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Episode 17: Open Day Extravaganza
134 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, Kate & Tony navigate through the status of our log of claims and the universities response to what we have put forward. Spoiler alert: it's not great. We then welcome Adam to the pod proper to talk about open day. The link to RSVP to the Open Day and to sign the petition are both in the podcast linktree below!
If you have questions about the process you'd like answered, or any topics you would like to hear covered on the podcast, drop us an email at [email protected]
You can also stay up to date with everything happening with bargaining at our new bargaining website, and with the branch on Facebook and Twitter. All of which can be found here - https://linktr.ee/myunionwroteaneba
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Transcript
Introduction to Enterprise Bargaining Agreement
00:00:18
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,
00:00:47
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.
Vice-Chancellor's Salary and Its Impact
00:01:07
Speaker
Hi everyone, my name is Adam Fernandes and I am your National Councillor here at the Monash Branch. Here with another update on our Vice-Chancellor's pay.
00:01:17
Speaker
It has been 397 days since the expiry of the old EBA, and by the time the Vice Chancellor leaves her post this Friday, she will have ranked in $1,512,726. Now that's equivalent to hiring 17 U5s for a year, or roughly the same amount of Level A academics. You could also adopt 605 Golden Retriever puppies with that amount, fun fact.
00:01:44
Speaker
But as we say farewell to one of the most grossly overpaid public servants in Victoria, possibly even the country, we would like to thank her for her contribution to staff burnout, wage theft, a parking permit system that virtually robbed staff and students of their pay, numerous land grabs, and an amazing PR campaign to make us look like we're a bastion of progressive thought. That's it from me.
Bargaining Progress and Union Vision
00:02:08
Speaker
I'm Adam Fernandez signing out. Hi, everyone.
00:02:11
Speaker
This week, we're putting out a quick episode to fill everybody in about what we'll be doing on Open Day this Sunday at Clayton and why we're doing it. We're starting our 10th month of bargaining now, and we are starting to get closer to the meatier end of the process. Each side is putting forward their own version of the changes that they want to make to the enterprise bargaining agreement, and in so doing have painted a picture of their vision for what they want the university to be.
00:02:36
Speaker
The union, through the bargaining team, has put forward a vision of a fair university, one that acknowledges the labour of its staff upon whose shoulders rest the world-class rankings that the Vice-Chancellor is always quick to take credit for in her emails.
00:02:51
Speaker
Our vision of the university is one with secure jobs, manageable workloads, decent hours, adequately provisions, and protections not only from bullying and other unacceptable conduct, but also from things like repeated restructures, which at their core are so often just institutional forms of unacceptable conduct that result in stress, distress, and unnecessary burdens being placed upon the staff who remain.
00:03:18
Speaker
The university, for its part, has continued its long-standing practice of being completely driven by the almighty dollar. Why can't they provide reasonable accommodations for gender affirmation leave? The cost. Why is it too much to ask that casuals be paid for all hours that they spend marking the assignments of their students? The cost. Why are they pushing to expand the span of hours? To save money. All the while they spend copious amounts of money in other areas like executive salaries and building after building purchased for God knows what reason.
Engaging Students and Parents on Open Day
00:03:49
Speaker
So as we get to the pointy end of bargaining, where it is more important than ever that we raise our voices for the kind of university we want to work in, it is time to show up and tell the world exactly how the sausage is made. At Open Day, the university is expecting thousands upon thousands of people to walk through the campus to get a sense of what this place is all about.
00:04:12
Speaker
We think that if people hear what the reality is for us and the alternative that we are proposing, they will side with us, side with an idea of the university as a place of learning, not as a conveyor about pushing through as many students as possible in order to maximize the university's profits. So today we're going to recap the state of progress in bargaining and where we are on different fronts, something that was covered in the recent members meeting, but it's important to understand.
00:04:37
Speaker
And then Adam, who's dolcet tones and sassy quips greatest at the beginning of each episode is going to talk to us about what the plan is for open day and how you can help. Okay. So first up is the update on the status of the whole range of different claims that we've made as a part of our log of claims. This is the document that members formulated and put, put to the university at the outset of bargaining. And unfortunately on a lot of, a lot of fronts, the university has come up short in their response.
00:05:05
Speaker
if they've given us a response at all. For professional staff workloads, the university have rejected our claims for increased protections against increased workloads as a result of restructures and for protections against excessive or uncompensated overtime, which sounds a lot like wage theft to me.
00:05:23
Speaker
They have also knocked back our claims for access to a nine day fortnight and for greater working from home rights. And want to expand the span of hours for professional staff to cover a massive 13 hours a day. For academic staff workloads, we're essentially waiting to hear back from them about all of our claims, effective workload and hours linked caps, protections against excessive workloads and expanded recognition of research types that are all TBD from their end.
00:05:53
Speaker
The picture is a lot clearer for sessional staff workloads. They've said no to everything. No to all hours paid for all hours worked. Hello again, wage theft. No to abolishing the absurd Dean's determination for marking. No to paid consultation hours and no to rewriting scheduled three to call teaching teaching and reduce misclassification.
Challenges for Casual Staff: Wage Theft and Job Security
00:06:12
Speaker
An issue which has already cost them nearly $9 million in back pay.
00:06:17
Speaker
They also want to leave casuals as second-class citizens when it comes to superannuation by refusing us the same super contributions as those of ongoing staff. In terms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment, the union and management's positions are much closer, but the university only wants to commit to an aspirational target, whereas the union wants to make it an enforceable target. Moving on to job security, we're again getting a lot of big fat no's from Peter Marshall and Co.
00:06:44
Speaker
No protections from excessive restructures, no to limitations on retrenchment to where the work performed is no longer required, no to expanded recognition of long-term service, and no to conversion rights for casual and fixed-term staff. They did announce the creation of 120 FTA teaching and research positions, but for them, fixed-term and periodic contracts are the new default, and they consider them to be secured jobs. Something that we know through our own lived experience is just bullshit.
00:07:15
Speaker
They've also offered what they call a pay increase, but at well below CPI, it is still a real terms pay cut atop the previous one, which offered much the same.
University's Commitment to Job Security
00:07:25
Speaker
It's a shame we can't all expect a 12% pay rise, but you got to be the VC for that. The status of leave entitlements is a bit of a mixed bag as we touched on last episode.
00:07:34
Speaker
They've come to the table to offer better leave entitlements for non-birth partners, but have knocked back sick pay for casuals and vaccination leave, have so far stuck to their underwhelming halfway position on gender affirmation leave, and are still trying to pretend Victorian state legislation somehow does not apply to them when talking about long service leave.
00:07:53
Speaker
When it comes to bullying, victimisation and occupational health and safety, again, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The university still wants to be able to punish staff for their research metrics and is still resisting improved reporting and transparency of OH&S issues, but they have agreed to provide the findings and investigations to the complainants and have made some progress in the wording of their complaints and handling procedures.
00:08:19
Speaker
Finally, the university is seeking to impose higher thresholds on the exercise of academic freedom, deny the right to review in cases of dispute, and have so far been unsympathetic to our claims around improved intellectual property rights for staff. So as you can see, if this were a traffic light set up, it'd be a hell of a lot more red than green. So with Open Day, we want to send a clear message.
00:08:43
Speaker
That message is that the university needs to do better. It really has to do better. With Margaret Gorn, as at the end of this week, Sue Elliott, our new acting VC, has an opportunity to abandon the obstructionist, combative approach to bargaining that has dominated the last 10 months from the university side and come to the table with real proposals to help this university live up to the aspirations that it says it has.
00:09:10
Speaker
Sue Elliott can hashtag change it. She just has to want to put people and pedagogy before profit. To treat the staff at the university with dignity and respect and be willing to see this place for what it is, an institution of higher learning, not a cash obsessed business enterprise trying to gobble up the world
Open Day Strategy for Union Engagement
00:09:28
Speaker
around it.
00:09:28
Speaker
Which brings us to Open Day. As many of you know, Open Day is the one day every year where the university throws up its tail feathers like a peacock in mating season and beckons forth to prospective students in an attempt to woo them to one of the various Monash campuses and away from the likes of Melbourne, Deakin or even God forbid an interstate university like Sydney University.
00:09:49
Speaker
This year, the university is estimating that some 12,000 people have registered to attend one of the open days, with nearly 9,000 of those registering to come to Clayton this Sunday. There will be events, displays, and all manner of stuff spread pretty much around the whole campus, giving us ample opportunity to talk to prospective students and their parents and give them an insight into the working conditions of the university and make our case for better pay and better conditions.
00:10:18
Speaker
Cause as we all know, staff working conditions are student learning conditions. So to talk to us about open day and what we'll be doing, we've released Adam from the confines of the beginning of the show. He's the victim president and a veteran of many open days. How are you doing Adam? I'm doing great. How are you both? Not too bad. Yeah. Getting pretty good. Very excited for Sunday. Me too. Me too. I typically work Sundays for open day. It's the one Sunday I actually get off my beds.
00:10:48
Speaker
So Adam, what's the Vic division doing at Open Days throughout the state this year? Quite a few things actually. So like with Monash, there's a lot of branches across the division that are really pushing for better agreements and not getting very far. Our union has proposed that we take a concerted effort and organised effort across the state
00:11:12
Speaker
by occupying their open days. So what we'll see is a calendar of open days where staff from the union as well as members will be putting effort into making sure that their voices matter and their voices are heard on open days. Sounds good. You've been involved in a bunch of open days in the past. For people that haven't necessarily been to one or haven't maybe been to one for a long time, what are they usually like? What can people expect to see?
00:11:40
Speaker
So I should clarify that I've only been to a Monash Open Day. I don't really get out of my bed on Sundays for work until it's double pay. So for me, that's a very good reason. What you can expect as say a parent or a visitor or a guest is an experience that's very similar to a carnival in the sense that you'll have, you know, people going to faculties for demonstrations to find out more about courses.
00:12:07
Speaker
You'll have students and parents looking to find out how to get into university, like via scholarship pathways, students looking to stay on campus, and a lot of people looking for information, but a lot of faculty is also demonstrating some of the amazing projects that they do, particularly in engineering, because there's a lot of hands-on projects that students get to touch and play with.
00:12:30
Speaker
But aside from all that, there's a kind of aspect to it where there's free food, there's performances, there's DJs, there's dancers. And the whole idea is to make this an enjoyable experience for those who have traveled quite a number of hours to watch, to see their kid hopefully go to an institution like Monash. So the idea is to make this an enjoyable experience for parents, kids, but also the younger siblings of kids who get dragged along inadvertently as well.
00:12:57
Speaker
I hear there's also some clowns that attend, but they're in suits and have seven figure salaries. Yes. Um, just one, I think it's the VC. So it sounds like it should provide us with plenty of opportunity for conversations with people. Can you walk us through what we as the union will be doing on open day for this year at Clayton? All right. So this depends on whether you are working the day or you're not working today. And what I mean by that, if you're getting paid money like me,
00:13:27
Speaker
to work the day, then you can elect to actually take strike action from 12 to 1, and down your tools, leave your stall, and attend a stop-work rally where we'll be making speeches, we'll be raising hell, talking to students, marching, shouting, etc. If you are not required to work over the day, and what I mean by that, if you are an academic, for example, who does not get paid, but you volunteer your time to make this university look fabulous, then
00:13:57
Speaker
stuff them join our picket line come come to the campus at 9 45 a.m maybe a little bit earlier so you can beat the traffic and you know bring join our briefing hannah flyers uh you'll get merch as well we want you to talk to members we want you to talk to parents and students about what we're doing now all across the day whether you're working for money or whether you're volunteering at time we will have the opportunity to talk to students at stores as well so
00:14:27
Speaker
I, for example, will likely be wearing a union t-shirt on the day at my stall, where in addition to promoting my program for work, I'll also be talking about why we're doing this. And we'll also be getting people to sign our petition, calling on the vice chancellor or acting vice chancellor and her cronies to listen to our demands. So there is something for everyone. If you're coming on that day as a union member, there is something for you to do.
00:14:57
Speaker
So sign up, come to the day and yeah, let's show this university what we're prepared to do. The behaviour of students and their parents at Open Day, what would you say to people who think that taking action on Open Day will give Monash a bad name among prospective students and their families? I think
00:15:16
Speaker
When we think about people taking industrial action, we think about people inconveniencing the general public. And by and large, there are actions in the greater community that aim at that to frustrate, to cause an inconvenience in order to make a stand. That's not going to be the goal for us at Open Day. Our goal is to get parents and prospective students on site with our campaign to help them understand why we're fighting for the things that we're doing.
00:15:45
Speaker
The last thing we want to do is to get them offside to inconvenience them. We want them to come to Monash, but we also want them to understand that nothing they receive comes for free. It is done through hard work and often unrecognized work. And we have a chance to build those alliances with them and to help bring them into our side. So there is an unknown circumstance that we want to make them feel miserable, make their day terrible.
00:16:15
Speaker
We want them to be there and we want them supporting us. So that's the attitude I encourage everyone to take to Open Day. Yeah, absolutely. And I found in the past with conversations with students and parents and that kind of thing, they're always incredibly supportive once they find out, you know, the reality of the situation at universities and how often, you know, people are doing unpaid labour and all of the things that we talk about on this podcast.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:16:41
Speaker
So, you know, I would also just encourage people to, you know,
00:16:45
Speaker
realise that, you know, you're not trying to, it's not a hard sell, you know, people are sort of generally on your side. I'm pretty happy to have a chat about these things. So yeah, I totally agree with you there, Adam. Yeah, thank you. And, you know, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity on a day where the university likes to pretend that these problems don't exist and to try and convince people that they should continue to exist in the way that they do.
00:17:14
Speaker
And it's probably one of the university's greatest public relations stunts. And our university is probably better at it than many other universities. And we spend millions of dollars trying to show that. This is an opportunity for us to challenge that directly and to mess that up for them. Because our university has gotten very good at becoming more public relations than actual meaningful change and structural change.
00:17:41
Speaker
And so, yeah, I really encourage people to take the time out to take a stand with us. And what would you say to people that think we should be doing more, that we should be doing something a little bit more muscular or more militant on the day? On one hand, I completely agree with them. I think we should. I would like to tell them that Open Day is not our ace in the hole, so to speak. We've got many other actions and many other opportunities to them.
00:18:10
Speaker
to remind management that this is, you know, there are many things more to come. So for those of you who think that open days are beyond and we really need to actually occupy and do things, be more militant, those times will come.
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. We don't want to burn out in one day and we want to really get that momentum going. The branch will also be having a merch stall at Clayton this Thursday as well. So if you want to swing by and grab some NTU t-shirts and posters for Sunday, we'll be at the Lemon Centre lawns between 1 and 3pm. If you don't get a chance to wear a shirt, wear purple. And if you're working this Sunday at Open Day, make sure you strike between midday and 1pm and come to the rally outside the campus centre. Absolutely, Tony.
00:18:57
Speaker
You know, the only thing better than coming in on a Sunday for work to strike is to do it on paid time and use that opportunity to talk to as many people about why we're taking action. Couldn't ask for anything better.
00:19:09
Speaker
Absolutely. And if like Tony and I are not working, come down to Clayton from 10 AM onwards to speak to families about working conditions at Monash and show support at the rally. Throughout the day, we'll also be getting as many people as possible to sign our petition to University Council in support of the NTEU's bargaining claims, which you can find in the show notes.
00:19:30
Speaker
All right, that's it for us today. Remember, as always, if you have any questions, if there's anything that you want us to cover, reach out to us at myunionwroteandeba at gmail.com. Otherwise, we'll see you on Sunday. All right, 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.
00:20:22
Speaker
have turned us off of this beautiful end.