NorthTec is currently trying to cut working conditions and extend teaching hours for its staff, when most other polytechnics around the country have come to amicable settlements with their staff in the last two months.

NorthTec, one of only two remaining ex-MECA ITPs yet to settle with its TEU staff members, is seeking to remove all limits on timetabled teaching hours and maximum number of teaching days from staff working conditions, as well as reducing leave for new staff, so they can teach more.

NorthTec CEO Paul Binney told TEU negotiators that getting fewer staff doing more work wasn’t immediately underpinning his employment offer, but he added:

“Let’s not duck that topic. That has to be an objective going forward. We need to be more productive and efficient so need to do more for less.”

This has led to the situation where TEU members at NorthTec today begin a ballot for industrial action, at the same time that TEU members elsewhere around the country are holding ratification ballots.

“Given the settled environment elsewhere, we anticipate a concentrated effort at NorthTec next year”, said Organiser Chan Dixon, “although their employer’s unreasonable position is hardly the ‘ho ho ho’ that TEU members at NorthTec want as they head towards the summer break, especially after more than three years without an increase to their salary.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Threatened boycott on advertised jobs at VUW
2. Student loan statistics get worse
3. OECD says invest in education to end inequality
4. Charter schools an unpleasant surprise
5. Have your say on Tertiary Update next year

Other news

Tertiary Education Union UCOL branch president Tina Smith voices her support for locked-out CMP workers at a protest near a McDonald’s outlet, in Palmerston North – Photo in the Manawatu Standard

Lincoln University has closed two buildings after a detailed engineering inspection. Vice-chancellor Roger Field said today the Hilgendorf Wing (including the TEU office) and the Student Union building would be shut until further notice – The Press

The University of Canterbury will rely on its implicit Government guarantee to meet payments to investors on its unrated 10-year bonds after the earthquakes scared off students – TVNZ

New Zealand has really done little more than keep up with inflation until the last three years when expenditure has started to increase, but even now we are probably still at 60 to 70 percent of what appears to be an international consensus on the appropriate level of public expenditure  committed to research by other small advanced nations. There is evidence that private sector spending only starts to increase when a critical mass of activity flows from the public sector – Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.

Many workers with caring responsibilities want flexible working arrangements and/or part-time hours. But there is no evidence to suggest these workers want casual work. Research suggests they are forced to accept casual work or other types of insecure work because they are unable to access quality on-going part-time work – The University of South Australia and the Workplace Research Centre debunk five myths about insecure work.

Wintec’s recently released Annual Report for 2010 shows Wintec has nearly doubled its surplus from the previous year, from 1.4 million to 2.7 million. However, in doing so it has increased domestic student fees (per EFTS) from $2900 to $3700: a rise of 28 percent. It has also increased the student: staff ratio over the last two years from 17.8:1 to 19.0:1.

“Students at Wintec are paying much higher fees than they were in 2008 or 2009 but in return they have got bigger classes and staff with higher workloads.”

Dr Grey says that given the workload pressure that staff at Wintec are facing it is interesting to read in the 2008 Wintec Annual Report that the percentage of staff working above their timetabled teaching hours (TTH or workload) target was not reported on because a baseline was yet to be established. Two years later, in this most recent report, Wintec has still not captured any data or set itself a performance target for the number of staff working above their timetabled teaching hours (TTH) or workload target.

“Wintec students will be worried that their institution’s inability to engage with its own staff is making it harder for them to study. Massive increases in fees, larger class sizes and staff with no significant pay rises and growing workloads is a recipe that could harm the institution’s brand,” said Dr Grey.

It is also seeking the ability to require its employees to work on more than two evenings per week. It wants ‘more liberal’ discretionary leave provisions whereby discretionary leave is sold by agreement, with a view ‘to reducing that leave over time’

While it is retaining the current 34 hours duty per week it wants to introduce a 75 hours minimum ‘working hours’ per fortnight clause.

It wants to add to the existing workload principles of ‘safe, equitable and reasonable’ the adjectives ‘effective’ and highly productive’.

It has offered pay increases of 1.5 percent and 1.5 percent over a 22 month term but that offer is within the context of making progress on its claims to change conditions.

TEU members held a stop work meeting last Tāite with an overwhelming majority supporting a campaign of industrial action. That campaign begins on Mane with the withdrawal of goodwill, and will escalate. The withdrawal of goodwill means that members will be strictly working to the parameters of their collective agreement.

Local TEU organiser Chan Dixon says this is the third set of negotiations out of four where TEU members at MIT have had to embark on industrial action.

“MIT has signalled its intention to make changes in the key areas of hours of mahi, workload, and discretionary leave, all of which are fundamental. MIT wants to impose change rather than have relationships guided by consent and goodwill. These people need support in every way TEU can – they had take industrial action during last year’s negotiations as well,” said Ms Dixon.

TEU has set up a webpage where people can send message of support to TEU members at MIT

Thanks to Codgdogblog @ Flickr for the photo

Branch president Lesley Francey says TEU members at MIT have rejected the employer claims and are preparing to campaign, as they did last year, to retain their existing work conditions.

TEU members are entering the negotiations with a very limited set of their own claims, seeking only a one year term and an increase to pay and some allowances of 3 percent. By comparison, MIT is seeking significant changes to the existing collective employment agreement clauses on workload and hours of work.

The institution’s claims include changing the 835 hours of timetabled teaching hours for academics from a ‘maximum workload’ to a ‘guideline’, increasing the number of duty hours per week from 34 hours per week Monday to Friday to 37.5 hours per week Monday to Saturday, and removing the restrictions around working after 5pm.

In a claim that is reminiscent of the ITP MECA negotiations, MIT is also looking to change the requirements around how discretionary leave can be used. 

Ms Francey says that MIT’s proposals are bad for students’ quality of education. 

“Academic staff need time to provide advice, support and pastoral care to students.   They also need to deal with administration, marking and the professional development requirements of their job. There is already flexibility in the collective agreement which allows for lecturers to teach evenings and weekends by agreement and to my knowledge that has worked well to date.”

Thanks to cogdogblog @flickr for the photo

Background to the policy

Prior to the formation of the Tertiary Education Union Te HautūKahurangi, both ASTE and AUS took strong positions in submissions and other forums in support of the requirements that degree-level programmes be taught mainly by people engaged in research.”  This position arose from a firm belief in the importance of recognising the research-teaching nexus – that active involvement in research by teachers helps pass on new knowledge to students, ensuring the capabilities developed through undertaking research become part of students’ learning.”  This position was also informed by research findings that demonstrated involvement in teaching helps stimulate ideas for research, and encourages the researcher to place their activities within a wider context.

In supporting the requirement for engagement in research, both unions also stressed the need to ensure that staff are provided with appropriate workloads to meet both their teaching and research responsibilities.”  This stance was given practical application during bargaining, with many collective agreements negotiated by the two unions having workload provisions placing parameters around timetabled teaching hours and administrative/pastoral care and other duties for staff with research obligations.

Additionally both unions were strong advocates for a balanced research profile in institutions that includes a mix of new/emerging and more established researchers.”  The advent of the performance-based model for research funding in the sector resulted in the unions frequently needing to raise this point at government and institution level, as a number of TEOs sought to maximise their funding by over-focusing on established researchers who could attract more funding.

The current policy seeks to reinforce these messages, as well as taking a position on the research-teaching nexus that acknowledges the different career paths that academics may take in developing as teachers/researchers.

The challenge that the sector faces is ensuring an academic environment that supports research development and a broad definition of research[1], whilst simultaneously acknowledging the central role that teaching plays. Providing a quality learning experience for students is after all a primary function of TEOs.”  This policy encompasses TEU’s view on how this might best be achieved.

Policy statement

[insert whakatauki here]

Introduction

The Tertiary Education Union Te HautūKahurangi believes that degree-level programmes should be taught mainly by people engaged in research. “ Our view is that active engagement[2] in research by teachers helps pass on new knowledge to students, ensuring the capabilities developed through undertaking research become part of students’ learning.”  Additionally we believe that involvement in teaching helps stimulate ideas for research, and encourages the researcher to place their activities within a wider context of teaching and learning.

In establishing a balance between research and teaching however, consideration must also be given to the differing requirements for discipline areas.”  In some disciplines, teaching and related activities (such as assessment of practicuum) requires a much greater degree of direct student contact.

The teaching-research nexus

Research activity for those engaged in degree-level teaching should relate to the process of teaching in some way – such as finding new and better ways to teach, deepening understanding of the learning process, or exploring new knowledge relevant to the researcher’s subject matter, discipline or profession being taught (i.e pure or basic research). In the same way research outcomes should be able to be discerned in the process and practice of teaching – whether actually in front of students or in planning, preparation and assessment. Such an approach gives equal value to both teaching and research, and recognises that both activities are needed to ensure a quality learning experience for students.

Ensuring a collaborative research environment

In TEUs view a vibrant teaching and research environment is one that recognises and values individual staff strengths in teaching and research and that maintains a mix of experience in both areas i.e. a profile of teaching and research capability ranging from more experienced to those new to the profession of teaching or in an earlier stage of their research career. Each individual staff member will be working at a different level, but will benefit from a collegial environment where research and teaching knowledge and practice is shared.

Maintaining a diverse staff profile for teaching and research does not mean that individual staff will remain at the same stage of development for the duration of their career; over time individual staff will gain experience, upgrade qualifications etc.”  However an institution’s profile should normally include such a mix, thus ensuring ongoing growth and development of its staffing resource.[3]

This position differs somewhat to the principles for staff engagement in research provided by NZQA[4] in that the TEU recognises that many subject or discipline areas recruit staff directly from the profession.”  The NZQA position that at some point all staff will be recruited ‘research and/or teaching-ready’ does not in TEU’s view adequately reflect the requirements of all parts of the sector, particularly ITPs and wānanga.”  New staff taking up a degree-level teaching position may have strong professional or industry experience which is valuable in terms of being able to provide current, in-depth subject knowledge.”  Such individuals may however have little or no experience in undertaking academic research or teaching, and must be supported with appropriate professional development time to acquire these skills, rather than the TEO losing the opportunity of including them in their staffing mix.”  The TEU therefore supports systems that recognise diverse paths, both entering the career of teacher-researcher and during the course of that career.

Employment conditions

The TEU will continue to ensure that processes are in place to support or develop those who teach in degree-level courses, including provision for workload planning, professional development opportunities etc.”  Additionally the TEU will continue to advocate for workload allocation that accurately reflects research and teaching commitments at degree-level, through collective agreement negotiations and involvement in reviewing institution and government policy.

The TEU will continue to lobby to ensure that the sector adheres to guidelines developed as a result of legislation (such as that relating to PBRF) that define which staff are required to undertake research.”  This includes staff who may be involved in limited and directly supervised teaching activities (such as those employed to run tutorials) and are not required to be research-active, but experience institutional pressure to do so.

Passed by Annual Conference

November 2009

————————–

[1] Including recognition of the value of different methodologies and mediums and the process of scholarship

[2] The TEU considers active engagement in research to include the process of producing research outcomes, scholarly critique, and reflective practice informed by current bodies of knowledge.

[3] Institutions with a developed research culture and stable, long-term staffing are less likely to have a profile of the range described above, reflecting it’s more established research environment.

[4]“NZQA considers that at an early stage of development of a research culture, the principles underpinning the requirement for academic staff to be engaged in research may be adequately met by achieving a balance between academic staff in the following three groupings: staff not yet engaged in research, but engaged in research-informed study and qualifications upgrading and therefore able to offer teaching that is informed by recent research and inspired by the search for knowledge; staff conducting research as a major component of study towards a higher degree; staff engaged in qualification-independent research.

NZQA considers that while this is acceptable in the early years of establishment of a research culture, there must be planning and projections in place which show how staff engagement in research will grow and progress to a more established pattern of research outputs.”

TEU bargaining advocates spent two days last week exchanging claims with the six institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) covered by the ITP multi employer collective agreement – Wintec, WITT, Unitec, Whitireia, NorthTec and BoPP.

The polytechnics are seeking greater flexibility and productivity.  They want to discuss how to ensure academic staff work such hours as may be reasonably required of them to professionally fulfil the requirements of the job, which may be outside of the normal week.

They also want to delete the current entitlement to one block of annual leave of at least four weeks, and to change discretionary leave so that it is at the employer’s discretion rather than the employee’s.

TEU lead advocate, Irena Brorens, says that workload is already a huge issue in polytechnics and the employer claims would put further pressure on the heavy workload, if they were to be implemented.

“Academic staff at ITPs are already flexible and do all they can to be with their students. It’s important to remember that as well as their timetabled teaching hours they have assessment and administration, not to mention the demands of research and professional development. Excessive workload is detrimental for both staff and students,” says Ms Brorens.

Union members at the six ITPs are seeking a 5 percent increase to salaries and allowances and a reduction in maximum timetabled teaching hours from 825 per year to 750, with a weekly limit of 20 teaching hours. They also have claimed greater protection for casual staff and those workers involved in organisational change or surplus staffing reorganisations.

Negotiations have now adjourned, and are scheduled to resume on Tuesday 9 June.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Budget signals new tertiary education strategy
2. Mixed messages from NZVCC
3. University of Auckland quits U21Global
4. Med schools not ready for new students
5. Holidays won’t be taken but might be sold
6. Worldwatch

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TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. You can subscribe to Tertiary Update by email or feed reader. Back issues are available on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: http://scr.im/stephenday

MIT members on strike

TEU members at Manukau Institute of Technology are taking industrial action over their high workloads and expectations that they work up to 835 timetabled teaching hours a year. Their story was in the Herald and on Newstalk ZB today. You can send messages of support to the MIT workers via their branch president Lesley Francey. If you are based in Auckland you may be able to offer Lesley further practical support?

Be working classy on May Day

Many TEU branches are organising May Day (1 May) soup kitchens and sausage sizzles where you can donate a non-perishable food item to working families in need. Contact your local branch organiser to find out details of what is happening in your town or city. There will be posters and flyers available to hand out to staff and students.

10000 signatures to help bank workers keep jobs

Banks play an important role in the economy. That is why taxpayers are supporting banks in these difficult times by guaranteeing their deposits and wholesale funding. Despite this guarantee, banks have made no such guarantee to their staff about job security. That’s why bank workers’ union, Finsec, is petitioning the government to make retention of current staffing numbers a condition of the government’s deposits and wholesale funding guarantee schemes. Download the petition here then get a handful of colleagues to sign it and fax it back to Finsec on 04 385 2214 before Friday 1 May.

Save tortured Iranian teacher from imprisonment

Write to Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and ask that he free Farzad Kamangar, a teacher and trade unionist who was jailed in 2006, then tortured and sentenced to death last year.  Letters pleading for clemency from Education International have helped keep Farzad Kamangar alive but he is still imprisoned.  Details on how to write a letter are here.

MIT prepares for industrial action

Next week TEU members at Manukau Institute of Technology will be taking industrial action over their high workloads and expectations that they work up to 835 timetabled teaching hours a year. Read more details here. You can send messages of support to the MIT workers via their branch president Lesley Francey. If you are based in Auckland you may be able to offer Lesley further practical support?

Get involved in May Day and Workers Memorial Day

Many TEU branches are organising May Day (1 May) soup kitchens and sausage sizzles where you can donate a non-perishable food item to working families in need. Contact your local branch organiser to find out details of what is happening in your town or city. Local branches of the CTU will also be organising Workers Memorial Day (28 April) and May Day events in your local area. Find out more from your Unions Local convenor.

Help Turkish metal workers return to work

350 union members who were negotiating employment conditions at the Sinter Metal Đmalat Sanayi AÅž factory in Turkey have been sacked because they were union members. The Turkish labour ministry has found that the workers’ rights are being violated. You can learn more and send a protest message to Sinter Metal.

It was reported in Tertiary Update last week that TEU members and MIT had reached a negotiating impasse over the issue of workload, and in particular the high number of timetabled teaching hours staff were expected to teach.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says the issue of workload is one of the biggest problems facing tertiary education workers at present, and that the problem is particularly acute in the ITP sector, in institutes of technology and polytechnics and wananga.

“Staff at MIT, like all tertiary education workers, are reluctant to take industrial action because, in the end, they don’t want their students to lose out. But this time around they felt pushed into a corner by their employer. Expecting teachers to each stand in front of a class for 800 hours a year, on top of assessment and administration, not to mention the demands of research and professional development, is grossly unfair for both staff and students at MIT. Things have to change – and the employer has to lead the way,” said Dr Ryan.

Tertiary Update Volume 12 Number 10

TEU members at the Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) are voting on whether to take industrial action in a ballot which closes today. It comes after being presented with an offer they say includes major claw-backs to current conditions and fails to address their growing workload.

According to TEU branch president at MIT, Lesley Francey, the key issue for MIT workers is workload.

“Cuts last year to general and admin staff numbers saw many administrative tasks reallocated to academics. Increasing numbers of students creating larger workloads is the straw that is breaking the camel’s back,” said Ms Francey.

Currently, the MIT collective agreement allows for teaching staff to teach a maximum of 835 contact hours a year. Staff are becoming increasingly concerned that this number is becoming a target rather than maximum.  They are seeking to limit timetabled teaching hours to a maximum of 20 hours a week and to introduce workload bands that would see those staff teaching at higher levels, with large numbers of students, or with more out-of-class assessment, teaching fewer contact hours per week.

In response, the employer has offered a 3.2 percent pay increase over 22 months, broken up into two smaller increases, and the introduction of a clause that would enable MIT and individual members to negotiate flexible arrangements as variations to the collective agreement. TEU members believe this clause could have a detrimental effect on working conditions, especially on hours of work for new employees and employees in particular areas of teaching such as nursing. MIT is threatening to withdraw this offer from the negotiating table if it is not accepted today.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Ryan challenges rush over Youth Guarantee
2. Students with disabilities lose out from student restrictions
3. Chopper ride has TEC in a spin
4. Sciences lecturers face redundancy at Massey
5. Value of Lincoln-AgResearch merger questioned
6. Polytechnics to sell education to Saudi women
7. University of Zimbabwe closed – again
8. Tasmanian casual academics seek better deal
9. Economics dean quits over sackings

TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. Back issues are available on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: http://scr.im/stephenday

Thanks to A.K. Photography @ Flickr for the photo