Thursday, 20 October 2022
CPSU NSW Members vote to endorse SCU Enterprise Agreement 2021
Following 14 months of vigorous negotiations, members of the CPSU NSW at Southern Cross University have today voted unanimously to endorse the proposed Southern Cross University Enterprise Agreement 2021.
On behalf of members – and ultimately all professional staff at Southern Cross University – the CPSU NSW bargaining team successfully advocated for improvements to employment conditions that are now a feature of the draft SCU Enterprise Agreement 2021 distributed by the University’s Workplace Relations team today.
In particular, we would like to highlight the following conditions are a result of the advocacy and negotiation efforts of the CPSU NSW bargaining team:
- Removal of arbitrary categories of employment – until now this had been leading to increased levels of casualisation and restricted employees’ ability to seek conversion to ongoing employment
- Improved conversion rights from fixed term to ongoing employment, where the presumption is that conversion will be approved subject to operational, financial or performance requirements
- NEW Superannuation on unpaid parental leave: a payment, equivalent to up to six months superannuation entitlements at your ordinary rate of pay, for employees who take an additional period of unpaid primary carers leave follow paid primary carers leave
- An increase in leave provisions for employees who experience late pregnancy miscarriage, still birth or perinatal death – from 6 weeks to 12 weeks paid leave
- NEW Recognition that employees can access compassionate leave for early pregnancy miscarriage, or where their partner experiences early pregnancy miscarriage (3 days paid leave per instance)
- NEW Insertion of a clause which mandates formal consultation processes in any change that is likely to result in two or more employees being retrenched
- NEW Insertion of a clause which requires the University to genuinely consider redeployment before deciding to make a position redundant
CPSU NSW is satisfied with the University’s proposed salary increases in a range of 9 per cent to 10.5 per cent across three years. We believe it is a fair increase, given the University is obliged to balance its own challenging financial situation while recognising the increased cost of living in the regions that we live and work.
Professional staff play a vital role in supporting Southern Cross University’s teaching, research and community engagement priorities. The proposed SCU Enterprise Agreement 2021 supports professional staff to do their jobs well.
