Education Review reported TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs last week as saying that the union will face a round of pay negotiations this year “against a background of tight finances in the tertiary sector”.

“We wouldn’t be holding our breath for additional government funding this year,” Ms Riggs is quoted as saying while commenting on the recession and the nature of the new government.  However, she also committed the union to defending members’ pay packets against inflation and focusing on the workload impacts for staff if universities and polytechnics take on more un-subsidised students.

Ms Riggs subsequently told Tertiary Update that higher enrolments are placing burgeoning pressure on many institutions and “it is up to those institutions, the champions of innovation and creativity, to find innovative ways to reduce rather than increase the workloads their staff currently face”.

“New Zealand tertiary-education institutions are competing with institutions all over the world for our staff,” said Ms Riggs. “Pay isn’t the only solution to keeping them here: institutions can win and retain good workers by addressing lifestyle factors like workload and job satisfaction.

“Institutions will have a challenge and a duty to show creative ways of addressing workload, because keeping their workers productive and successful here in New Zealand is crucial at a time when everyone is turning to the tertiary-education sector for solutions,” concluded Ms Riggs.