Tertiary Update Vol 16 No 26 - University councils face threat to democracy

Tertiary Update is our weekly bulletin about news in the tertiary education sector from the perspective of people working in the sector. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. University councils face threat to democracy The government is planning a coup to overthrow local democratic university and wānanga councils says TEU national president Lesley Francey. [Read more…] University bargaining underway around country Employment negotiations are underway in several universities around the country including the University of Auckland, AUT and Massey where TEU members have all already met with employer representatives, and Lincoln where members are finalising claims to present to their employer. [Read more…] CTU investigates widespread insecure work Employers' extensive use of fixed-term agreements, contracting out core jobs, and insecure employment agreements mean tens of thousands of New Zealanders now have precarious jobs with reduced employment protections, says Peter Conway, the Council of Trade Unions' secretary. [Read more…] Lesley Francey: Union ends 'nasty' roll-over agreements These days Lesley Francey is national president of her union, but 14 years ago she was a beginning teacher on a casual agreement at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). She began teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in night classes for four hours a week. [Read more…] TEU Waikato lobbies to save books from scrapheap "If there is one thing that upsets people working in universities it is seeing good books being thrown away," said a shocked union member at Waikato University, upon learning the university is scrap-heaping large numbers of books. [Read more…] Stats show govt picking on teachers and tutors "Tens of thousands of education professionals see their pay stagnate because the government will not invest to pay them properly. The government wants to cut its costs and send a message to other employers to do the same. The people who suffer are the professional people who look after our students all around the country," says Lesley Francey. [Read more…] Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Other news New Zealand's largest Crown Research Institute AgResearch plans to move 215 positions to Lincoln Centre in Canterbury and about 45 to Grasslands in Palmerston North. The institute wants to shift 180 staff from its facility in Ruakura in Hamilton and about 85 from the Invermay site in Dunedin, though some staff will stay at both centres - Radio NZ Australian National Tertiary Education Union members celebrate their union's 20th birthday with a message about the upcoming election - Youtube A consultation document seeking feedback on potential changes to the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) is expected in August 2013. This will provide an opportunity for views from a wide range of stakeholders to be considered. The timeframe for public consultation has been moved back from the previously planned date in June. This has been done to allow more time for the sector to provide feedback. - Steven Joyce More than one million British workers could be employed on zero-hours contracts. A string of organisations - from retail chains to Buckingham Palace - have faced criticism for hiring staff but offering no guarantee of work and pay each week. Employees on zero-hours contracts often get no holiday or sick pay and have to ask permission before seeking additional work elsewhere - The Guardian  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 New Zealand License.  2013 Tertiary Education Union  You are receiving this email either because you are a financial member of TEU and we have added you to our mailing list, or because we have a record of you previously opting to add yourself to our mailing list. Our mailing address is: Tertiary Education Union PO Box 11 767 Wellington, Wellington 6142 New Zealand Add us to your address book  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences