TERTIARYEDUCATION

UNIONANNUALREPORT

Te U 2012l

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Contents

National Secretary’s Report 2012 5

Introduction 5

Governance 7

Sector Groups 7

National Committees 11

Te Toi Ahurangi 11

National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi Māreikura 13

Staffing 21

Political Activities 23

Industrial Matters 25

Professional Matters 29

Conclusion 31

2012 Recruitment Project 35

Background 35

Recruitment Activity in 2012 35

Outcomes for 2012 35

Looking to 2013 37

Recommendations: 39

Appendix 1: Fund allocations to date 41

Appendix 2 TEU Financial Membership Dec 2010 - September 2012 43

2012 Industrial and Legal Report 47

Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) Sector Bargaining 47

2012 ITP Bargaining 47

University Sector Bargaining 49

2012 National Claims 49

Ngā Wānanga 51

Rural Education Activities Programme (REAP) 51

Training Education (PTEs) Sector and Other Tertiary Education Providers (OTEPs) 51

Overall TEU Industrial Strategy 51

Union-only benefit – Pass on agreements 53

Salary Increases Summary 53

Personal Case Trends 53

Reviews and Restructuring 55

Legal Report as September 2012 57

Resolved 2012 57

Proposed Employment Law Changes 57

Conclusion 61

Combined reports of the sector groups 63

General Issues 63

Policy Matters 63

TEU Campaigns 65

Industrial matters 65

Other issues discussed or actions taken by TEU’s sector groups 67

Key issues for 2013 68

Merging to a single committee 68

From the General Staff ITP vice president 71

Final words 73

Teacher education report to conference 2012 75

Speak up for Education project update 79

Stu Larson, Lincoln University

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National Secretary’s Report 2012 1) IntroductionThis has not been the best of years for any union. While the private sector unions have struggled with low memberships for a number of years now, public sector unions have been hard hit by this government’s continued retrenchment and the reduction in public sector spending. The notion of “growing our way out of the recession” and education being being seen as a significant tool in any economic recovery was short-lived. Instead this government has cut jobs, allowed the manufacturing sector to be decimated and continued to undermine and underfund all levels of education. This year alone the government has tried to increase class sizes which was met by massive resistance from unions and the public, and now it is intending to allow charter schools to be set up in New Zealand, which is another step on the road to the privatisation of education in this country. In the tertiary sector contestable funding continues to be rolled out under the name of more choice but in fact is a direct transfer of funding from the public sector in to the private for-profit sector.

We have to resist these moves by a government that is not interested in investing in education at any level. We also need to challenge leadership in the sector that seems to be unwilling to stand up for the sector, to defend students’ rights to quality, accessible, affordable education, and to defend the staff who are committed to providing that education.

As a direct result of the cutbacks, our membership has seen a small decline this year despite an active focus on recruitment. However we have seen growth in general staff membership in the ITPs, and this area of recruitment remains a priority. As you will see in the industrial report, staff have been continuing to deal with a high number of reviews which have not only resulted in good staff losing jobs, which in turn has increased the workloads of those who remain, but the job losses have also offset the on-going recruitment work of the union.

As we head into conference it is also important to remember that we do have the luxury of having a strong union, we do have the luxury that there is a union to join in our sector that can speak for the profession on professional issues as well as industrial issues. Many workers in New Zealand now don’t have that option and are employed in precarious jobs on the edges of the economy. Decent work, job security and a living wage should not be privileges, they must be rights, and the TEU and its members must also look outwards even when the temptation is to focus only on our own concerns. As we campaign and fight for better wages, conditions and voice in our sector we also need to be actively supporting the campaigns of other unions and political groups in New Zealand. The wage gap between the rich and the poor in this country must be addressed.

Alex Sims, Women’s Vice-President

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2) GovernanceThe council of the TEU is the governing body of the union charged with making decisions between conferences. Led for the second year of her term by the president, Sandra Grey, council is made up of the six vice presidents, te kāhui kaumātua, four university general and academic staff members, four ITP academic and general staff members, two ngā tumu āwhina and a non-voting staff member. This year council has met four times, one of those meetings being at Victoria University’s Te Herenga Waka Marae, and the finance and staffing committee (a subcommittee of council made up of the six vice presidents and the president) has met twice.

As in 2011 one of the major pieces of work undertaken by council this year and driven by the president, has been the review of the governance structures of the union, as it was directed to do when the two unions amalgamated in 2009. This year that work has been finalised and culminates in a series of rule amendments that will be voted on at this year’s conference. These rule changes will allow the new structures to be put in place for the beginning of 2013. This has been a complex piece of work involving significant consultation with members at branch level and those who sit on the current governance bodies. The completion of this piece of work will place the union structurally in a strong position to effectively represent and support members into the future.

During the course of the year we lost two of our vice presidents, Ken Laraman the ITP general staff vice president and Helen Kissell the university general staff vice president. Ken has retired from the sector and we will honour him at this year’s conference with life membership of the TEU. Helen Kissell left her position at the University of Canterbury to take up a role at the New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation (NZNO) as an organiser in their Christchurch office. While we wish them both well in their future endeavours, their energy and commitment to the general staff members of the union in both sectors has been very much valued and is now very much missed.

Carol Soal from Aoraki Polytechnic stepped into the role of ITP vice president for general staff after Ken retired and she has done an extremely able job of representing members and progressing the union’s agenda to unionise general staff members in the polytechnic sector.

3) Sector GroupsThere are three sector groups in the union with responsibility for developing, guiding and overseeing the work programmes of the union as they relate to their respective areas.

The general staff sector group (GSSG) has experienced some changes over the course of 2012, with the departure of both vice presidents during the year as mentioned above. We have been fortunate to fill the ITP VP role for the interim, with Carol Soal from Aoraki Polytechnic picking up responsibilities for general staff in this sector.

The group also includes two members nominated by hui-ā-motu, a national women’s committee representative, three ITP representatives and three university representatives. This sector group has met twice this year, and as part of the transition to a new governance structure, these meetings have been combined with the ITP sector group and the university sector group.

This year the GSSG has worked with staff and other sector groups to contribute to the union’s recruitment planning and implementation. It has been pleasing to see growth in general staff member numbers in some of our ITPs and the focused activity that has been going on at other branches to progress this important work. Recruitment of general staff members in the ITP sector remains a priority project for 2013. The sector group has also made progress on a number of other projects this year – of note is work that was undertaken to examine the

Bill Rogers, NorthTec

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extent to which extended leave positions for general staff are being filled or not filled. The TEU’s organising staff will be implementing some strategies to address the issues identified in this project.

Work has also continues on a paper on the elements of general staff remuneration (to assist with negotiations and in particular discussions that may take place around performance pay systems), and providing guidance to branches and organisers on priorities for general staff bargaining.

The university staff sector group (USSG) is led by John Prince from AUT and up until her departure, Helen Kissell as the general staff vice-president. That position has remained vacant pending the enactment of the new rules of the union. The sector group includes a representative from each of the eight universities, a teacher education representative, a national women’s committee representative, two hui-ā-motu representatives and the president. This sector group has met three times this year, in March, June and September.

As a precursor to the proposed rule changes the USSG met jointly with the ITP sector group in June and with the general staff sector group in September. The joint nature of the meetings was felt to be a success by the sector group members which confirms some of the proposals contained in the new structures.

The USSG worked on the following industrial and professional issues in 2012 – PBRF, reviews and redundancies, managerialism, definitions of academic staff and general staff roles, pay and employment equity and recruitment. This year saw all university branches in bargaining with their employers, with the exception of the University of Auckland academic and professional staff agreements.

Last year the USSG established a process for the development of national claims that included the opportunity for branch involvement and consultation and a set of national claims was signed off for 2012 using this process.

The key disputes and issues in the university sector have been as follows:

While the major dispute last year with the University of Auckland which saw all •academics going onto individual employment agreements was resolved and a collective agreement signed off, matters around how major policies affecting members can be changed are still causing serious problems.

The University of Canterbury continues to struggle post-earthquake. The sharp •decline in student numbers, insurance issues and rising costs have already led to a call for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy and the union expects that forced redundancies will follow.

All of the other universities are seeing restructure/change proposals which •threaten jobs for members.

Collective bargaining, while not as acrimonious as it has been in the ITP sector •has delivered very low level pay increases which will need to be addressed in the future if New Zealand universities are going to continue to be able to compete internationally.

The ITP sector group (ITPSG) is led by Richard Draper from CPIT, the academic vice president, and until his retirement Ken Laraman, the general staff vice president from Otago Polytechnic. This position was then taken up by Carol Soal for the remainder of the term. Under the current rules it also includes the president, four academic staff representatives, four general staff representatives, two hui-ā-motu representatives and a representative from the national women’s committee. The ITPSG has also met three times this year and two of those meetings were combined, first with the general staff sector group and then with the university sector group in preparation for the changes foreshadowed under the new rules. Both combined

TEU branch presidents, 2012

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meetings confirmed members’ views that the issues we face are union wide and not confined to one sector or another and that the new structures will allow us to have a clearer voice and clearer policy positions going into 2012.

After the extremely difficult bargaining environment in the ITP sector in 2011, this group has continued to deal with bargaining for another seven ITP collective agreements. These negotiations have seen employers continuing to look for cuts in “core national conditions” such as research and study leave, professional development time and duty hours and days. Some ITP employers only offered a salary increase when it was linked to surpluses and/or EPIs. One employer has gone further and stated that any increase to salary in 2013 will have to be part of a “total remuneration package” because of the changes to the funding of Kiwi Saver which are being introduced in April 2013. This is against TEU policy and is proving to be a challenging discussion with that employer.

While the bargaining has been difficult in those branches with expired collectives, those that settled two year deals in 2011 will be receiving on average 2% pay increases next year because of the two year deals the TEU negotiated. That is looking quite respectable in the current climate where employers are pushing for a wage freeze.

As this report is being written we are beginning to see the disastrous effects of the government’s decision to make level one and two funding contestable. Members continue to be disappointed in the lack of leadership being shown by most chief executives in the sector when it comes to speaking up for the role of ITPs, particularly in the regional areas. In many instances it is only the TEU that is providing any challenge to the government and this minister’s apparent desire to ultimately open up the entire sector to the market

It has been a challenging year for members of this group as they have dealt with the realities of discussing strategies for trying to deal with reductions in funding and increasing workloads with staff and branch members. The industrial report will cover this in more detail but in terms of reviewing this year’s work, it would be safe to say that while we have settled agreements in most ITPs now this has come at some cost to members. The core conditions which have guided the industrial strategy in the ITP sector have continued to come under close scrutiny this year and members and staff have worked together to make changes that better reflect the work mode deliveries in this sector while still protecting the working environment of our members.

4) National Committees

Te Toi AhurangiThe committee has been led since establishment in 2009 by te kāhui kaumātua and te tumu arataki, Cheri Waititi. The remainder of the committee has changed slightly over time and comprises two tumu āwhina and sector representatives from two wānanga, three ITPs, and three universities. The committee met three times this year at TEU national office and once at Parliament. Earlier in the year Wayne Maynard resigned due to work and whānau commitments and Lea Gage was co-opted to represent Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. One position difficult to fill over the past four years has been the ITP te uepū general staff representative.

As at 30 September 2012, te uepū membership increased to 799 or 8.1% of all TEU members (up 0.9% on September 2011). The membership by sector is 394 in universities (389 in 2011), 264 in ITPs (210 in 2011), 104 in wānanga (103 in 2012), 28 in PTE/OTEPs (21 in 2011), and 9 in REAPS (8 in 2011).

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In August, te uepū representatives accompanied the TEU council on its third annual noho marae meeting to Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. The purpose of the noho is to affirm TEU’s commitment and obligation to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, to demonstrate that the Tiriti partnership is a cornerstone of TEU, how it functions as an organisation, and to give effect and practical application to the union rules.

The fourth annual hui-ā-motu was held from 23-25 March at the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT), New Plymouth. Delegates numbered 41 (30 in 2011) from 18 institutions including two representatives from our Australian sister union, NTEU. The hui was very productive and included: presentations from WITT CEO and TEU’s president; a workshop on the “kotahi mano” recruitment strategy; work presentations from te toi ahurangi members; a progress report on NTEU work; sector workshops on the mahere mahi (work plan) 2012-2013; elections for te toi ahurangi 2013; discussions on the draft 2011 remit for two Māori organisers; guiding principles in responding to the TEU rules rewrite; endorsement of the 2008 remit for Education International to create the Adhoc Indigenous Committee; academic discussion for those involved in research; discussion on sitting together at conference; Christchurch’s successful tono to host hui-ā-motu 2013; delegate training; and the development of a personal plan for all attendees to complete before 1 December 2012.

As well as supporting the comprehensive work programme of te toi ahurangi, Lee Cooper the union’s te pou tuarā, has also been heavily involved in collective agreement negotiations at our two wānanga branches. While Lee has worked closely with the organisers responsible for these branches, both sets of negotiations have been time consuming and complex. Lee is also available to all of the TEU’s staff to give advice on tikanga and in some cases to deal with cases where the member wants to deal with a Māori staff member or where the matter at issue has a cultural component where Lee’s experience and skills are required.

The substantive work of te pou tuarā involves contributing to advancing and safeguarding the rights of te uepū members, the union’s responsibilities to wider Māori communities, promotion of and adherence to Te Tiriti, and supporting te uepū members in achieving their objectives. Lee also participates in external tertiary and Māori-related initiatives and works closely with the CTU. He has also developed strategic relationships with various MPs and political parties, government agencies, and international education unions.

National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi MāreikuraAlex Sims as women’s vice president leads the national women’s committee, te kahurangi māreikura, which is made up of four general staff members, four academic staff members and a representative from hui-ā-motu. Fran Richardson left Whitireia during the year and was replaced by Francie Oberg-Nordt, representing Pacific women. A key feature of the work of the women’s officer, Suzanne McNabb, is supporting and working alongside the NWC to implement the goals and priorities of the committee. The women’s committee met three times this year with its last meeting of the year being held in Auckland in conjunction with a very successful “speak up for women” forum held at the University of Auckland.

In 2012 a significant aspect of the work of both the NWC and the women’s officer has centred around the TEU bullying and harassment project with the development of the website and resources and the official launch in August. Bookmarks were printed and workshops have been run at Unitec and in Christchurch and others have been requested for 2013.

The national women’s committee has also focused on the development of a gender perspective

Cheri Waititi, Te Tumu Arataki and Helen Kissell, University General Staff Vice-President

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David Robinson, Education International

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on TEU national goals, including looking at the recruitment of women and casual staff, and holding a Speak Up Forum in Auckland which concentrated on the future of the sector for women. Research and suggestions from that meeting will contribute to the TEU alternative tertiary strategy. Work is also under way to develop the NWC paper on bargaining issues for women into a resource for wider use in local bargaining.

The lower numbers of women in senior positions in the sector remains a feature of many of our institutions and a concern of the NWC. The women’s officer has run promotions workshops for academic women at a number of institutions including Massey, Waikato and Victoria universities and at Wintec. A similar workshop for general staff women has been reviewed by the NWC and is being updated to be offered in 2013.

The implementation of the Pay and Employment Equity Review recommendations has continued to be a major focus at Massey University, including considerable work around bullying and harassment including reviewing policies and procedures, and training for the senior leadership team and managers. Workshops will be available for staff in 2013. It is proposed that these be held in conjunction with TEU. Review recommendations regarding promotions, tutors and senior tutors are all under action and attention is now being focused on part-time work.

Although considerable work had been undertaken towards a fiesta at Unitec, it had to be postponed once it was realised it conflicted with graduation. It will now be held on International Women’s Day in 2013. Suzanne has attended branch meetings at Whitireia, Weltec and Open Polytechnic in preparation for a fiesta to be held in Wellington, tentatively set to occur in December.

The network of branch women’s representatives has been invited to organise local events for women to coincide with days of importance such as International Working Women’s Day and Suffrage Day. The traditional suffrage breakfasts were held at Lincoln and Victoria universities with financial support from vice-chancellors, and various events were held at other branches.

Branch women’s representatives were also invited to be active in encouraging members to make submissions on the Paid Parental Leave Bill which was drawn from the members’ ballot, to extend tax payer funded paid leave from the current 14 weeks to 26 weeks. There has been an extremely active Coalition formed, primarily in Wellington and Auckland to promote the Bill. TEU has been an active member of the Coalition and around 850 TEU members made an electronic submission and at least 30 written submissions as well as the formal TEU submission. Suzanne assisted with organising a public meeting in Palmerston North, attended by a number of TEU members as well as a meeting in Christchurch. This work will continue in 2013.

A developing area of work is requests from branches for the women’s officer’s support with institutional reviews of policy including bullying and harassment; Promotions and progression, equal employment opportunities and equity and diversity strategies.

The women’s officer has worked with branches on delegate training and with other staff has revised the delegate training resource. Suzanne has also continued to provide additional support for Canterbury University branch through representation in personal cases, Campus Living Villages negotiations and organising and delegate training.

TEU Te Pou Tuarā, Lee Cooper and Suzanne were the staff members responsible for the organisation of the Pacific Forum for TEU Pacific members held in Auckland in March. This was the first such national event since the establishment of TEU.

TEU makes a particular contribution to CTU organising and activity through Suzanne’s role as co-convenor of the CTU women’s council and CTU representative to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Asia-Pacific women’s committee and more recently the ITUC world women’s committee. Suzanne is on the working group planning the next world women’s conference. Issues of priority in the Asia-Pacific region include women’s leadership in trade

Di Gordon-Burns, University of Canterbury

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unions, maternity protection, gender mainstreaming, employment rights and the elimination of violence against women. A significant international campaign and action has centred on the ratification of the Domestic Workers Convention C189. TEU NWC members have contributed to this. The CTU women’s council is also actively working with the ‘It’s Not OK’ campaign and the elimination of violence against women.

Suzanne is also a representative on the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW), a body which advises the Minister on issues relating to women’s employment. Issues dealt with in 2012 include women’s unemployment in Canterbury, pay and employment equity, men’s participation in childcare to support women in employment and young women’s transition to employment.

The activities of each of these groups and committees are reported on separately at conference.

5) MembershipThe TEU’s membership and our recruitment processes are central to the work that the union does. Without an engaged membership and without a membership density that allows our voice to be authoritative, the union cannot deliver on the goals and objectives we have set ourselves. Unfortunately we do not have industrial relations legislation that lends itself to unionisation and 20 years of free market ideology has seen a serious dilution of of the political analysis which leads people to see joining the union as the natural and right thing to do. The CTU’s “Together” project harnesses all the right principles necessary for unionisation to be at the heart of our communities, but the precarious nature of much of the work that is available in New Zealand today makes realising the goals that underpin the Together difficult to achieve.

At the end of last year we were able to report a small increase in our overall membership that bucked the trend across the country for most unions. Members will recall that we had a very robust discussion at conference last year about the trialling of outsourcing some of our recruitment work in 2011. The outcome of that debate meant that all recruitment was pulled back in-house this year, and Nanette Cormack has overseen a recruitment project that has seen most branches holding significant recruitment events over the course of the year. A number of branches have run “blitzes” this year where branch committees and organisers from other regions have spent two to three days on campuses signing up new members and making the union visible. We have also had strong membership growth off the back of the “union only” benefits that we are having increasing success in getting agreement to in our bargaining. This process has continued to reinforce the importance of being visible and being seen to be active as key strategies for recruitment, while recognising that our traditional methods of recruitment are not always as successful as we might like them to be.

However despite all that good work, we are experiencing a downturn in our membership. There is no doubt that much of that is due to the constant reviews and restructurings that seem to be par for the course for most institutions these days. We are also seeing the effects of many of our “baby boomer” members moving out of the sector into retirement. Many of these members have belonged to TEU and its predecessors for 30 to 40 years and they come from the cohort of workers who implicitly understood the importance of unions and unionisation. The slow loss of those members and mentors will change the face of the New Zealand workforce in more subtle ways than some of the changes that are imposed by employers and political parties.

This is the reason why we need to be continually assessing our approach to recruiting new members into the union. The TEU must be a place that speaks for all workers in our institutions and must be seen as the natural and logical organisation to join as soon as a new employee begins work. That means we cannot rely on one-off activities to increase our membership. Recruitment, being TEU, being seen to be TEU must be integrated into all the work that our

Asset sales protest, Wellington

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members and our staff do. This is also an important aspect of the “Speak Up” campaign which is also about regaining our voice and authority in the way that our institutions are run.

We continue to work collaboratively with sister unions in the sector, particularly with NZEI and PPTA. Discussions with NZEI and the PSA about their continued presence in the tertiary education sector are on-going and we are now acknowledged as the union for the tertiary education sector. In Te Wānanga o Aotearoa we are working more closely with the on-site union there. At CPIT in Christchurch the employer has worked actively with another on-site union to undermine the TEU and we are working with branch activists there to restore TEU’s majority presence.

Recruitment of general staff members in the ITP sector is an on-going priority as we seek to unionise the significant numbers of non-unionised staff in this sector. The general staff sector group and the ITP sector group have continued to focus on this and will do so into the foreseeable future to ensure that general staff in the ITP sector increase in numbers and their voice and influence matches that of their colleagues in the university sector.

Our membership database continues to be refined and its reliability now makes running activities like ratification ballots and the union’s national ballots much more cost effective and efficient. Marian Cadman in her role as administration manager oversees this work and is constantly reviewing the database to ensure that it is delivering accurate and up-to-date information to staff and to members.

6) StaffingStaff have faced another challenging year as the deepening of the economic recession continues to bite across the country and in the state sector in particular. The bargaining environment has not been conducive to settlements that have seen gains for our members and decreasing staff numbers sees increasing workloads for many of our members which bring with it additional stresses and a rise in such issues as workplace bullying.

The TEU has a staff of 34 which includes 12 administration staff, 15 organisers and 7 professional/advisory staff. The staff are located as follows:

Dunedin office 3 staff (1 adminstrator, 2 organisers)

Christchurch offices 6 staff (1 adminstrator, 4 organisers)

Wellington offices 14 staff (6 adminstrators, 2 organisers, 7 professional/advisory)

Palmerston North office 3 staff (1 adminstrator, 2 organisers)

Hamilton office 2 staff (1 adminstrator, 1 organiser)

Auckland office 7 staff (2 adminstrators, 4 organisers, 1 professional/advisory)

There has been a high degree of stability in the staffing of the TEU over the last year. Under the leadership of Marian Cadman, the administration manager, the administration staff in the national office and the five regional offices work as a cohesive team, refining the processes necessary for the union to run efficiently. Unlike previous years, our use of temporary workers has fallen dramatically as jobs have become more refined and as we are able to cover gaps in staffing from the current mix of employees.

With the resignations of two of our organisers at the end of last year, we have been fortunate in

Dov Bing, University of Waikato

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being able to appoint two new organisers to fill these roles, with both new staff taking up these roles at the beginning of this year. Nicki Wilford, who has come to us with extensive experience from NZEI, has taken up the role of one of the organisers in the Wellington region. Nicki has responsibilty for most of Victoria University and for Whitireia Polytechnic. Similarly Dean Scott joined our team with a strong background in organising from his work with the Amalgamated Workers’ Union. His main organising responsibilities are for the Palmerston North campus of Massey University, Te Whare Wānanga o Aotearoa and for the Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki (WITT).

The ongoing effects on staff and members of the Christchurch earthquakes has continued to put pressure on our staff in both Christchurch offices of the union. While we have not been able to put additional staffing into that region, we have increased the hours of one of the organisers, Gabrielle Moore, to fulltime. Suzanne McNabb and Nanette Cormack continue to provide back up.

While we haven’t faced the same kind of complex bargaining that we saw in the ITP sector in 2011 arising out of the unprecedented attacks on collective agreement conditions and the breakup of the ITP MECA, the bargaining in the university sector has presented staff with other challenges. Bargaining in very straitened financial circumstances, combined with the high level of reviews, many resulting in redundancies has seen staff coping with high workloads again this year. The TEU is fortunate to have some of the most experienced and skilled organising, professional and administrative staff in the union movement. This means that we can be confident that the service members receive is of the highest quality. At a time when union membership is becoming a luxury for many workers we need to make sure that our activities and our organising startegies encompass as many people as possible, and that all staff in the tertiary sector now that TEU is their union.

7) Political ActivitiesWe meet regularly with the tertiary education spokespeople from all the major parties except for the National Party. Stephen Joyce the Minister for Tertiary Education continues to fail to recognise the TEU as a significant stakeholder in the sector and doesn’t consult with us. We have regular meetings with the co-presidents of NZUSA and have continued to work closely with them on issues of concern to students. The impact of the Voluntary Student Membership legislation has made it very difficult for students to continue to have an effective voice. The changes being mooted for university councils could see them being removed from those seats as they have been in the polytechnics.

National president Sandra Grey has continued to have a significant public profile this year. Her commentary and views on a number of important issues in various media is regularly sought and she is the TEU’s main spokesperson for the frequent media releases and opinion pieces that the union circulates. Sandra has also presented at a number of national and international conferences this year on behalf of the TEU. Notably she and policy analyst Jo Scott presented a paper at the Australian National Tertiary Educaton Union’s conference at the beginning of this year and she was also asked to speak at Education International’s higher education conference in Buenos Aires last month. Sandra has also spoken at the Creative Universities conference and the National Vocational and Education and Industry Training conference. Her in-depth knowledge across a wide spectrum of tertiary education issues and her sharp analysis and commentary has made her a formidable president and leader of our union.

A significant piece of work that Sandra has driven this year in conjunction with Stephen Day, our communications officer, has been the “Speak Up for Education” campaign which provided the theme for last year’s conference and saw delegates participate in a hugely successful public

Eric Stone, NorthTec

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rally in Wellington. This work was kicked off by EI consultant David Robinson from the Canadian Association of University Staff who visited New Zealand in February this year, hosted by the TEU to deliver a series of lectures called “the Vandals are at the Gate”. Following that and during the rest of the year Sandra has travelled the country extensively speaking at and facilitating “Speak Up” events. These have ranged from public meetings attended by local business leaders, MPs and education leaders to more intimate discussions at branch level with members about how our voice can be inserted into the management and governance of our institutons. This work has laid the foundation for much of the ongoing work in the workplan for the TEU for next year and beyond and will provide much of the thinking for the TEU’s Alternative Tertiary Education Strategy.

Stephen Day in his role as communications and campaigns officer has continued to build the TEU’s communication channels, improving its website so that it is now a widely and regularly read medium attracting thousands of unique visitors each year. The union is continuing to build its use of social media and networking to reach out to members and the tertiary education community in as many ways as possible.

The TEU has continued to put out regular media statements this year as well as providing regular commentaries and articles to other news media, publications and websites. TEU’s main publication Tertiary Update continues to be read by members and others in the sector and is looked to for its weekly summary of what is going on in the tertiary education sector.

On the campaigning front, Stephen plays a key role in many of the CTU campaigns that we support but do not necessarily lead ourselves. Notably the asset sales petition and the class size petitions were ones our members vigorously supported. We continue to support the CTU’s Stronger Public Services activities, and its UnionAID project which Nanette Cormack is also active in.

We also have very active engagement with the CTU in other areas as well. Being part of and supporting the work of the CTU continues to be a priority area of work for the national office staff through giving feedback to their submissions, as well as being part of the CTU structures. Jo Scott, our policy analyst works closely with CTU staff on many of their submissions. The TEU’s women’s officer, Suzanne McNabb co-convenes the CTU women’s council and Lee Cooper in his role as Te Pou Tuarā provides significant support to the runanga as do our kaumātua. We are also active in the CTU’s international, state sector and tertiary education committees.

8) Industrial MattersThe TEU’s significant bargaining agenda and timetable is overseen and managed by the deputy secretary, Nanette Cormack and the national industrial officer, Irena Brorens. At any one time there are always collective agreements being negotiated and managed within the framework of our bargaining strategy. This work will be presented more comprehensively in the bargaining report to conference.

Following on from the very successful bargaining forum held in Wellington in 2011, we ran a two day branch presidents’ meeting at the beginning of this year. As members will have noted, this has now been written into the proposed new rules as a permanent fixture of the TEU calendar. Feedback form discussions and from those who attended the meeting confirmed that the links between what was happening at branch level and nationally needed to be strengthened through branch president and committee engagement in all industrial and organising activities. The 2012 programme saw branch presidents from almost every branch attending, participating and contributing to a comprehensive work programme which included legal and economic briefings and planning the strategic direction of the union’s bargaining. There was also a very strong focus on growing the union.

Frances Matheson, Victoria University of Wellington

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This was a major bargaining year in the university sector and the outcomes in bargaining for 2012, at date of writing, are:

University of Auckland – Professional Teaching Fellows – will be included in the •academic staff collective agreement (by way of variation)

AUT – bargaining not concluded•

University of Waikato – members are voting on a settlement, two year term, •salary to be increased by 1.2% in each year, no union benefit

Massey University – members are meeting to discuss a settlement, one year •term, zero salary increase with a $600 lump sum which union members will receive eight weeks earlier than non-members

Victoria University of Wellington – members are meeting to discuss a settlement, •two year term, salary to be increased by 1.2% in each year, six week union benefit

Lincoln University – bargaining not concluded•

University of Canterbury – bargaining not concluded•

University of Otago – members have ratified new collective agreements, two •year term, salary to be increased by 1.2% and 1.5%, no union benefit.

Over the course of this year our staff have been involved in negotiating all of the university CAs except for the University of Auckland’s academic collective which was settled last year fror a two year term. While it has been a quieter year in the ITP sector there has still been bargaining happening in six of our branches and two of those have run industrial action ballots with members discussing taking industrial action in order to settle their agreements. Both wānanga branches will be in bargaining this year and we have had a number of settlements in the OTEP/PTE/other area, notably a very good settlement with NZCER and an efficient outcome for a group of REAPs. The REAP branches, while not negotiating a MECA did agree to work together, the outcome of which was identical site agreements.

Factors that have impacted on this year’s bargaining have been the low level of the CPI and the updated bargaining parameters from the State Services Commission. While many of our university CAs are multi-union documents, the TEU is the driving force in setting the bargaining agenda, providing the resources and establishing the processes for the bargaining. Funding continues to be an issue impacting on our members and in a capped EFTS environment this

trend is here to stay.

The push for “productivity gains” to be achieved before pay increases are agreed continues to be the norm. At a time when student numbers are at their maximum and members are reporting significant workload issues as staff student ratios increase, it is difficult to see where employers can squeeze any more productivity gains from.

Apart from bargaining, reviews and restructurings account for much of the

Gaby Moore tends the eel outside

TEU’s Canterbury Office

29

workloads of our organising staff. Restructuring continues in many branches as the state of constant change is maintained by employers, which of course does nothing to enhance the quality of teaching and other services provided in our sector. A fresh round of reviews is being announced in many ITPs at the moment as they respond to the cuts in level one and two funding. The TEU has a rigorous approach to dealing with reviews and ensures that members are involved in the consultation processes at every level. While there are times when it is not possible to stop job losses, union intervention and argument has successfully challenged management proposals which has resulted in fewer jobs being lost. In one noteable case this year the union’s efforts resulted in a management decision to close the International House operation at AUT being completely reversed.

At any one time we also have a number of legal cases underway, either to do with our bargaining or dealing with personal cases. Peter Cranney of Oakley Moran runs most of our legal cases although it should be noted that many of the cases members come to us with are resolved by the organisers either before or at mediation.

The effect of the changes the government made to the Employment Relations Act in 2010 have continued to impact this year and all our organisers are now working to ensure that we have good access and union rights clauses in our agreements. This has been in preparation for further changes to industrial legislation that the government has signalled. These changes, if they are passed, will have a significant impact on workers’ rights. While the governement has called them “technical” changes they are far from that. These will be discussed in more detail in the bargaining report, but the changes look likely to include the removal of the duty to conclude a collective agreement; empowering the Employment Relations Authority to declare in certain circumstances that collective bargaining has ended; allowing employers to opt out of multi-employer bargaining; allowing for partial pay reductions in cases of partial strike action; removing the 30-day rule that means that all new workers must be employed on the same terms and conditions as the collective agreement for the first 30 days of their employment; and changes around the disclosure of personal information following Employment Court judgments taken by the TEU against Massey University.

This year there have also been a number of significant disputes and campaigns run by the CTU and other unions that branches have actively supported either by standing on picket lines or financially supporting those workers taking industrial action.

9) Professional MattersThe voice of the profession generally, and the myriad of “professions” that make up the work of TEU members has continued to be an important priority for the union this year. While the industrial issues always seem to limit our ability to engage as much as we would like in the professional issues of our sector, the union’s voice on critical matters like PBRF and academic freedom continues to be heard at a national level. Work on the TEU’s contribution to the industry training review was another major piece of work undertaken this year as the role of trades education continues to be an issue in our sector.

A significant amount of work undertaken this year by our policy analyst Jo Scott, has been submissions, not only our own but also making substantial contributions to CTU submissions:

Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill•

TEC Youth and Transition Framework•

Canterbury Submission ‘Shaping Education Directions’•

Changing the New Zealand Master’s Degree definition•

31

Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill•

Industry Training Review - proposal to improve the government’s investment in •training

Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave)’ •Amendment Bill

Review of the New Zealand Teachers’ Council•

TEC Pasifika Strategy consultation questionnaire•

TEC proposed changes to reporting frameworks PBRF 2012 Quality Evaluation•

Vocational pathways•

Review of Ka Hikitia •

Jo has also contributed to and commented on a number of branch submissions in various areas. She has also continued the work programme she began last year to consolidate the policies of the two pre-merger unions. This is a significant piece of work that Jo has undertaken and now that it is completed the TEU has a robust policy basis from which to frame and develop our public statements on tertiary education. Next year a similar task will be undertaken on all the industrial policies that the two original unions had and again this will provide us with a sound platform on which to base all the industrial work that we do.

The policy analyst’s work also involves supporting teacher education and ensuring that this important voice is not lost in the union. Initial teacher training, teacher registration and commentary on the proposals around charter schools are all areas that Jo has worked on with the union’s teacher education representative from the University of Auckland, Brian Marsh. Despite all our efforts however most of the schools and faculties of education have come under pressure this year again, as universities put more value on research than teaching.

We meet regularly with staff at Ako Aotearoa to discuss teaching and learning in the sector as well as with sister unions NZEI and PPTA.We continue to work alongside NZUSA to support them in their representation of the multitude of issues facing students which have been exacerbated by the passing into law of the “Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill”, which made membership of students’ associations ‘compulsorily voluntary’. We noted last year how important it has been to be able to liaise not just with the national body of students but with local students’ associations especially when we have been involved in disputes. This piece of legislation has further weakened the organisation of students which impacts on our ability to support them and them to support us.

10) ConclusionThe continued attacks on democracy and voice in the form of the reduction in representation on ITP councils with a similar approach being proposed for the university sector and the further changes to our industrial relations legislation which will impact on all working New Zealanders coupled with the fragile New Zealand economy, indicate that 2013 is going to be another challenging year for all New Zealanders and especially for unions.

The TEU is well placed to meet those challenges, compared with unions that organise in the low paid, precarious work environments. Our members by and large are relatively well paid, in reasonably secure jobs, but as each year passes, that pool of privileged employees grows smaller. We need to be doing our bit to support campaigns like the Service and Foodworkers Union’s Living Wage campaign and the work that UNITE does with young workers. While we do that, we also face the challenge of making sure that the TEU continue to be relevant to our

General Staff Day at Victoria University

33

members and to those who will want to join us.

While we thought that the bulk of the work around the review of our structures would have been completed by the end of last year it became apparent that we needed to take this year to finalise the consultation and the rewrite of the rules to ensure that the amendments and resulting new rules will set us up for the futureWe do not anticipate that there will need to be another major review of our structures into the foreseable future. Having said that, we also have structures and resources that enable us to respond to unexpected events. Clearly this has not been the only major piece of work undertaken this year. However its completion will mean that we have a secure governance and structural base to work from, and that we can devote even more energy to ensuring that the TEU voice is heard, listened to and acted upon.

Sharn Riggs

NATIONAL SECRETARY

November 2012

Gordon Reid, EIT

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2012 Recruitment Project Report to Conference

12 & 13 November 2012

Sandra Grey and Nanette Cormack

BackgroundAt the 2011 conference, the union set up a $75,000 contestable fund for branches and other groups within the union to use for recruitment purposes. Prior to the branch presidents’ meeting in February 2012 the application process was established; and at this meeting the processes for application and a decision to initially cap branch applications to $2000 was announced. The fund is administered by National Office staff, with results reported to Council quarterly.

Since the fund was opened, 17 applications to the fund have been received and approved, totalling just over $30,000, slightly less than half of the fund. The full list of applications is in Appendix 1. Some of the projects are on-going, others were events that have been completed in 2012. In addition to the activities for which recruitment funding was sought, many other branches have completed recruitment plans and undertaken recruitment activity during 2012.

Recruitment Activity in 2012The recruitment funding approved at conference 2011 has been used for a range of activities and resources including:

Purchasing branded TEU recruitment materials (such as t-shirts, lanyards, cups, •badges; banners and noticeboards);

Compiling and updating databases of non-members (mapping exercises); •

Training delegates/branch representatives to carry out recruitment; and, •

Providing prizes and refreshments for events, especially in connection with •recruitment blitzes; and,

Payment for casual recruiting staff.•

Outcomes for 2012Attached to this report (see Appendix 2) is a spread sheet showing membership at September 2012 compared with membership at three previous points - December 2010, September and December 2011. Despite the concerted effort by branches and organisers over the last year, the figures show that our membership is tracking in the wrong direction. Our membership numbers are down 250 on this time last year and we are over 800 short of the 5% increase in membership which was put into the 2011 work-plan. There are branches who have bucked the trend and had rises in membership: Aoraki, EIT, Northtec, Otago Polytech, UCOL, Waiāriki, WelTec, WITT,

Harvey Jones, Massey University

37

Whitireia, AUT, Victoria University of Wellington, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, REAP and NZCER. But their increases in membership numbers cannot hide the fact that our membership has been declining, despite our best efforts.

Looking to 2013It has been really exciting to see the enthusiasm and commitment that branch presidents, committees and union staff have shown in making recruiting such a priority for 2012. Once again the national committees, sector groups, and Council have included recruitment in the TEU work-plan for 2013/14. The key goal is:

To recruit new members – increase TEU density and membership to 12,000 members as an initial step

So we must consider what is needed in order to enable all branches to engage in this recruitment goal and what activities will best ensure growth in our membership.

The current results show a number of things about how we are going so far. First, many recruitment initiatives, such as using merchandising to raise the profile of the TEU in the branches will clearly take time to show benefits. Second, we have always undertaken a huge range of recruitment initiatives, (making presentations to new staff, making individual contact with new staff as notified by the employer, utilising union benefits from bargaining, social events in branches and so on) and these activities have, in the past, kept our membership stable.

The problem for TEU is that the rate of change in the tertiary education sector at the moment (to which there seems to be no end in sight) means our traditional activities have not been able to keep our membership level (let-alone growing). This situation, the high number of reviews and restructuring proposals being foist upon the sector due to government underfunding, is drawing time and energy from union staff and activists. For some branches and organisers the extremely high levels of both energy and time going into servicing the needs of individual union members as is only right and proper, is preventing them from finding the time and energy for recruitment activities. Importantly for the TEU, this demonstrates that there is no ‘one-size-fits all’ solution for recruitment in our union, we must allow room for branches to choose the path best suited to their workplace and demands. It also demonstrates that as well as continuing to develop and implement recruitment plans at branches, we must as a union be open to reviewing and altering our modes of recruitment. In this light, we are proposing a number of actions for the 2013/14 years.

General Staff Day at Otago University

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Recommendations:That the TEU establishes a further $75,000 fund for recruitment activity in 2013 1. to be administered by national office.

That branches continue to prioritise recruitment, developing and implementing 2. plans and reporting on their activities to the TEU council.

That a survey of branches be conducted to try and determine which recruitment 3. activities carried out in 2012 were the most successful. This report will be conducted in February and reported to the branch presidents’ meeting in March 2013 and to Council in June.

That national office staff conduct an on-going analysis of the initiatives of 4. other unions (those who are growing) to seek out those successful recruitment activities we can replicate.

That throughout 2013 council be charged with reviewing TEU recruitment 5. practices and that in conjunction with branch presidents and their committees approve further site/branch specific initiatives for recruitment as necessary.

General Staff Day at Otago University

Eric Stone (TEU) and Terry Mita (TIASA) at Moerewa with a ute full of food that union members at NorthTec collected together to show Support for Affco Workers locked out by Talleys.

John Prince, University Academic Vice-President

41

Appendix 1: Fund allocations to dateWho Plan

received Responsibility Major expenditure Funding

requestedAUT 13 Feb John Prince Recruitment materials (t-shirts, badges and

cups)$2,000

Hui-ā-motu/Te Toi Ahurangi/Te Uepū

4 April Sandra Grey and Lee Cooper

Events at branches organised by Te Uepū members; dedicated recruitment brochure

$5,500

GSSG/ITPSG 4 April Kris Smith, Jo Scott, Sandra Grey, Richard Draper

Additional funding for smaller branches for GS day events; prizes for bringing non-members; recruitment blitz refreshments; travel budget to support ITP GS recruitment

$5,500

Unitec 1 May Sarah Hardman, Enzo Giordani

Recruitment materials (t-shirts, badges and cups) and a dedicated Unitec TEU flier

$1,850

EIT 14 May Gordon Reid/Lawrence O’Hallaran

Recruitment materials (badges and cups) $995

Auckland University February Jane Adams Training for branch committee

Waikato University 17 February Dov Bing/Megan Morris

Recruitment materials (t-shirts, cups, lanyards and badges)

Database updates

$2,000

Otago Polytechnic Kris Smith Dedicated general staff membership form (Stephen Day)

CPIT 23 April Richard Draper, Phil Dodds, Kris Smith

Proposal to give new members first year of EBS membership

$2,000

Waiāriki Polytechnic

18 May Philip Bright, Enzo Giordano

Recruitment materials (cups, lanyards, badges, t-shirts) and banner

$1,362.50

Massey University 25 May Harvey Jones, Lawrence O’Halloran

Updating non-member database

Mailing to non-members

$1,200

Wintec 17 February Susan Bennett, Megan Morris

Recruitment materials (cups, badges, t-shirts)

Database updates

$857.50

UCoL June Tina Smith, Lawrence O’Halloran

Recruitment materials (cups, badges, lanyards)

Posters

Admin time

$2,000

NMIT September David Blanchet, Phil Dodds

EBS membership, NTLT conference TEU reception

$2,000

Victoria University of Wellington

September Roger Harvey, Nicki Wilford

General Staff day – cards and chocolates sent to all general staff non-members

$1,500

MIT October Lesley Francey Lunch for potential members $800

Lincoln October Cindy Doull TEU mugs

TEU noticeboard

$467

Total allocated $30,032

John Prince, University Academic Vice-President

James Houkāmau, Whitireia NZ

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Appendix 2 TEU Financial Membership Dec 2010 - September 2012

ITP Dec-10 Sep-11 Dec-11 Sep-12 5% target/branch

Aoraki Polytechnic 90 106 108 114 113

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic 40 35 34 29 36

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology

226 209 204 190 214

Eastern Institute of Technology 146 147 152 148 160

Manukau Institute of Technology 316 300 308 283 323

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology

93 90 84 87 88

NorthTec 116 126 127 119 133

Otago Polytechnic 237 231 235 242 247

Southern Institute of Technology 94 97 92 93 97

Tai Poutini Polytechnic 50 55 52 49 55

The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand 106 80 84 84 88

Unitec New Zealand 270 254 246 242 258

Universal College of Learning 210 219 214 221 225

Waiāriki Institute of Technology 112 118 122 124 128

Waikato Institute of Technology 169 153 146 131 153

Wellington Institute of Technology 131 153 154 145 162

Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki

75 78 82 79 86

Whitireia NZ 118 129 129 124 135

ITP Totals 2599 2580 2573 2505 2702

UNIVERSITY

Auckland University 1357 1389 1388 1340 1457

Auckland University of Technology 579 599 659 670 692

Canterbury University 1061 1055 1036 979 1088

Lincoln University 333 314 312 310 328

Massey University 1327 1267 1364 1263 1432

Otago University 1206 1185 1173 1151 1232

Victoria University 874 948 881 890 925

Waikato University 593 579 574 551 603

University Totals 7330 7342 7387 7157 7756 Continued on next page

WĀNANGA

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa 101 97 98 95 103

Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi 32 27 31 36 33

Wānanga Totals 133 129 129 131 135

Ken Laraman, ITP General Staff Vice-President

45

PTE/OTEP/REAPS & Others

REAP 37 35 36 39 38

Auckland Institute of Studies 19 19 18 19 19

NZ Council for Education Research 53 56 54 70 57

Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa 61 60 65 58 68

Other Inst & Organisations 413 423 420 418 441

PTE/OTEP Totals 583 593 557 604 623

TOTALS 10645 10644 10646 10397 11216

Lesley Francey, MIT

47

2012 Industrial and Legal ReportThe union currently negotiates 75 collective agreements (CAs) in the form of multi-union collective agreements (MUCAs) and single employer collective agreements (SECAs).

Over the last 12 month bargaining round, we have been involved in 30 negotiations and have settled 14 collective agreements. Branches and negotiating teams have been guided by the ITP Sector Group (ITPSG) industrial strategy and the University Sector Group (USG) bargaining recommendations.

Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) Sector BargainingWith the settlement of most ITP CAs by late 2012 as a result of the previous MECA dispute, this year the ITP sector has not been as difficult as in past years. However, the sector continues to be dominated by the involvement of the State Sector Commission (SSC) as a result of the government’s more direct involved in bargaining. The SSC Bargaining Parameters document requires employers in the tertiary sector to consult with the SSC over their bargaining strategy and any proposed settlement. The main purpose of the parameters has been to encourage salary restraint, with a preference for zero wage increases, and a requirement that any increase to salaries must be linked to demonstrated productivity gains. This, coupled with the EFTS cap and the significant changes in funding for the sector, in particular the performance funding introduced in 2012, have been major obstacles in the bargaining.

2012 ITP Bargaining The following branches are involved in bargaining currently; NMIT, TOPNZ, EIT, UCOL and WITT with MIT due to start in December 2012.

Discretionary leave, professional development time, research time and duty hours continue to be conditions that the employers are seeking changes, to as many did in 2011. At time of writing TOPNZ members are involved in planned industrial action as their employer which to reduce research and development time from 30 days to 15 days.

These bargaining teams continue to be guided by the ITPSG industrial strategy.

Term of the collective agreements and salary increases ITP sectorMost of the settlements have been for a two year term with increase in each year. The salary increases for the 2011/12 settlements were between 1.5 percent and 2.0 percent.

Evacuating the Lincoln office into the Canterbury office bathroom

49

University Sector Bargaining Universities involved in bargaining both their academic staff and general staff collective agreements this year were AUT, University of Waikato, Massey University, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Canterbury, Lincoln University and University of Otago. The University of Auckland were also involved in bargaining for a new collective agreement to cover Professional Teaching Fellows. At time of writing the status of that bargaining is as follows:

AUT: Academic collective - a proposed settlement is being prepared for •ratification. This is for a one year term, the salary increase is 1.2 percent effective 01January 2013. There is a 10 week union only deal. The TEU/TIASA Allied staff collective in underway. Our allied membership has grown from 11 to 29 since TEU achieved the new collective last year.

Waikato: A two year term with increases of 1.2 percent and 1.2 percent. Ratified •by members.

Massey: A one year term with a one-off payment of $600 gross. Currently being •voted on by members.

Victoria: A two year term with increases of 1.2 percent and 1.2 percent with a six •week union benefit in each year. Increase in paid parental leave from nine weeks to 10 weeks.

Canterbury: Currently in bargaining. •

Lincoln: Currently in bargaining.•

Otago: A two year term with increases of 1.2 percent and 1.5 percent. No union •benefit. Ratified by members.

University of Auckland: Professional Teaching Fellows – these members have •now been included into the academic staff collective agreement, giving them improvements in a number of their terms and conditions.

Term of the collective agreements and salary increases in the University SectorWaikato and Victoria have both settled on a two year term, as each of them did in the last bargaining round. Otago has agreed a two year term for the first time. Massey and probably AUT will settle on a one year term as they did in the last bargaining round. It is likely Lincoln will settle for a one year term compared to a two year term in the last round. Previously Canterbury settled for a three year term – at time of writing the term had not been finally agreed.

The salary increases for the 2012/2013 settlements have been between as follows. $600 lump sum payment or pay increases 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent

2012 National ClaimsThe University Sector Group developed a consultative process to develop national claims for 2012. These included a pay claim; three workloads claims; a claim on the principles of salary scales for general staff; a claim affirming the partnership principles of Te Tiriti; recognition of tikanga Māori and te reo Māori; new employees and union access claims; an employment security claim and union benefit claim.

Miriama Postlethwaite, Te Wānanga o Awanuiārangi

51

The USG have endorsed the development of industrial strategy similar to the ITPSG – that covers national claims and core conditions that no bargaining each can change without a process of consultation. There will be discussion on this proposed strategy at the university workshop at conference.

Ngā WānangaAt Te Wānanga o Aotearoa the collective was settled in August with salary increase of 1.5 percent and a $500 lump sum payment. This was consistent with the TUIA collective agreement. Initiation has occurred for the renewal of the 2012 to 2013 collective agreement and member meetings and claims development is underway. TEU would like to see a closer working relationship with TUIA as we our bargaining outcomes are very dependent on the settlements that union reaches.

Bargaining to renew the MUMECA with TIASA at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi will commence in November.

Rural Education Activities Programme (REAP)Four REAP SECAs achieved good settlements for these members with no loss of conditions.

The 2012/13 range of salary increase has been 2.0 percent to 2.5 percent.

Training Education (PTEs) Sector and Other Tertiary Education Providers (OTEPs)We currently have 14 collective agreements in private training establishments, as well as at Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa - The New Zealand Childcare Association, which is described by legislation as an “other tertiary education provider” (OTEP). Of note in this year’s bargaining in this area are the following settlements:

PAFT achieved a one year settlement of 2.5 percent•

NZCER achieved a one year settlement of 2.3 percent •

In some cases the collective agreements have not been renewed because the PTEs have closed down or we no longer have members at the work sites.

TEU’s aim for these members is to provide the protections and benefits that only a union can provide. However, this has been an increasingly difficult task in the private sector and the current TEU policy is that we do not actively recruit or initiate any new collective agreements unless there is 50 percent of the staff in the union.

Overall TEU Industrial Strategy With the creation of the Industrial and Professional Committee (IPC) under the proposed rules one of the first tasks for the IPC will be to develop a draft TEU-wide industrial strategy.

Miriama Postlethwaite, Te Wānanga o Awanuiārangi

Ngaroma Williams, Te Tari Puna Ora

53

Union-only benefit – Pass on agreementsTEU continues to achieve settlements that have included a union-only benefit. We have achieved this at AUT, Victoria and Massey. The union benefit periods have ranged from two weeks to ten weeks. These deals do have a positive impact of recruitment in these branches.

Salary Increases Summary Salary increase across all sectors range from 1.0 percent to 2.5 percent per year but most are around 2.0 percent..

The CPI September year to date figure is 0.8 percent. The Labour Cost Index for September reported that for those employees who have had wages/salary increase the range has been 2.0 percent. The annual Industrial Relations Center report stated that the average annualized increase in the year to June 2012 was 2 percent compared with 2.6 percent in 2011. As reported in the September 2012 NZCTU Economic Bulletin, wages and salary are falling well behind the current CPI.

Consensus forecasts published by NZIERThe consensus forecasts were published on 17 September 2012.

March Year 2012/2013

% change

2013/2014

% change

2014/2015

% changeCPI 1.8% 2.4% 2.6%

Personal Case Trends Council is provided with a report on the trends in the personal case that TEU are involved with. One of the aims is to start tracking trends on the type of cases and provide information on specific branch trends. Below are some of the trends we are starting to see in the types of personal cases:

Fixed Term appointments:Issues around “genuine reasons”, and noncompliance with s66 of the ERA. •

Claims for severance at the end of the appointments. •

Performance/warnings/disciplinary /dismissal:Inappropriate use of emails•

Performance issues re research and/or PBRF outcomes •

Performance management reviews •

Confirmation procedures•

Paul Taillon, University of Auckland

55

Workload:Excess workloads•

Changes in duties•

Cuts in hours of work •

Complaints: Involving staff and student complaints of bullying or harassment •

Process issues following reviews/restructuring:•

Outcomes for individuals, mainly about notice periods, redeployment, selection •process, severance payments or whether or not the outcomes have been a genuine redundancy.

Reviews and Restructuring There continues to be a consistent demand on organisers’ and branch committees’ time dealing with reviews and restructuring. Over the last 10 months, at the highest point, there were 65 reviews undertaken involving d 24 branches ongoing at the same time. In September 53 reviews are continuing at 13 branches and there are 14 new reviews - over 300 members affected and 29 confirmed redundancies. TEU works hard to ensure that these reviews are managed in a truly consultative way and result in the need for genuine redundancies only and that there is a fair selection process. However, there has been an increased use of legal challenges, in recent reviews, to ensure that employers comply with the provisions in the relevant collective agreements, the provision of the Education Act, where applicable, plus the provisions of the Employment Relations Act.

National office is now reporting to council on the areas that are under review, and where reviews are being undertaken, so organisers and branch presidents can share information and submissions.

The following is a summary of the departments, areas and programmes that have been under review, since February to October:

Architectural Technology, Arts, Audio Visual, American Studies, Academic Services, Bindery, Counselling, Engineering, Learning Support, Library, Film and Theatre Studies, Hospitality, Research and Innovation, Horticulture Music, Marketing, Business and Law, Teacher Education, Business and Law.

Phil Oxenham, Te Tai Poutini

57

Legal Report as September 2012The TEU retains a pre-eminent employment lawyer, Peter Cranney from Oakley Moran, who works with the union staff dealing with legal cases. The table below reports on those cases. It is important to note that our organisers are dealing with many other cases that are regularly settled without the need for legal recourse.

Institution Issue IssueUniversity of Auckland Ethics investigation

Breach of agreement Fixed term

University of Otago Continuation AUT Redeployment /redundancy Unitec Market Forces AllowanceWaikato University Redundancy selection Lincoln University Redundancy Selection- comparable work

No payment for working on public holidayLincoln Trades staff – nonpayment for earthquake and

snow days – breach of CAMIT Severance paymentsMassey University Dismissal/ constructive dismissal/unjustified action

Resolved 2012University of Auckland: Dismissal performance issues

University of Canterbury: Redundancy/redeployment

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic: Application of progression policy

Canterbury University: Redundancy/Programme closure

CPIT: Student complaint

Lincoln: Sexual harassment, long term sickness

Northtec: fixed term appointments

Unitec: Dismissal performance issues

Victoria University: Dismissal performance issues

Waikato University: performance issues

Wintec: Dismissal redundancy selection process

Proposed Employment Law Changes The government has announced further changes to the Employment Relations Act (ERA), with the intention to pass these changes by the end of 2012. It has not announced when the Bill will be introduced. The proposed changes are:

Rally to stop Arts cuts at UC

59

Remove the duty to conclude bargaining for a collective agreement – Currently there is a duty of good faith to conclude a collective agreement unless there is “a genuine reason, based on reasonable grounds, not to”. The current provision say that a genuine reason does not include opposition to, or objection in principle to collective bargaining or being a party to a collective agreement. This change will mean that employer will turn up but simply say “we not agree with collective bargaining” or “we don’t agree with concluding a collective agreement unless we achieve changes to the collective agreement”

Remove the protection for new employees in the first 30 days of employer where there is an applicable collective agreement;This means that new staff members will be offered the terms of the collective agreement at the start of their employment, unless they immediately join the union. This will lead to undermining the collective agreements, and new staff being employed on the employer driven individual agreements that will probably have terms and conditions that could not achieve in the collective bargaining.

Give the employer the ability to opt out of MECA bargaining;This is linked to the first change – not concluding a collective agreement and will simply allow any employer to opt out of any MECA initiation notice .

Allow deductions from pay in a partial strike and requiring all unions to give notice of strike action;Under the current law employers do not have the ability to make any salary or wages deduction on a partial bases. They do have the ability to suspend or lock employees out completely. This change will mean than as partial strike action (as TEU has successful undertaken such as lightning strike action – 30 minute and/or half day strike action not attending meetings, or working outside the normal hours of work plus not returning marks,) The government intends to give employers the power to deduct a proportionate amount of the pay for the period that any strike action is taken.

Under the current law only essential services are required to give notice of strike action, this does not apply to the majority of TEU members. This change will now require TEU to provide our employers with notice of when the strike action will occur and when it will end, who will be involved and what the location will be.

Give the employer the ability to initiate collective bargaining at the same time as the union initiation.Currently the union can initiate 60 days before the expiry of the collective agreement and the employer can only do this 40 days before hand.

These changes are all designed to further undermine collective bargaining.

Richard Draper, CPIT

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Conclusion One of the major tasks for branch committees, organisers and elected officials in TEU is the bargaining process. It is always a great recruitment and organising opportunity that takes a lot of preparation and commitment from the members of the bargaining teams. For some it has been a long and difficult bargaining round. We want to thank all of the members, elected officials and staff who have been involved in the bargaining over the last year.

Irena Brorens Nanette Cormack

National Industrial Officer Deputy Secretary

Susan Wātene, Unitec

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Combined reports of the sector groupsPrepared by John Prince, Carol Soal, Sandra Grey and national office staff

During 2012, the ITP and University sector groups held three meetings each; and the General Staff sector group met twice. At the final meetings of the groups, members discussed the work completed during 2012 and the issues facing the TEU in 2013 which need to be put onto the agenda of the new Industrial and Professional Committee (IPC).

General Issues

University Council compositionUniversity Council composition is being reviewed by the Government, possible/expected changes are the removal of union, staff and student involvement and their replacement with a heavy business representation, there is a plan for an online petition to oppose this.

Policy Matters

PBRFTEC has handed responsibility back to institutions to ‘negotiate’ with staff about how the privacy of academics’ individual scores will be handled. TEU has begun a campaign which will include member education and support for dealing with the release of individual PBRF scores and associated privacy issues.

TEU Code of Ethics:It was agreed that a draft code of ethics paper be introduced for discussion and review at Conference. It was agreed that consideration must be given to how the Code of Ethics will interact with the union’s rules.

Note from President: this project has been delayed in order for further work to be carried out by council in early 2013.

Whaea Kāterina Daniels

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TEU Campaigns

RecruitmentThe TEU target is to increase overall membership by 5% in 2012 to 10,590 members.

In order to do this branches have been encouraged to develop a recruitment plan and apply for additional funding. A budget sum of $75,000 was allocated in the 2012 TEU budget specifically for such recruitment activities.

We are the biggest union in the tertiary education sector. The TEU database puts membership at 10,403 financial members (as at July 2012, making us the 10th largest union in the country). This is a small drop from last year.

Speak up for education“Speak up for Education” and “The costs of managerialism” projects are underway including:

setting up projects; writing key documents and collecting data on the state of •the sector; and holding 19 TEU seminars, public debates and lectures (as well as contributions on the topic of the future of tertiary education at six national and international events)

two related research projects have been approved by Council but have not yet •started

The health of the sector’s workforce (overwork, SSR etc.)•

The transactional costs of managerialism•

Sector groups have discussed the project and been involved in events at their branches.

TEU General Staff dayA TEU General Staff day was held on 25 July with activities at individual branches to raise the profile of general staff and to encourage general staff to join the TEU, particularly in the ITP sector.

Industrial matters

Coverage issuesThere has been discussion on the distinction between academic and general roles and the need for better CA coverage clauses. This is a critical issue for the sector and it would be useful to have a unified position for bargaining. Many new roles do not fit easily into current academic or general staff categories. This may result in these people going onto individual employment agreements and not joining the union.

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Changes to Employment LawThe Government’s changes to the following employment law issues were noted as matters of concern:

The requirement to conclude a collective agreement•

The 30 day rule for new employees•

Allowing employers to opt out of MECA bargaining•

Timeframes for the initiation of bargaining•

Flexible working arrangements•

Outcome of the Wrigley/Kelly case on provision of information re redundancies•

There is some concern about the possibility of the government legislating against union fee deductions and this would be a significant threat although most of our CAs now have clauses in them dealing with fee deductions.

Other issues discussed or actions taken by TEU’s sector groups

All three groupsDebated coverage, including discussions around defining ‘academic’ and •‘general staff’ roles

Impact of managerialism•

Bullying and harassment, and the new TEU website bully-free workplaces•

Discussed and help to develop the TEU work-plan for 2013/2014, including •identifying a range of projects and strategies aimed at advancing the goals.

GSSGGuidance around how General Staff Day might be used as a recruitment activity; •and review of the events held to assist future planning.

Debates on filling extended leave as well as updating and collating information •from branches in order for action at branch level.

Initial drafting of discussion document around general staff remuneration, pay •scales, and performance pay.

ITPSGDiscussed and signed off: removal of TTH from the Northtec collective •agreement and replacement of this with workloads’ policy; and increased contact hours at WinTec from 36 to 37.5 hours.

ITPSG reviewed and amended the core conditions document for this sector.•

USGWith regard to national bargaining claims for the university sector, the USG agreed •on a 3.5% salary claim (except for the Canterbury branch who will determine their own salary claim). The reason the claim was amended from 5.0% to 3.5% was recognising a bargaining environment which includes the State Service’s Commission’s pressure for no more than a 1-1.2% increase in the public sector.

Current settlements/offers in the University sector are:

2.0 % (01 Feb 2012) Auckland•

1.2 % (01 July 2012) (+1.5% 2013) Otago•

1.2 % + $300 (01 October 2012) (+ 1.2% 2014) Waikato•

1.2 % (01 May 2012) ( + 1.2% 2014) Victoria•

1.2 % (01 Jan 2013) AUT•

$600 lump sum only Massey•

0 % Lincoln•

0 % Canterbury•

Key issues for 2013As was noted above, the three sector groups took time to prioritise the major issues that should be tackled by the incoming members of the new industrial and professional committee. These included:

Induction/development of new committee•

Bargaining – including: development of core conditions with view to raising these; •training for bargaining teams

Casualisation as an industrial and professional issue•

Carrying forward the Speak Up Campaign in particular looking at the future of the •sector and combating the effects of managerialism

Privatisation and contracting out of tertiary education (Navitas etc.)•

Merging to a single committeeOne of the most important issues debated at each meeting of the three sector groups was the restructuring of TEU agreed to at the 2011 conference. All three sector groups have been actively involved in debates about the new structures throughout both 2011 and 2012. Part of the process of testing the water for moving to a single Industrial and Professional Committee has been combined meetings of the different sector groups. These combined meetings have been seen as largely successful, with time dedicated to the many common issues faced by all members – the impact of the highly constrained government funding; recruiting new members; on-going development of a union-wide industrial strategy and action. At each combined meeting the groups also split up to debate issues specific to the many groups that make up the TEU. For example, academics met to talk about PBRF; general staff met to talk about salary scales; ITP representatives met to discuss moves to increase time-tabled teaching hours at some polytechnics;

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university representatives met to discuss possible changes to university governance.

Legal advice was sought to clarify the transition arrangements for VPs and on the issue of elections for the new committee/council structures. This legal advice recommended that TEU could rely on the decisions already made at the 2011 Conference which means that our new structures can be in place for the beginning of 2013 (as opposed to waiting until 2014 for a full transition to occur).

In order to ensure a continued smooth transition to the new structures we recommend that the first meeting of the new committee include discussion and approval of a terms of reference – including discussion about how this committee can best communicate with the wider membership.

We also believe that at the first meeting of the new Industrial and Professional Committee members will need to discuss the authority of this group to “approve” changes to core conditions. As most will be aware, the ITPSG discusses any proposed movement away from the set of nationally agreed core conditions in order to evaluate how changes at one branch will impact on the sector more widely. This system of checks and balances of the ITP sector has served the sector well, and the process must be discussed in light of our changed national structures. The views of BPs, committees, and bargaining teams on this issue would be most welcome.

Carol Soal, ITP General Staff Vice-President

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From the General Staff ITP vice presidentThis is the last year that general staff will meet as a separate group. With the changes to the union’s governance structures proposed for this year’s conference, we will move to the new model in 2013. However general staff can feel confident that their issues will continue to be addressed through other representative opportunities in the new structure. The general staff sector group sees the proposed new Industrial and Professional Committee as particularly important in this new structure, as it will be the group responsible for progressing much of the union’s strategy and policy development. Strong general staff voices will be crucial to ensuring the TEU continues its good work as the union representing all staff in the tertiary sector, and we are fortunate that we have so many excellent general staff members who are prepared to give time to the union nationally and at branch level.

This year has been one of change for the general staff sector group, as we saw both vice presidents departing for retirement (in one case) and new employment. Ken Laraman (ITPs) has retired from the sector, and Helen Kissell (universities) has joined the NZ Nurses’ Organisation as an organiser. Exciting developments for both Ken and Helen and we wish them well for the future.

I agreed to step into the ITP VP position for the interim, however having general staff positions settled in the new structure will be a welcome development for 2013.

The focus across the union on recruitment this year has seen some good work being begun or continued in branches. We have seen growth in general staff member numbers in some branches, but there is still more work to do – particularly in the ITP sector. The sector group has continued to work on a number of projects throughout the year and has contributed to significant meetings of the union. Key issues for general staff during the past 12 months have included: filling/not filling extended leave positions; understanding the elements of remuneration common to general staff (yet to be published); developing an ideal claim about the process for job evaluation (on-going); how issues affecting diverse occupational groupings amongst general staff can be represented in bargaining (discussion paper to be developed); comparing general staff and academic staff terms and conditions across/within sectors and to enable analysis of areas where the union can seek to achieve parity (industrial staff are working on this). As well, another successful General Staff Day was held in July. This continues to be a very enjoyable annual event for branches; in 2013 we would like to extend the event into more ITP branches.

In 2013 we will need to re-look at how we best communicate with general staff as we move to the new structures. As well the sector group is very keen to see a general staff representative at every branch – this makes it so much easier for the national office and our representatives to keep branches updated about events, issues and activities.

Carol Soal

(Interim) General Staff VP (ITPs)

Brent Lovelock, University of Otago

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Final wordsWe want to thank TEU staff, particularly Jo Scott, Irena Brorens, and Nanette Cormack, for the support given to the sector groups in 2012. Our decisions and actions have benefited from the very thorough information received from you about activities across the sector and from all of the follow-up work you complete between meetings.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank General Staff VPs Helen Kissell and Ken Laraman who both moved on to new adventures during the last year and to extend our thanks to both Carol Soal and John Prince for picking up the General Staff VP ITP sector and Academic VP university sector roles midway through a term.

Membership of sector groups 2012The president sits on all groups

University sector groupJohn Prince Scott Walters Helen Kissell (part term)

Christine Alexander Di Gordon-Burns Diane Ruwhiu

Margaret Taurere Sarah Proctor-Thompson Sean Sturm

Dov Bing Hamish McCracken (part term) Miriama Postlethwaite

Brian Marsh

General staff sector groupHelen Kissell (part term) Helen Brett Ken Laraman (part term)

Roland Brownlee Carol Soal Rui Li

Adele Wilson Kat Norton Tania Loughlin

ITP sector groupRichard Draper Bill Rogers Ken Laraman (part term)

Naumai Williams Lesley Francey Eric Stone

Tina Smith Susan Bennett Phil Edwards

Robert Watson Lea Gage

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Teacher education report to conference 2012The teacher education network gathered in Wellington for our annual meeting in July this year. We also used the opportunity of having members gathered together to run a “Speak Up” forum focused on teacher education issues. From this forum and further discussion that took place in the meeting, we have begun drafting our contribution to the TEU’s Alternative Tertiary Education Strategy.

The document still requires some further drafting however below is some of our initial thinking.

Teaching and teacher education provides a public goodTeacher education provides a public good because teaching in New Zealand is a reciprocal relationship – teachers and schools have responsibilities to communities; communities and the government have obligations to provide the setting and funding mechanisms to support the teaching and learning relationship.

Teacher educators and teacher education programmes reflect and transmit important social and cultural values to student teachers. Teacher educators are able to do this successfully because the programmes offered are culturally situated and are therefore able to ensure that beginning teachers are equipped to meet the challenges of teaching in our diverse communities. To ensure that we continue to support our world-class education system, we must prioritise “growing our own” teachers using our own teacher education providers. In this regard, the integration of kaupapa Māori research and teaching paradigms into teacher education programmes and thus teaching practice is crucial to ensure that teaching reflects this environment and the unique position of Māori as tangata whenua.

But a strategy for teacher education also needs to be cognisant of the international community of teacher educators and teachers – effective teacher educators and teachers provide for their own communities but also contribute to international education communities. They do this through research, scholarly engagement and participation in these international networks of professional knowledge and expertise.

Connecting theory, research and teaching practiceGood quality teacher education programmes need to maintain a balance between teaching theory and practice and specific subject/curriculum knowledge. The structure of these programmes should recognise that the best models for teacher education must include substantial opportunities for student teachers to rehearse teaching vignettes with critique and coaching from expert teacher educators supported by academic staff with disciplinary expertise in education theory and research.

Supporting quality teacher educationTeaching in New Zealand schools has a specific culture that relies strongly on classroom practice being underpinned by a robust understanding of education theory and research, with frequent

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opportunities to reflect on practice, and for individual practice to be critiqued. To support good teacher education and a high-quality teaching profession, we need to maintain this well-established framework – the mix of theoretical knowledge, research and structured learning opportunities in a supportive classroom environment.

Teaching today is also a much more complex intellectual process than in times past. The social context that teachers work and children learn in has changed, with complex social issues impacting on the learning process for some students, rapidly changing technologies requiring time and funding to learn and integrate into classroom practice, and importantly a shift in ideology that has affected funding allocations, and programme and curriculum development.

What do teacher educators need?In order to be able to provide quality balanced programmes, teacher educators need adequate support and time to undertake research and scholarly engagement.

Teachers need to be able to reflect critically on the impact of their teaching on learning, and make changes as necessary, based on the integration and application of theory and practice; teacher education programmes need to model this by providing such opportunities for student teachers.

ITE programmes need to provide time to learn (heads), time to do (hands), time to foster the disposition to teach (hearts). For this to be successfully achieved, teacher educators need time in their courses/programmes and class sizes that allow for the type of teaching and learning needed for those studying for the profession.

Institutions need to maintain a balanced staff profile, recognising that teacher educators bring to their teaching direct experience of classroom techniques and in-depth understanding of teaching theory and practice. Academics specialising in education theory also bring this in-depth knowledge to their work with student teachers. Recognising the specialised contributions from each staff group and maintaining a balance between staff supports quality teacher education.

As I noted above, we will continue to work on this contribution to the Alternative Tertiary Education Strategy, as we strongly believe that the current managerial ideologies dominating the education sector need to be systematically challenged. We look forward to continuing this work in 2013.

Brian Marsh

National teacher education representative

Sarah Hardman, Unitec

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Speak up for Education project updateNovember 2012

Sandra Grey

The New Zealand tertiary education sector has undergone three decades of continuous review and reshaping. There have been legislative changes; redefinition of roles of tertiary education institutions and those within them; changes in the way tertiary education is funded; alterations to the way institutions are governed; the axing of some government agencies and the creation of new ones to oversee tertiary education; and, the creation of new accountability and auditing models.

It is time to reflect on what these changes mean for those who study and work in the tertiary education sector; and the impact the changes will have on the New Zealand society and economy.

Some key facts and figures showing the changes in tertiary educationFunding has fallen consistently despite rising inflation

($million) 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Actual Actual Actual Forecast Forecast Forecast Forecast Forecast

Tertiary education expenses

4,564 4,465 3,991 4,273 4,191 4,145 4,127 4,133

Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update 2011, Core Crown Expense Tables, Table 6.8 http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/forecasts/prefu2011/72.htm

Academic staff numbers have fallen

Full time equivalent staff (academic) in public sector falls every year since 2005

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

13,277 12,893 12,758 12,739 12,635

Education Counts Statistics, Financial Resources (HR.2) http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/tertiary_education/resources

And student numbers continue to grow So, student: staff ratios grow:

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

18.3 18.3 17.9 19.2 19.7

Education Counts Statistics, Financial Performance (FNP.4) http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/tertiary_education/financial_performance

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Changes in the direction of the sectorMany of the changes in the tertiary education sector have been driven by a shift from education as a right for all in New Zealand, to education as a tool for national economic growth. This shift is being driven by governments which view the goals for the sector very narrowly:

“The Government wants a tertiary system that rewards successful providers who demonstrate that they meet the needs of students and employers, for instance through their connections with firms. The system will also reward providers who respond to market signals, including the changing skill needs of industries.

. . . Funding allocations to tertiary education organisations will be linked to their past performance. Initially this will be focussed on results achieved by students but will include outcomes, such as post-study employment, as this information becomes available.”

Ministry of Education Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015 http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/TertiaryEducation/PolicyAndStrategy/TertiaryEducationStrategy/PartTwoPriorities.aspx

What impact does all this have?The current government vision of tertiary education is extremely narrow. Government documentation shows repeatedly that this government and its agencies consider tertiary education as existing to serve the economy. Viewed this way, education becomes merely a place where we train individuals in the skills needed to be workers.

The government’s strategic steering of the sector towards economic goals cuts across the Education Act 1989 which sets out some very broad goals for tertiary education.

Section 162 notes that public tertiary institutions are primarily concerned with (among other things) more advanced learning, the principal aim being to develop intellectual independence; their research and teaching are closely interdependent and most of their teaching is done by people who are active in advancing knowledge; they accept a role as critic and conscience of society.

forSpeak UPeducation

Letter to the Dominion Post,

11 June 2012

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The New Zealand Education Act 1989 also states that tertiary education should:

• Contribute to the development of cultural and intellectual life in New Zealand;

• Help develop a skilled and knowledgeable population;

• Contribute to the sustainable economic and social development of the nation; and

• Strengthen New Zealand’s knowledge base (Part 13 Education Act 1989)

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1989/0080/latest/DLM183668.html

Time to talk about what we want for tertiary educationTEU’s Speak Up for Education forums are an opportunity to debate what all of these changes mean for our tertiary education institutions, their staff and students, and the communities and businesses that rely on these institutions providing high quality education.

A really big thank you to all those who have made Speak Up events happen in their institutions and communities. As you can see, we have held a significant number of Speak Up events have been held this year (listed below). This is only the first part of the planned project. As yet we have not begun lobbying MPs and the research projects have yet to be started, but significant progress is being made on this key goal for TEU.

Where events have already been held at branches we now need to think about how to build on the interest shown by members in drawing up an alternative vision for the sector.

We are building the resources needed for this project, and Stephen Day is working on a website dedicated to this campaign. Jo Scott and I are also working on a generic workshop which can be used with members to draw out their views on the future of the sector. But please let us know if you have any ideas of how we can get our message about quality public tertiary education out into the public sphere.

Events held so far

TEU only forumsREAP Branch meeting•

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic•

Te Tari Puna Ora AGM•

Branch Presidents’ forum•

Speech at General Staff Day at Otago University•

Institution-wide eventsEIT Napier •

EIT Tairawhiti•

Massey University •

Waikato University•

Wintec •

UCOL•

Waiariki Polytechnic •

Public forumsTeacher Education meeting •

University of Auckland•

Aoraki Polytechnic •

SIT •

Otago University •

Otago Polytechnic •

Speak up for women in education (Auckland University)•

MIT•

Addresses on state of sector to national and international seminars/conferences

Creative University Conference Waikato•

Education International Higher Education Conference•

Vocational Education and Industry Training Conference•

We are the University Wellington•

NTEU Conference Sydney•

QPEC conference 2012•

Blogs, speeches, and op-eds available building on themes of campaign‘TEU: Treasury’s attack on ordinary Kiwis’, http://thestandard.org.nz/teu-treasurys-•attack-on-ordinary-kiwis/

‘When the Government steers the market’, Presented paper with Jo Scott at NTEU’s •Conference on future of higher education, University of Sydney.

The Standard guest post “You can’t fix what is not broken – no need to change •university councils”

TEU website Waging war on the back office won’t improve teaching and learning•

http://teu.ac.nz/2012/07/waging-war-on-the-back-office-wont-improve-teaching-•and-learning/

Give back some autonomy and dignity if you want a strong academic workforce •(TEU)

http://www.ed.co.nz/2011/02/04/give-back-some-autonomy-and-dignity-if-you-•want-a-strong-academic-workforce/

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Other resources available for Speak Up eventsSpeak up for education power point•

Generic posters•

Key facts and figures document•

Introduction to speak up events•

Speak up workshop•

Paper on governance of the tertiary sector•

TEU Public Tertiary Education Policy•