News

Thursday, 23 May 2019

UNSW – New Professional Staff Enterprise Agreement Approved


UNSW – New Professional Staff Enterprise Agreement Approved – May 2019 (PDF version)

As you know, bargaining for your new Professional Staff Enterprise Agreement occurred through much of 2018, and your representatives finally reached agreement with the University in September. Following a strong 88 per cent YES vote, we submitted the document to the Fair Work Commission for approval in October.

We are pleased to say that the Commission has finally approved your new Agreement, and it will come into force on 28 May. A copy is attached HERE for you.

CPSU NSW has secured the following improvements for Professional Staff:

  • An average pay rise of two per cent per annum, frontloaded to make up for the delay since the last pay rise, and to ensure maximum benefit of compounding over the life of the Agreement.

The first two per cent was paid in October 2018 when you voted to accept the new Agreement.

The next two per cent pay rise will be paid in the first full pay period after 1 July 2019.

  • Retention of a separate Agreement for Professional Staff
  • Superannuation:
    • 17 per cent Superannuation for all fixed-term staff from the first full pay period of 2021.
    • Staff who are members of a defined benefits super scheme, and who elect to be redeployed to a lower lever as a result of a restructure will have their employer contributions paid at the higher rate for an additional 12 months on top of the existing 12 months’ salary maintenance open to all staff.
  • Nominal expiry date of 31 December 2021
  • Extended Redeployment period for staff seeking to stay at UNSW rather than take redundancy:
    • Open to all staff with at least five years of service
    • Allows staff to elect to be in the redeployment pool for up to 20 weeks (double the current entitlement). In exchange for the additional weeks, affected staff must forego four weeks of severance pay.
  • 20 days of paid Domestic Violence Leave
  • Improvements to the current Parental Leave entitlement, including expanding Maternity Leave to Primary Carer’s Leave, and access to 14 weeks of paid Maternity leave if the pregnancy is terminated after 20 weeks or more
  • A reduction in the qualifying period for conversion from fixed-term to ongoing employment (previously three years, now two).
  • Staff who are on a flex scheme can now access Overtime rates/payments if they are directed to work outside of the span of hours
  • Flex Leave- Staff will be able to collectively request a single flex arrangement to cover an entire work area (rather than having to negotiate one-on-one). Refusal can only be on “reasonable business grounds”. Where an application is refused, written reasons for the decision must be given.
  • Performance Management: need to actually advise you that you are being performance managed, removed ambiguity, cannot use retrospectively

A big thank you to all of the CPSU NSW members; this result shows how strong we can be when we stand together to defend and enhance our working conditions.