University of Sydney staff say USyd Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Annamarie Jagose has failed to answer key concerns over academic work allocation, and the proposed annual renegotiation of academic contracts.
The current model ensures academic staff on standard contracts are allocated a workload which assigns 40 per cent to teaching, 40 per cent to research, and 20 per cent to administration activities. The model is referred to as the 40/40/20 model.
In August last year, management’s outline of USyd’s new Enterprise Agreement (EA) proposal said it would be modifying this current 40/40/20 model.
According to management, the new approach would allocate “academic work based on the needs of the University and an academic’s skills, competence, expertise, outputs and interests”.
However, with casual staff currently making up 52% of the workforce at USyd, and the series of claims of wage theft and underpayment at the university, staff are questioning if the proposals to adjust the academic model of teaching will improve working conditions.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) staff have takenstrike action at USyd for six days this year in a bid to fight for the preservation of 40/40/20, demand back pay for stolen wages, conversion rights, a pay rise above inflation and increasing the number of First Nations academics.
Strikers at Sydney University are demanding better working conditions. Photo: Christine Lai.
In the context of ongoing enterprise bargaining negotiations between the NTEU and USyd management, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Jagose has not engaged with the University of Sydney Association of Professors (USAP) regarding their concerns about the renegotiation of academic work allocation in staff’s contracts.
The USAP Council initially reached out to Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott to raise concerns with the research and teaching proposals that would leave academic staff more vulnerable and exploited, but were redirected to send their input to a separate email contact point. The USAP received no response from this other contact for two months.
A section from the email by USAP reads:
“USAP believes that the proposals are in fact detrimental to the effectiveness and sustainability of the University, as well as to the spirit of collegiality…
“If the new Federal Government does not significantly increase University funding, the University is likely to continue to be reliant financially on international student fees and hence on its ability to attract international students to study here…
USAP, therefore, urges the current University Management to abandon its proposals on academic work allocation.”
In August, Jagose refuted these claims, asserting that USyd has “one of the most restrictive academic workload allocation clauses in Australia”, and “this combined with changing funding and legislative arrangements contribute to reliance on casual staff to meet our teaching load.”
She described the model as a “rigid workload allocation” and failed to address the concern USAP raised regarding the policy that would require annual renegotiation of academic work allocations.
USyd Management withdraws from communication with USAP
Physical Chemistry Associate Professor Ronald Clarke criticised Jagose’s back-and-forth email correspondence which “did not address our concerns” and her decision to stop all communication with the USAP council in the “interests of bargaining in good faith”.
“By stating openly that strikes will have no effect on Management’s policies, basically she’s saying that she’s not interested in the opinions of staff members: now she refuses to talk to the USAP, and is ignoring the opinions of the professors, so who is she listening to?” Clarke asked.
Physical Chemistry Associate Professor Ronald Clarke. Photo: University of Sydney.
Clarke expressed disappointment in Jagose’s decision to withdraw from communicating with the USAP Council and emphasised the importance of defending the working conditions of academic staff as well as the quality of education and research across the university.
On Monday October 24, USyd NTEU members were notified that the vote to take stop work industrial action in week 13 was called off due to Australia’s anti-union laws. The meeting will now be a “one-hour general members’ meeting that will not count as industrial action”.
The Vice Chancellor and the Provost held an all-staff online session the following day to discuss the state of enterprise bargaining.
“At that session the VC and Provost again failed to present any valid arguments for annual renegotiation of academic contracts” Clarke said.
“On being asked what was wrong with the current system, where staff already have the possibility of requesting a change in weighting of their work allocation between research, teaching and admin, the Provost admitted openly that there was no evidence that there was anything wrong with the current procedure.”
USAP Council members will be meeting with the Vice Chancellor on November 16 to continue raising concerns about the annual renegotiation of academic contracts.
USAP Council feel communication with management has been dismal. Photo: The University of Sydney.
When City Hub reached out to Jagose with questions, we were informed she was on leave and received responses from a University of Sydney spokesperson.
The spokesperson responded to questions about staff frustration with communication, saying “our employees have nominated the NTEU and the CPSU as their bargaining representatives, and so we are obliged to liaise directly with the unions on bargaining matters.”
“We are updating all staff members on where bargaining is up to on a fortnightly basis and USAP is free to engage in the process like all other staff members through the dedicated email address and other staff forums.”
In regards to the proposed changes to the 40/40/20 model, the spokesperson said “we believe that research and teaching excellence must be valued and rewarded equally.One of the aspirations in our 2032 Strategy is to deliver a student experience that is transformational”.
“To do that, we need to be able to recruit and retain academic staff who excel at teaching, and so are seeking the flexibility to allocate a different workload after consultation with the staff member. We currently have one of the most rigid Enterprise Agreements in Australia when it comes to academic workload allocations, and this change would bring us in line with other universities in Australia and overseas. ”
The enterprise bargaining period between NTEU staff and USyd management has persisted for 16 months, with key demands yet to be met.
