The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the
Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 8th, 2003.
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University staff to strike over university funding
Universities around the nation are expected to grind to a halt on
October 16, as staff hold a one-day strike over the Howard Government's
draconian higher education policies. The National Tertiary Education
Union and the Community and Public Sector Union have called the strike
over the new policies, which will result in massive infringements of
educational standards and employees' rights.
by Petermac
If implemented, the new policies would result in universities being able
to increase their fees by 30 percent. All current limits on the extent
of contract employment would be lifted and university authorities would,
in effect, be called on to pressure their employees to sign individual
work contracts.
The Government also threatens that University funding would be cut if a
university agreed to introduce employee wages and conditions better than
the current "community standard", in effect, blocking any future
improvements in wages and conditions over that level.
The government recently announced that university funding would be
conditional on them introducing new measures in conformity with its
policies. At the time of the announcement, the Senate of Sydney
University was about to sign a new workplace agreement with their staff
which would have set a precedent for other universities.
The agreement included improvements in conditions, for example, the
introduction of new maternity leave provisions. However, the
announcement caused the Senate to postpone signing the agreement and, as
a result, many new agreements at other universities have been cancelled
or postponed.
Maternity leave
The loss of the new provisions regarding maternity leave will impose
particular hardships on women employees and students. As Suzanne
Hammond, Federal Women's Industrial Officer, recently pointed out:
"Women in the sector stand to lose their superior entitlements to
maternity leave, family leave, higher superannuation contributions and
other benefits. The removal of protection of casual workers would see
many full-time and part-time jobs transferred to casual employment with
little protection".
The national president of the NTEU, Carolyn Allport, points out that the
government's position on university employment contradicts the Workplace
Relations Act, which bars third parties from involvement in enterprise
bargaining. She commented: "In this case the government is the third
party. It is intervening against its own workplace relations legislation".
Excluding students
The government's policies will also exclude many students from gaining a
university position. The deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Western Australia, Alan Robson, stated last week that the government's
demand that over-enrolments be eliminated means that some 8000 students
would probably be denied entry to university.
He noted that universities currently receive $2700 to educate
"marginally funded" students in over-enrolled courses, as opposed to
some $10,000 for fully-funded students. There are now some 33,000
positions in the over-enrolled courses, of which the government proposes
to fully fund 25,000, leaving a shortfall of 8000 positions.
Mr Robson said that he expected these students to be turned away,
"because the government is not going to fund you for over-enrolments".
These and other obstacles will pose particular difficulties for women
students. As Suzanne Hammond noted, "A woman who intends to spend some
of her working life in part-time employment can expect to pay 23 percent
more for gaining a qualification. Many women may decide that it is just
not worth it! This is a backward step in gaining gender equality".
Gaining a place in a university will be made harder by the new
requirements. Given the operation of the law of supply and demand, it is
expected that the score needed by school students to gain university
entry will rise significantly if the number of available university
places falls.
Solidarity
The president of the National Union of students, Daniel Kyriacou says,
"Students will either miss out on university places or pay dearly if
they get a place under these so-called reforms".
The Council of Postgraduate Associations has said its members will walk
off the universities in support of the university employees' strike, and
the National Union of Students is considering doing the same thing.
Howard's new Minister for Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews has
indicated that he will retain the policies imposed by his predecessor,
Tony Abbott. The stage is set for a major showdown on October 16.
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