TEU Tertiary Update, volume 12, number 29

MINISTERS ACCUSED OF INTERVENING IN ITP NEGOTIATIONS

The Dominion Post reports this morning that state services minister Tony Ryall and tertiary education minister Anne Tolley have been summoning the chief executives of polytechnics that are engaged in employment negotiations to their offices.

Labour Party state services spokesperson, Grant Robertson, says that this breaches state sector pay rules. "I can't conceive of what ‘appropriate discussions’ he (Mr Ryall) could be having over employment matters with a chief executive who is in negotiations. A reasonable person would interpret being hauled to Wellington as a clear instruction from the minister as to the outcome they were expecting."

Section 3.16 of the cabinet manual says that ministers should also take care to ensure that their actions could not be construed as improper intervention in operational, or contractual decisions that are the responsibility of the chief executive, and also that ministers should take care to ensure that their intentions are not misunderstood, and that they do not inappropriately influence officials, or involve themselves in matters that are not their responsibility.

A spokeswoman for Mr Ryall said there had been no directive to the ITP chief executives about employment negotiations. "The ministers are monitoring what's happening across the sector and have appropriate discussions with agencies as responsible ministers should."

The Post reports that sources said the chief executives came away from the meeting with Mr Ryall and Mrs Tolley with a clear understanding that wage settlements should be near zero.

Two ITPs, CPIT and MIT, have already settled at between 2 per cent and 3 per cent and Otago Polytechnic is still in negotiations.

"I thought it was highly unusual. I have never heard of it happening before," Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker said of the call to the August 18 meeting and the discussion about pay talks.

The paper also reports a polytechnic source stating the ministers seemed unaware of the law defining pay talk relationships and the amount of consultation that had already taken place. But Mr Ryall's spokeswoman said ministers were fully aware that wages and conditions were matters for the chief executives.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. Te Ū Māori members hold annual hui
2. Zero percent no longer reasonable
3. Students unprepared for reality of debt
4. Massey’s Bhutanese lose out from ‘tough decision’
5. Israel and academic freedom
6. Gander readies for goose’s medicine

TE Ū MĀORI MEMBERS HOLD ANNUAL HUI

Māori members of TEU have been informally referring to the union as Te Ū for some months now. This name has been incorporated into the official programme of hui-ā-motu this week.

TEU Māori members are gathering today and the next two days for their annual hui-ā-motu of Te Uepū. The theme of the hui is “Purutia Kia Ū, Purutia Kia Mou”. The hui is being held at Te Kuratini Marae, at Massey University’s Wellington campus.

The concept of Te Ū derives from the union’s logo and refers to the two centre koru at the heart of the logo which represent the voices of general staff (left red koru) and academic staff (right gold koru). Combined, they form Te Ū (short for ūkaipō) or the original source of sustenance for humankind. The concept also refers to, the heart, mind, and soul of the union, and its diverse membership, ethnicities, and cultures mutually supporting each other - emotionally, physically, intellectually, and spiritually.

One of the issues the hui is likely to focus upon is the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill, which aims to cut the number of seats on polytechnic councils and thus the number of seats available to Māori. The bill, which was read a first time in parliament this week, and is currently seeking public submissions, was criticised strongly by Māori Party MP Hone Harawira on Tuesday:

“Most polytechnic councils already have Māori representation, and some have dedicated mana whenua seats, such as Tairāwhiti Polytechnic, Whitireia Community Polytechnic, and Waiāriki Institute of Technology, but not NorthTec. Those initiatives should be lauded, not discarded, because they show the value of the relationships between polytechs—and politics—and the communities they serve, and the institutional success that flows from those relationships.”

“If that community viewpoint, including mana whenua, is removed, governance will become simply an extension of central government rather than an exercise in decentralisation and community ownership,” said Mr Harawira. “Central government will be trying to do for the regions what the regions have been doing well for themselves for decades; the nanny State that National so reviled over the last 3 years will be getting steroids when National says it should be getting laxatives.”

ZERO PERCENT NO LONGER REASONABLE

Pressure from government for zero percent pay rises in the public sector should be rejected says TEU deputy secretary Nanette Cormack following recent settlements for the police and metals engineers.

The State Services Commission has agreed to a 2 per cent pay rise for the Police Association's 8500 members. The starting salary for a constable will rise to $51,000.

A few weeks earlier, in the private sector, the influential Metals and Manufacturing Multi Employer Collective Agreement, which covers 2000 workers across 150 firms, also settled with a 2 percent pay rise.

Ms Cormack, who is advocating the nationwide university employment negotiations says that with these settlements in both the public and private sector the government needs to stop telling workers that they should expect zero percent – in effect a pay cut right when times are getting tough.

“University members are seeking only four percent which, with inflation currently at 2 percent, and the low salaries they receive compared to their international peers, is a very modest claim. It doesn’t help to have the government and the State Services Commission muddying the waters by suggesting that workers should accept pay cuts.

The State Services Commissioner has responded to TEU pressure to stop interfering in tertiary education bargaining noting:

“The chief executive [of a TEI] is not required to obtain my agreement to proposed conditions of employment to be included in any collective agreements or for appointees to senior positions in TEIs. Nor am I required to support proposals which in my view are not consistent with the Government's Expectations for Pay and Employment Conditions in the State Sector (the Expectations).”

STUDENTS UNPREPARED FOR REALITY OF DEBT

The Christchurch Press reported this week on a Canterbury University PhD study that shows student’s expectations about student debt are out of step with the reality of tertiary study.

School leavers surveyed in the study estimated their mean student expenditure per year would be $12,209 much less than the actual $19,610. The school pupils expected on average to achieve an annual income as students of $11,974 per year an over-estimation of some $5157. Pupils also underestimated how much debt they would take on by $5633.

The Canterbury University PhD study by Steve Haultain said students were not fully informed about the real costs of taking out a student loan and the options available.

Meanwhile Canterbury University Students' Association president Steve Jukes said people don't really have a concept of debt any more.

"It's treated as being socially acceptable to be in debt and to not be concerned with that. It's a way of life."

An Auckland University of Technology study last year said that while average student debt levels increased by 67 per cent between 1995 and 2004, income levels for first-year graduates increased by only 19 per cent over the same period.

Since their introduction in 1992, student loans have become the largest non-housing debt category for New Zealand households.

Retirement Commissioner Diana Crossan said university students were difficult to reach for financial education.

"It's sort of intriguing to think that you can get a student loan with no advice or support," Crossan said.

MASSEY’S BHUTANESE LOSE OUT FROM ‘TOUGH DECISION’

The Bhutanese community in Palmerston North is pleading with the government not to discontinue several funds worth more than $2 million that helped refugees and migrants learn English and settle in New Zealand.

The Manawatu Standard reports that as a result of the cuts Massey University's Centre for University Preparation and English Language (Cupels) will lose $160,000 worth of funding which means refuges trying to settle in Palmerston North may lose access to English-language training.

Without the Refugee Study Grant they will struggle, said Bal Ghimire, secretary of the Bhutanese community.

"Finding jobs and study are the most difficult areas. We want to appeal to the Government not to stop this funding, this is very very important."

Sixty Bhutanese refugees are expected in Palmerson North over the next year, to join the current 120 refuges who already reside there. Cupels acting director Harry Verhagen said the funding cut would be difficult for Palmerston North's growing refugee community.

"Our loss of funding is tough, but for the refugees it is harder. A lot of them don't have a high level of English, and this is about stair-casing them into university."

Wellington English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Assessment specialist Judi McCallum, who works closely with Palmerston North Refugee Services, said the cuts will impact heavily on refugees.

As permanent residents in New Zealand they can get student loans for university but without bridging courses like those offered by Cupels they would never pass.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said the Government had to make "tough decisions" in tough economic times.

ISRAEL AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Two weeks ago Israeli academic Neve Gordon published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times in which he called Israel an "apartheid state" and called for an international boycott of Israel to push the creation of a Palestinian state. Dr Gordon is the chair of politics at Ben-Gurion University.

Reaction was immediate and intense -- donors (many of them American) threatened to stop giving to Ben-Gurion, and his university's leaders expressed disgust with the piece, with comments suggesting he might want to work elsewhere.

Gordon has tenure and his university acknowledges that he can't be fired over the op-ed. But in a move that stunned and outraged many Israeli academics (including many who disagree with Gordon's analysis), the university also said it was looking for legal ways to discipline him.

Amos Drory, vice president for external affairs of the university, sent out e-mail messages to complaining donors in which he said t he university is currently exploring the legal options available to take disciplinary action.

In the past, when his critical writings have come to the attention of donors or government officials, Gordon said that the response has always been what he would expect: University leaders said that they disagreed with him, but that Gordon spoke for himself and had the right to do so.

"The issue is not about whether they disagree with me," he said. "One of the jobs of the university president is raising money, and she [the university president] has to cater to the people that provide the money, so a strong letter of condemnation of my views would have been fine with me. But there's a difference between saying you disagree with me, and threatening me."

By Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed

GANDER READIES FOR GOOSE’S MEDICINE

Senior management at the University of Canterbury have this week announced a review and restructure of the senior management team.

Well-connected TEU informant Paki Taunuhia understands that some members of the university’s senior management have subsequently been inquiring about the universality of TEU’s no-compulsory-redundancies claim and advocating more rapid progress on employment negotiations.

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TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. You can subscribe to Tertiary Update by email or feed reader. Back issues are available on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: stephen.day@teu.ac.nz

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