News Flash

The Enterprise Agreements from University of South Australia and University of Adelaide have been approved by Fair Work Australia and both Agreements are now effective.

Voting for the Flinders University ballot closed on Monday 4 April. Unfortunately there was a technical fault with the voting software which resulted in no votes being recorded. Therefore there was no result from the ballot and the Returning Officer had no option but to declare the vote “null and void”. A new minimum 7 day “access period” commenced on 6 April and will run until 9 am Friday 15 April. The new ballot will now commence at approximately 11 am on Friday 15 April 2011 and will close on Wednesday 20 April 2011 at 5.00 pm.

Despite this set back this is an excellent Agreement and members are urged to vote YES.

Please do not hesitate to contact PSA Industrial Officer, Margaret Warner to ask questions or seek further information about any aspect of the proposed Agreement or approval process.

These extremely protracted negotiations have been different at the three South Australian universities and have been conducted with various degrees of difficulty. The CPSU would like to thank all members for their support. Without the support of members we would not have been able to achieve excellent Agreements that provide substantial entitlements and protections for all staff employed at the universities. Of course all staff whether they are members of a union or not will receive the benefit from the new agreements. Perhaps now is the time to remind work colleagues who are not members that it was the strength of the unions involved that have brought about the improved pay and employment conditions.

CPSU would encourage you to become familiar with the new Agreement to ensure these improvements are adopted in your work area. It has been a difficult bargaining round but we now have, according to Commissioner Steel in the hearing before Fair Work Australia when referring to the University of South Australia Agreement, “a very comprehensive, a very competent document”, as is the case with the other two universities.

We now move forward with excellent Agreements that provide substantial entitlements and protections for university staff.

CPSU THE UNION NEGOTIATING ON BEHALF OF PROFESSIONAL/ GENERAL STAFF IN UNIVERSITIES

13 April 2011