Tertiary Update Vol 15 No 34 - The Duty to Conclude

Removing Legal Duty To Conclude Could End Collective Agreements

A government proposal to remove the duty on employers to conclude bargaining might sound like a minor matter but it is vitally important, according to TEU president-elect Lesley Francey. “The result will be more people on individual employment agreements against their will. They will have less bargaining power and lower wages and salaries.”
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No Evidence To Support Employment Law Changes
The Department of Labour is warning the government’s employment law changes will reduce choice for unions and employees and may expose New Zealand to critical international scrutiny over its international labour obligations.
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Charter schools forums at Unis
New Zealand’s public universities are letting big business and overseas political lobbyists dupe them into endorsing bad education policy, says TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs.
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$31 million public money spent on advertising
Figures supplied to the Otago Daily Times by the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) show New Zealand’s public tertiary institutions spent $31 million on advertising last year.
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Quebec: New govt to scrap tuition fee increases and anti-protest bill
After six months of protests against Premier Jean Charest’s 75 percent tuition hike and anti-assembly Law 12, Quebec’s citizens marched to the polls to oust Charest’s Liberal party and install Pauline Marois and her separatist Parti Quebecois. Pauline Marois surprised many who were skeptical of her support for students with her first ministerial decrees, promising to cancel the tuition hike, repeal Law 12 and hold a summit to renegotiate education financing.
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Other news
The matter between the Tertiary Education Union and the Vice Chancellor regarding his breach of the Academic Collective Agreement will go to mediation under the auspices of the Employment Authority. The date is set for next Wednesday 3 October. A team including the union's solicitor, members who were involved in the facilitated bargaining last year, organisers, and the branch co-president Paul Taillon will represent the TEU members - TEU Auckland Branch
“In summary, then, TEC proposes to publish information about your performance in 2010 and 2011, and make decisions for future funding, on the basis of a method that seems was not to have been notified until September 2012. The scary thing, though, is that TEC has not published a Youth Guarantee Handbook for 2012 and has yet to finalise how 2012 performance will be measured.” - Richard Hamilton-Williams via ED Blog

Māori Into Tertiary Education project leader Maria Paenga thinks the University of Auckland’s move from Glen Innes to Newmarket is a move in the wrong direction. Her research indicates that to raise education levels among Māori it is important that tertiary institutions are located in the communities where there is a need. She says Glen Innes has one of the highest levels of unemployment and educational underachievement in Auckland - East and Bays Courier
TAFE staff were on strike last week to demonstrate their opposition to unparalleled funding cutbacks totalling almost $300 million imposed by the Victorian State Government. A recent leaked cabinet paper summarising so called “TAFE transition plans” has incited outrage. The plans show that campuses will close, TAFE institutes will merge, at least two thousand staff will be sacked, students will pay higher fees and TAFE institutes will cut provision or close down courses - The Conversation

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