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After nine months of negotiations, the university and the National Tertiary Education Union Monash branch have reached an in-principle enterprise agreement.
Deputy vice-chancellor and convenor of the central bargaining unit Professor Alan Lindsay said the agreement is a good outcome for both the university and staff.
"It provides an improved working environment at Monash that will strengthen the university's capacity to respond to new challenges and opportunities," Professor Lindsay added.
Ms Cathy Caruso, division secretary, Victorian division of the NTEU, agrees that this is a very good agreement for Monash University staff, and in the area of salaries and job security is comparable to agreements reached elsewhere.
The provisional document, signed last Friday, provides for salary increases totaling 12.75% over the life of the agreement, due to run to the end of June 2003.
Job security will be increased through special provisions, which commit the university to maintaining the overall size of the workforce and avoiding redundancies if at all possible.
The university has committed to maintaining superannuation entitlements for existing staff, whilst at the same time providing the same level of benefits for new staff employed during the life of the agreement.
Staff currently employed on a fixed term basis will be entitled to convert to a continuing appointment upon satisfying agreed criteria.
As well, there is provision for a performance management scheme for general staff.
To regulate employment at Monash for all academic and general staff, all award conditions will be incorporated into a single complete agreement.
The university and the NTEU will work over the next few months to finalise details of the agreement. The document will then be presented to staff for endorsement before it is submitted to the industrial relations commission for ratification.
Regular updates on progress will be provided to staff over the next few months.
Further information on the Enterprise Bargaining negotiations can be found at www.monash.edu.au/personnel/eb_atmonash.htm
Following the signing of the Enterprise Bargaining agreement last week are, from left, Employee Relations and Consultancy manager Mr Andrew Picouleau, NTEU Victorian division secretary Ms Cathy Caruso, deputy vice-chancellor and Central Bargaining Unit convenor Professor Alan Lindsay, and NTEU Monash branch president Ms Dale Halstead.
Your research and consultancies and the GSTThe Financial Services GST Project Team has been busy visiting faculties to update deans and department heads on the effects of the GST on research and consultancies. According to the project team, the new tax has the potential to cost research and consultancies much more than it should, unless staff are fully aware of what is required under the new system. Academic and research staff need to be aware that 10 per cent GST must be included in all applications for research grants and consultancies conducted in Australia after 1 July 2000. If the GST is not included in the grant application form or in the consultancy contract, the university will be obliged by law to remit 1/11th of the total grant or consultancy funding to the Australian Taxation Office. Staff will not be able to recover the GST that should have been levied on the granting body or organisation for which the consultancy was undertaken, if the displayed price quoted did not include the GST. Charging GST to granting bodies or organisations with which the university undertakes consulting activities does not mean that all organisations will have 10 per cent less to provide for academic research and consultancies. Providing the granting body is registered for GST, has an Australian Business Number and Monash provides it with an appropriate tax invoice, it will be able to claim back the GST from the Australian Tax Office. Mr Phil Wheatland, GST Project Team leader, said many of the research funding bodies have provided application forms which do not yet include fields to itemise the request for GST. "The university's Research Grants and Ethics Branch are monitoring this carefully and are amending any grant applications to include 10 per cent GST," he said. All grant applications must be submitted through the Research Grants and Ethics Branch to ensure the goods and services tax clauses are correct on all applications and academic and research staff are not disadvantaged. Further information on how the GST will affect research and consultancies can be found at www.monash.edu.au/finserv/Taxation/GST/faculty_issues.html#large An official Monash University accounts receivable invoice, which will be fully GST-compliant, must be used to request payment of all Monash grants and consultancies in future. There can no longer be any direct payments without the issue of an official Monash invoice. New invoice books will be issued in June. The transitional procedures to be followed up until 30 June can be found at www.monash.edu.au/finserv/Taxation/GST/gst_sap_proc.html#Detailed Articles in next week's Monash Memo will cover the issues of private consultancies and 'When is a dollar in your fund not equal to a dollar?'. |
A pilot workshop held recently on the Gippsland campus, 'Learning the value of humour and creativity in the workplace', included a clowning workshop. Participants were, from left, Ms Noorma Ismail, Ms Liddy White, co-presenter of the workshop Ms Brenda Burney, Ms Chris Body, Ms Rhonda Curtis, Ms Cheryl Harper, Ms Jenny Vandersteen and Ms Maria Bradford, with workshop presenter Ms Jenny Ramage.
Photo by Lisa Pawlicka
Items
of interest from Council,
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All Monash academic and general staff are being asked to complete an online staff questionnaire. The survey will assist in determining the breadth and depth of expertise in the university.
The information sought by the questionnaire addresses issues arising from legislative requirements for information not collected by current Monash systems, as well as the need to collect additional information to meet requirements arising from Leading the Way.
Staff from Budgets branch developed the staff questionnaire, in consulation with staff from Statistical Services and other areas. The questions have been designed to meet the standards of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Education Training and Youth Affairs.
The questionnaire is a one-off exercise, and will take about 10 minutes to complete. Staff information in future years will be maintained using a database, which will be updated via the staff system and will be accessible to staff.
A separate form has been customised for the Malaysian and South African campuses with minor changes to questions on citizenship and country of birth.
See http://bass.adm.monash.edu.au/statistics/sq/sqintro.htm for further details.
The questionnaire is compatible with the university standard browser (Netscape), but for technical reasons will not work with the Microsoft Internet Explorer.
For any queries regarding the questionnaire, contact Statistical Services manager Mr Angelo Calderon at angelo.calderon@adm.monash.edu.au or on extn 56086.
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