Weltec was required at the time to disclose in its Annual Report that the metro polytechnics’ fee to Saunders Unsworth ($33,000) because the institution’s government appointed chairperson, Roger Sowry, is also a partner at Saunders Unsworth. Mr Sowry is also the government appointed chairperson at Whitireia polytechnic and a former National Party minister.

If passed, the new bill will set up a register of lobbyists and a lobbying code of ethics. It is modelled on a public disclosure regime used in Canada.

The register will require any paid lobbyists acting on behalf of a third party for the purposes of lobbying government or representatives to be on a register of lobbyists, and to comply with its provision. Failure to register would be an offence.

Returns of lobbying activity will be filed with the Auditor-General and will disclose who is undertaking lobbying activity, who is being lobbied and what they are being lobbied about. It will be an offence to engage in lobbying activity and to not file returns with the Auditor-General.

TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey says it is disturbing that large public tertiary education institutions currently spend tens of thousands of dollars of public money so that a private lobbyist can get them access to the minister of tertiary education.

“Changing the law to shine some light on who is engaging private lobbyists is important as it would show how tertiary institutions, among other publicly-funded institutions, are attempting to buy power and influence.”

After TEU members at Weltec took a lightning strike across Weltec’s three campuses (Petone, Wellington and Auckland) earlier this week the union’s bargaining team was able to meet with the polytechnic’s chief executive. Because of those discussions, TEU members have suspended the threat of further strikes or other industrial action now for the rest of the week, and are hopeful that they will be back negotiating formally soon.

Before the strike on Monday Weltec employers wanted to increase staff weekly duty hours, remove all discretionary leave from new staff and tell existing staff how they can use their discretionary leave as well as claim the flexibility to require staff to work any hours between 7.00 am and 9.30 pm Monday to Sunday.

TEU organiser Phil Dyhrberg said the existing employment conditions are working well for Weltec and he is hopeful now that the two sides can reach a positive agreement.

“Last year Weltec had a surplus of $3.6 million. It got more revenue both from government and from other sources. It grew its asset base by $5 million. So there seems little financial reason for staff working longer working hours, the possibility of working late into the evening on Sundays, or less say for staff over how they use their leave.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. SIT academics retain core working conditions
2. Canterbury’s international student numbers slump
3. More investment needed in Canterbury University
4. Ten new trades academies

Other news

TEU’s boycott of Courses and Careers Day at the University of Auckland was averted in last minute negotiations after the university’s vice-chancellor agreed not to oppose an application by the union for facilitation by the Employment Relations Authority. Up until that point, the vice-chancellor had been opposed to facilitation, thereby slowing the negotiation process down.

New Zealand secondary schools are quietly being redesigned in a way that could make them dramatically more relevant to young people who are not heading towards university – New Zealand Herald

Yes, the public has a right to information about how public institutions are performing, but that information shouldn’t be stripped of meaning and context just so people can absorb it quickly and easily. That is unfair on the universities being ranked, and it is unfair on people who want a fuller understanding of how they are performing – Manawatu Standard

A further 50,000 people who live overseas and owe money on their student loans are going to be targeted by the Government. Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce says a target programme aimed at 1000 debt holders in Australia and has netted more $4.7 million in debt repayments. The programme will be extended to cover not only people in Australia, but also Britain – Radio NZ

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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.

The polytechnic wants to increase staff weekly duty hours, remove all discretionary leave from new staff and tell existing staff how they can use their discretionary leave as well as claim the flexibility to require staff to work any hours between 7.00 am and 9.30 pm Monday to Sunday.

“Weltec is doing well very with its current staff and current employment conditions,” said Phil Dyhrberg, TEU organiser. “Last year Weltec had a surplus of 3.6 million. It got more revenue both from government and from other sources. It grew its asset base by $5 million. But when it comes to staff it wants longer working hours, the possibility of working late into the evening on Sundays, and less say for staff over how they use their leave.”

“All this means more workload for staff who are already working efficiently and doing a good job,” Said Mr Dyhrberg.

For more information:

Phil Dyhrberg, TEU organiser, 027 430 0564

Stephen Day, TEU communications officer, 021 2900 734 or 04 801 4792

http://www.teu.ac.nz

The University of Canterbury has reached the midpoint of its three-year collective agreement and is negotiating to make variations to that collective agreement on issues not involving pay or money. The university has agreed to TEU claims to extend coverage to a larger group of general staff. It seems likely that the CPI adjusted pay rise for TEU members at the university will be five percent. (TEU members agreed that their pay rise for the second and third years of their three-year collective agreement would be based on CPI.)

TEU members at CPIT are disappointed by claims from their employer to ‘buy’ their discretionary leave and their workload limit on duty weeks off them with an offer of 4 percent and 2 percent over two years. Negotiations are continuing there.

TEU members at Weltec are also facing claims to remove their discretionary leave. Their employer wants to phase out discretionary leave by 2014, remove it entirely from all new staff employed before 2014 and, remove quarterly timetabled teaching hour limits and some entitlements to professional development. In return, Weltec is offering its TEU members 1.5 and 1.5 percent for two years. Staff are discussing, among other things, whether to take industrial action in response to the employer’s offer.

Academics at the University of Auckland have all been moved onto individual agreements on 30 June after their collective agreement expired over a year ago. Those 954 members will now be meeting on Wednesday 27 July to consider their employer’s latest offer and the TEU’s counter offer, and to decide whether to send the employer’s offer to ratification. In the meantime, industrial action and picketing continues at the university.

Negotiations are also underway or about to start at NMIT and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Massey University and Auckland University of Technology. TEU has initiated for its first ever allied (general) staff collective agreement at AUT.

Saunders Unsworth lists among its past and present clients Massey University, Otago University, the Metro Polytechnics, Victoria University of Wellington, and the Industry Training Federation.

Weltec was recently required to disclose the Metro Polytechnics’ fee to Saunders Unsworth ($33,000) in its Annual Report because its government appointed chairperson, Roger Sowry, is also a partner at Saunders Unsworth. Mr Sowry is also the government appointed chairperson at Whitireia polytechnic and a former National Party minister.

Tertiary Update wrote to the Minister of Tertiary Education asking if he believes it is necessary for publicly funded tertiary education institutions to engage the services of a private lobbying agency such as Saunders Unsworth in order to share their views with him as their relevant minister. We also asked if he believes that publicly funded tertiary education institutions that hire a private lobbying company get any better access to him as a minister, or more influence than other tertiary institutions that do not employ such an agency?

A spokesperson from Steven Joyce’s office replied that the Minister meets with a wide range of stakeholders.

“While tertiary institutions receive government funding for student places, they are autonomous organisations who make their own financial decisions.”

Thanks to KMar Tsai @ Flickr for the image http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmar/2436892584/

Ironically, in the last year, a number of polytechnics around New Zealand have made electrical engineering tutors redundant including NorthTec, MIT, Weltec and SIT.

“We can’t quantify the inevitable spike in demand for cablers and cable-jointers until start hiring and training,” ETITO corporate relations manager Michael Frampton told the New Zealand Herald, “but certainly anecdotal feedback from training providers indicates that the industry is very much relying on its ability to train people quickly when the demand presents.”

However, Communications Minister Steven Joyce said there was no immediate skill shortage and funding for more training could be made available by the Tertiary Education Commission if required.

The ultra-fast broadband scheme and rural broadband initiative are to be rolled out over the next eight years and will need to be built and upgraded by engineers with a specialised knowledge of fibre optic cables.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little is concerned that without an adequate supply of trained workers Telecom through its maintenance arm Chorus will recruit cheap, foreign labour to build its planned fibre optic networks. Chorus has won the first contracts to build the networks.

“This kind of project is a great opportunity to create jobs for New Zealand workers and invest in our local skills base”, said Mr Little. “Any sensible government would want to make sure that this expertise stays in New Zealand.”

Telecom’s lines arm, Chorus, will build most of the network but refused to tell the New Zealand Herald if it had enough skilled workers to roll out the fibre cables.

Thanks to Dan Chace @ Flickr for the photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebraman/430328206/in/photostream/

However, Roger Sowry, who is already chair of both polytechnic councils, says that the two institutions are not merging, but operating as a strategic partnership.

“This journey started with Weltec and Whitireia exploring a range of options for working more closely together to benefit students, the community and industry, and to support the economic development of the Wellington region,” Mr Sowry said.

Mr Sowry says that this strategic partnership includes the establishment of a common Academic Board and a Shared Services Centre to provide infrastructure and support services (like information technology, enrolment, payroll and libraries) for the two Institutions.

Mr Sowry told Newswire that the proposal may save $2 million a year, and will mean some overlapping courses will be “rationalised”.

Each Institution will however continue to be managed by their own chief executives and executive teams. The two polytechnics are now seeking feedback on the proposal and will be consulting until 31 July. The consultation document and feedback form is available on Weltec and Whitireia’s websites or by calling the institutions.

TEU National President Dr Sandra Grey says that TEU will be making sure staff voices are heard during the consultation process.

“The Greater Wellington region is actually a number of distinct but large communities, including the Porirua basin and the Hutt Valley which Whitireia and Weltec have successfully served for decades. We are not opposing change but one of the most important outcomes in this not-quite-merger is that the needs of those two individual local communities are respected. It would be a shame if in the drive for what Mr Sowry refers to as a ‘one-stop shop for industry’ local people in their local communities lost their local polytechnics.”

However, one staff member who previously offered to teach at the prison recently changed his mind and no longer wants to work in that environment. Weltec however, despite its current agreement with TEU, is requiring that the tutor continue to teach at the prison. It seems that he is ‘locked in’ to an agreement.

Thanks to Leonard Chien @ Flickr for the photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/leonardchien/3423035567/

The proposed settlement includes no loss of conditions and a 1.875 percent pay rise for 15 months. (1.875 for 15 months is the equivalent of 1.5 percent annualised for a year.) That pay increase will be backdated to June 2010.

TEU organiser Phil Dyhrberg said the negotiations were difficult and protracted, but members can now focus on the new academic year.

Initially Weltec employers had put forward 15 claims that proposed significant changes to employees’ hours of work

The two sides have agreed instead to a working party that will look to enhance productivity across the entire institute rather than just through the collective employment agreement.

Mr Dyhrberg says TEU members are eager to begin work on this working party but that Weltec is understandably preoccupied at present with supporting its Christchurch campus through the repercussions of the earthquake.

Weltec’s proposal claim for increased duty hours, in exchange for a 1.5 percent pay rise, would result in up to 55 extra hours of work a year for staff members.

Weltec wants claiming an increase the duty hours in order to boost productivity.  However, Weltec already has one of the highest student-staff ratios in the country; 24 students for each academic staff member.

TEU organiser Phil Dyhrberg said the union has been willing to discuss so-called productivity improvements, including possible changes to duty hours and timetabled teaching hours, but members have already formally rejected the employer’s arbitrary increase of duty hours.

The ballot on industrial action will close at 4pm today.

“I think it is regrettable, given members’ willingness to negotiate on these matters, that Weltec is insisting on attacking core conditions.  TEU members are already angry about the manner in whichtrade tutors were recently laid off at the polytechnic,” said Mr Dyhrberg.