It’s enterprise bargaining time at SCU and the campus branch of the NTEU wants protections on workloads

The National Tertiary Education Union’s log of claims includes protections for professional staff as a result of organisational change. As for academics, the comrades are keen to protect them from whatever workloads management might have in mind. The union wants hours-linked task caps and “clear and accurate characterisation of all work functions” into teaching, service or research allocations.

Plus, the academic work framework, “must be endorsed by a majority of academic staff.” Perhaps this is because a swag of staff do not trust management.

In April 60 staff wrote to then chancellor Nick Burton Taylor warning that management’s new EFTS based model would increase workloads by up to 60 per cent on the old allocation by hours. They appealed to Mr Burton Taylor, “because our communications with SCU management, containing detailed documented specific examples … are not being listened to or acted upon, (CMM April 6).  To which management replied, it “continues to consider opportunities for refinement, assisted by constructive feedback from many staff,” (CMM April 19 and May 6).

It appears the union is not convinced.