8 December 2009

Dear ITP MECA members,

Well, for the superstitious among us, this is newsletter #13.

We have been in mediation over the last two days to try again to settle the negotiations. During these two days we have variously tabled the strategy endorsed at stop work meetings last week, both in terms of the form and content of potential settlement.”  We tabled our willingness to settle either within the current MECA or to look at other options for collective settlements such as a smaller MECA or SECAs (single employer collective agreements).

We agreed to amend the current discretionary leave clause so that the employers could utilize all four weeks of an employee’s discretionary leave in the first two years of employment for initial academic training, as this represents a productivity gain which they have been seeking throughout these negotiations.

We then put a further settlement position to them as discussed at our meetings, and offered the employers a rollover until 1 May 2010 with a 0% increase at NorthTec, Whitireia, Wintec and WITT, and a 4% backdated increase at Unitec and BoPP to address the inequity with non-members which is of those particular employers’ making.

We are very unhappy to have to report to you that the employers have still said no to that proposal.”  That means that we are dealing with an extremely hostile employer position, which is that they want to reduce your conditions of employment by reducing your entitlements to discretionary leave and teaching day maximum.”  This makes a nonsense of one of the key planks of the employers’ argument, which has been consistently that the State Services Commission is demanding 0% increases unless there are productivity gains.”  We have now put to 4 of these employers a 0% rollover with offers of different collective settlements to the current MECA, and they are refusing those offers.

This position is inconsistent with some of the statements coming from some of the Chief Executives in this MECA, which include rhetoric such as “we could settle tomorrow if it wasn’t for the MECA” and “we are being tied by other institutions in the MECA.”

The employers’ amended position at adjournment continues to involve reductions to core conditions:

• an increase to the teaching maximum to 200
• a staged clawback of discretionary leave so that by 1 February 2012 three weeks of your discretionary leave is at the employers’ discretion “for additional professional development to maintain currency to ensure that [you] are able to meet the requirements of the position/role.”
• Employer ability to require you to reduce your discretionary leave in other cases in exchange for 2% per week of reduced entitlement;
• 2% on 1 February 2010
• 2% on 1 February 2011
• a 0.5% lump sum payment not on your salary rates
• a 3 year term expiring 1 March 2012.

They have said they will think about other options and will get back to us by 17 December.”  We will await those responses.”  However, in the meantime your bargaining team has begun organizing for a clear and vigorous industrial response in early 2010.

We will need your commitment to that, and know that you will do so to resist the hostile approach of your employers.”  We will be communicating with you if anything changes on 17 December, and as our plans for next year come together.

Meantime, may your Christmas break be as restive or as festive as you want to make it.

Kia kaha and solidarity

TūKotahi – Stand as One

Irena Brorens, Lead Advocate – http://scr.im/irenabrorens

On behalf of your bargaining team – Glennis Birks (Wintec), Rod Fearn (WITT), Sarah Hardman (Unitec), Sharon Phillips (Whitireia), Eric Stone (NorthTec), Robyn Tucker (BoPP), Chan Dixon”  Co – Advocate (TEU Organiser)