MEDIA STATEMENT

16 September 2009

Whitireia Response to TEU Industrial Action

Six of New Zealand’s tertiary education institutions remain open and are adamant there will be minimal disruption to students despite the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) members taking industrial action.

The group, made up of Wintec, Unitec, Northtec, Western Institute of Technology, Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, have action plans and procedures in place to help students cope with the industrial action.

“Our primary focus at the moment is to ensure that there is as little disruption as possible to our students and their studies,” says group spokesperson, Dr Rick Ede.

Students have been informed via their emails, student noticeboards and student services of the industrial action and what they can do in regards to their classes being cancelled, says Dr Ede.

He says industrial action is not the answer to solving the issues and would like to see a resolution sooner rather than later to avoid further disruptions to students.

“We have been open to negotiating in good faith from the outset so to hear of talks of industrial action is very unfortunate.  We had hoped that this could be avoided.”

CEO of Whitireia Community Polytechnic Don Campbell advised today that “Whitireia Community Polytechnic is open and all classes are either running or have contingency plans in place. Students need not stay away as they will continue to be educated despite this regrettable strike action taken without any notice of the intention to strike on this particular day.”

He further noted that “significantly fewer than half of our academic staff of 250 are members of TEU and not all will be joining the strike due to their commitment to students. The average salary of TEU staff at Whitireia is $62,694 with 11 weeks leave a year. They are currently seeking a 4.5% increase for each of the next two years which is unrealistic given the financial and economic crisis our sector and country are facing”.
 
Talks over the new multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) broke down in July after the TEU decided to discontinue with negotiations beyond the employer group’s opening offer.

The six tertiary providers are still hopeful of agreeing to terms for a new agreement with the TEU and have sought to re-open communication with the TEU.

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