“Our Voice”

Download this document as a General Staff Manifesto pamphlet (pdf)

General staff in tertiary education institutions are tertiary education professionals with vast expertise and experience in a wide range of specialised roles.

Quality teaching, learning and research in New Zealand tertiary education institutions (TEIs) would not be possible without general staff, and the work we do in partnership with our academic colleagues.  We are an essential part of the union and the tertiary education institutional community.

We are the people who:

• Make the learning (including flexible-learning) and research environment a reality;
• Contribute to the mentoring and teaching of students and professional development of staff;
• Organise the enrolment and induction of students;
• Purchase or create, set up and maintain hardware and software for research, teaching and administration;
• Determine the appropriate responses to the ever-changing IT infrastructure;
• Advise research groups on advanced computing techniques;
• Facilitate student and staff  access to information resources;
• Manage and support specialist research infrastructure and facilities;
• Allocate and manage student housing;
• Create budgets and monitor expenditure;
• Plan and implement student recruitment and outreach programmes;
• Promote and market the TEIs to the wider community;
• Create print, online and electronic publications and resources;
• Manage quality assurance processes in teaching and learning;
• Negotiate research grants and links with industry and with whānau, hapu and iwi;
• Engage with a variety of communities on behalf of TEIs;
• Take responsibility for health and safety education and compliance;
• Service committees, generate documentation and provide advice on legal and regulatory matters;
• Help students find rewarding careers;
• Support students and staff with disabilities;
• Support the mental and physical health of students;
• Manage and implement human resources policies;
• Develop and maintain buildings and grounds;
• Provide a front line reception service to all visitors and callers;
• Administer assessment procedures;

We believe:

• That the TEU is strengthened by our membership and activism;
• We are entitled to quality management that gives us the opportunity to organise our own work and to contribute to improvements across the workplace;
• That as general staff we are vital to the TEI environment, and make a contribution to TEI teaching and research that is both different and equal to that of our academic colleagues;
• That continued under funding of TEIs has resulted in low pay and lack of recognition for many general staff, casualisation of general staff roles, and lack of job security due to constant reviews;
• That growth in student numbers and other changes to the TEI environment have led to increasingly unmanageable workloads for general staff;
• That general staff do not have adequate representation on TEI governing bodies and committees or participation in their processes;
• That the implementation and application of HR policies in our TEIs is often inequitable, with the result that general staff face procedures and checks which are not imposed on academic colleagues.

We expect and will organise to ensure that:

• Our employers recognise our expertise, professionalism, experience and qualifications by maintaining the links between academic and general staff in salaries, superannuation, grading and career progression;
• Our contribution to tertiary education is acknowledged by our employers through quality, secure and permanent work, higher pay, better opportunities for career development, improved working conditions, and work-life balance;
• There is fair representation of general staff on all governing bodies and committees, participation in decision making at all levels and access to information;
• Legal rights to academic freedom also apply to general staff, and the work we do, and should be supported by the TEIs and by government;
• The principles of the Treaty of Waitangi will underpin the work of all staff in the TEIs;
• Current unmanageable workloads are addressed through greater investment in general staff;
• Our employers will implement internal policies equally across all staff categories to ensure fair and equitable treatment;
• Our union encourages the membership and active participation of all general staff, develops recruitment campaigns aimed at general staff, and ensures that the representation of general staff is maintained and improved at all levels.

Amended 02 April 2009