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Have your say on the Charles Sturt University pitch for a new Enterprise Agreement

Have your say on the Charles Sturt University pitch for a new Enterprise Agreement – July 2018 (PDF version)

As members will be aware, Charles Sturt University has proposed a new 4.75 year enterprise agreement.

Key features of the agreement include:

Salary Offer

Year 1 – a salary uplift of $500 across all classification and hierarchal levels, plus a two per cent salary increase

Year 2 – a 1.8 per cent salary increase

Year 3 – a 1.8 per cent salary increase

Year 4 – a salary uplift of $500 across all classification and hierarchal levels, plus a 2.1 per cent salary increase

In addition, please note the following new aspects of the salary offer (subject to staff voting in favour of the new EA):

• Half of the salary increase for Year 1 will be backdated to commence from 1 January 2018;
• The other half of the Year 1 increase will be payable from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 September 2018;
• The pay increases in the subsequent years will also be payable from September, thus bringing the payments forward by four months from the previous payment month of December;
• The two $500 salary uplift payments in the nominated years will be applied first, so that the percentage increase is then applied to the higher base salary;
• End date of 30 September 2021.

Conditions

• Access 15 days of paid leave for victims of domestic violence, with an additional five days available on application to HR
• Improved access parental leave allowing employees a second period of 26 weeks paid parental leave 12 months after returning to work from previous period of parental leave
• 17 per cent superannuation for all continuing and fixed term staff (commencing in the final year of the agreement)
• Improved flexitime with staff able to accrue positive or negative balances of up to 14 hours during a settlement without prior approval. Staff may also apply to have balances in excess of 35 hours paid-out
• Improvements to casual student to 70 per cent for level 1 and 80 percent for level 2
• Simplified 4 category matrix for exam supervisors and assistants (currently 11 categories)
• Additional one-day concessional for bank holiday during the closedown period
• Improved redeployment for displaced staff, up from two to four months
• Enhanced casual conversion arrangements for professional staff.

CPSU NSW Bargaining Team analysis

The package of employment conditions offered by CSU certainly improves on the current agreement and maintains the university’s standing as an employer of choice in regional NSW.

Unfortunately the pay offer is somewhat below the two per cent per annum across the board minimum the bargaining team set as a bottom line and, as such, we cannot endorse it.

Recent inflation figures show the Consumer Price Index tracking at 2.1 per cent, with basic necessities such as electricity (increases of up to 20 per cent year on year), health care (up 3.4 per cent), education (up 2.7 per cent), fuel (up 6.9 per cent) all putting pressure on household incomes.

While we appreciate that CSU, as with the rest of the sector, is under considerable financial pressure (due principally to the LNP’s funding freeze), the university’s pay offer places it at the lower end of outcomes across the sector. Click HERE for further detail.

Have your say

As a democratic union, we let our members decide whether to endorse of reject any settlement offer made by an employer during a bargaining process.

If a majority of members vote YES to endorse the package, we’ll advise CSU accordingly and campaign in favour of the agreement when it’s put to a ballot of all staff.

If a majority vote NO to reject the offer, then we’ll advise the CSU the agreement doesn’t have the CPSU NSW’s support.

For those members who intend to vote NO and reject CSU’s offer, we’re also asking you to indicate whether you’ll support taking industrial action (such as going on strike).

We believe that after nearly two years of negotiation the only way we’re likely to improve the outcome is if members are prepared to take action. We have discussed this possibility with the NTEU which has advised us it remains open to this course of action.

Click HERE to access our confidential member only poll: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CSUEBAOFFER

The poll closes at 12:00pm on Thursday, 2 August 2018.

United we Bargain, Divided we Beg!!