't need to follow up with, which will make our list of calls much more manageable and will mean you don't get calls from us asking you to do something that you've already done.
Speaker: And all up, the vote should only take about five minutes of your time. And so just to remind everybody, this is the list of the nine measures that you'll be voting on on Tuesday when that vote comes through from TrueVote. One, stoppages of work of between five minutes and 24 hours in duration. And the second one is indefinite stoppages of work. Third, a ban on participation in events hosted or endorsed by Monash University.
Speaker: And number four is making statements while working explaining why members of the union are taking industrial action.
Speaker: Number five, a ban on the transmission of assessment results to the employer. And number six is a ban on the use of Monash University's online systems. Lucky number seven, writing emails in all caps and or without punctuation. And number eight is a ban on consultation with or providing support to students outside the delivery of tutorials, lectures or workshops. And then finally, number nine is a ban on working outside of your usual hours of work.
Speaker: So there's the nine actions that we're going to be voting on on Tuesday. So voting is open for two weeks as well. And as always, if you have any questions, please get in touch with us at myunionroadineba .com and happy voting. Don't forget Tuesday morning, 9 a .m. true vote will be the people that are emailing you. It's not spam. Open it and vote. And you'll hear from us again after the parvo vote is finished. Thanks.
Speaker: Alright folks, that's it for this episode. Thanks to Kate, Danny, Adam, Bernard, and Pod Daddy Sofio for all the work they've put into this, and we'll catch you next time.
