Australian National University Enterprise Agreement 2003-2006 (ANUEA 03-06)

Explanatory Notes

This document provides an outline of the key elements of the Enterprise Agreement, which was certified on 2 February 2004, together with links to supplementary information, where it is available.

The ANUEA 03-06 document can be found at http://info.anu.edu.au/hr/Salaries_and_Conditions/Enterprise_Agreement/index.asp

Key Elements of the Enterprise Agreement

The Enterprise Agreement incorporates the following matters:

Salaries (Clause 20 and Schedule 3)

Salary increases of 5% with effect from 20 November 2003, 5.5% from 18 November 2004, and 6% from 17 November 2005. Some categories of University House staff members recieved a once-off bonus in recognition of salary increases relinquished during the previous Agreement for trading reasons.

Parental Leave (Clause 37)

The Agreement significantly extends the University's parental leave provisions. For the first time, paid parental leave will be available for both the birth of a child, and the adoption of a child. Paid parental leave associated with the birth of the child consists of the existing 12 weeks paid maternity leave, and will include an additional 8 week period of paid primary care-giver leave (subject to certain rules, this can be shared between the birth mother and her spouse, in circumstances where they are both University employees). Paid parental leave associated with the adoption of a child will consist of 20 weeks paid leave. The Agreement also provides for birth mothers to access time release (non cumulating) of up to one day per week during the first year of the child's life if she returns to full time work (or the full time equivalent as compared to her employment prior to maternity leave) within that timeframe.

For futher information on Parental Leave go to:

/HR_Help/HR_Information_Sharing_Network/2004_Sessions/_Parental_Leave_Probation_Mar.ppt

Personal Leave (Clause 36)

Personal Leave is a new category of leave available to fixed term and standard staff members. A full time, standard general staff member will accrue 20 days personal leave each year for the first three years of service and twenty-five days each year thereafter. A full time, standard academic staff member will accrue 5 days of personal leave per year of service. This leave category replaces sick leave and family leave for general staff, and bereavement leave, special leave, blood donor and ceremonial leave (which was only available to Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander staff members) for all staff. Instead, staff members will have a larger pool of accumulating leave to accommodate all of these needs. This leave category also extends the concept of ceremonial leave so that it applies to all staff members to enable them to take leave to attend culturally significant events.

For further information on Personal Leave go to:

/HR_Help/HR_Information_Sharing_Network/2004_Sessions/_Personal_Leave_Feb.ppt

Long Service Leave - Payments on Termination (Clause 39)

Under the Agreement, fixed term staff members who are entitled to a severance payment upon termination will be entitled to pro-rata payment of accrued long service leave entitlement, provided that their service with the University has been 4 years or greater.

Superannuation (Clause 22)

The Agreement provides that the University will seek the extension of superannuation entitlements. The intended extension is for the 17% (pro rata) employer contribution superannuation to apply to all standard part-time staff and those part-time staff who are employed on fixed term appointments of 12 months or more.

General Staff Span of Hours and Flextime (Clauses 26 and 30)

For the first time, this Enterprise Agreement specifically provides for flextime arrangements. It also brings the general staff span of hours for the following streams into line with the 8am to 6pm flex time standard:

Probation (Clause 18)

The Agreement incorporates a number of changes in relation to probation including:

• the length of a probationary period will be reasonable having regard to the nature and circumstances of the appointment;
• application of a probationary period;
• maximum length of a probationary period; and
• procedures during a probationary period.

For further information on Probation go to:

/HR_Help/HR_Information_Sharing_Network/2004_Sessions/_Parental_Leave_Probation_Mar.ppt

Fixed Term Employment (Clause 10)

The ANUEA 03-06 maintains the current fixed term employment categories with the inclusion of a category for Student Internships and the extension of the existing student category. It also allows for a loosening of the restrictions on the extension of fixed term appointments under circumstances where the fixed term appointment is made pursuant to external funding and that funding is subject to milestone reviews.

Technical Staff Pool (Schedule 9)

The Agreement provides for a mechanism for the retention of skilled technical staff. Such staff will be able to register for possible future employment following notification that their current fixed term appointment is not being renewed or extended.

Casual Employment (Clause 12 and Schedule 7)

The document incorporates a number of the provisions from the well-publicised national casuals award case and provides:

• for an increase in the casual staff loading from 20% to 23% from 1 January 2004;
• for a minimum engagement for casual general staff— for most staff 3 hours with certain categories being between 1 and 3 hours — to take effect from 1 June 2004;
• for a casual staff conversion mechanism — allowing an eligible casual general staff member to apply for conversion of his/her appointment to a non-casual appointment under certain circumstances;
• for the extension of the circumstances allowed for the employment of casual general staff members — the existing 3 month maximum has been extended to 6 months and the maximum hours per fortnight has been extended up to 14 hours;
• for new payment categories for casual sessional academic staff members including, ATAS Tutors, Principal Players and pre-tertiary music tutors;
• that a casual/sessional academic staff member will not have the sole academic or decision making responsibility for the development of an on-line teaching and learning course.

For further information on Casual Employment go to:

http://info.anu.edu.au/hr/HR_Help/HR_Forum/2004/_issue0406.asp#Article0

Student and Graduate Employment Programs (Clauses 52 and 53)

The ANUEA 03-06 provides for new circumstances of employing students and graduates via Student Internships or the Graduate Recruitment and Development Program. These programs are designed to provide employment and career development opportunities to staff and graduates and will be monitored to ensure that these objectives are met.

Job Security (Clause 59)

The Agreement states that it is not the University's intention to reduce the size of the overall workforce. The University will also remove barriers to redeployment across campus (through the use of pooling and other measures) to facilitate the retention of skilled and experienced staff and will use targeted redundancies as a last resort.

Managing Change (Clause 61)

The Managing Change provisions allow the University to proceed with change without full consultation with the unions, under circumstances where all the potentially affected staff members have been consulted and where they all agree to the change proposal. However, if a union party subsequently advises that a staff member (or a group of staff members) do not agree with the proposed change, the formal change processes (including consultation with the unions) will commence.

Workloads (Clause 31)

The Enterprise Agreement provides measures to manage workloads, and to resolve disputes in relation to workloads through reference to the University's Staff Workloads Policy. Except in those circumstances where there is an established target for growth, the University will use its best endeavours to ensure that the current student/staff ratios will not increase and to reduce ratios wherever possible. The University will monitor the student/staff ratios over the next three years and if, after two years, the ratios have increased, the parties will consult with staff and will act in accordance with the Staff Workloads Policy to ameliorate the increased demands.

For further information see the Staff Workloads Policy.

Academic Staff Classifications (Schedule 1)

The Agreement incorporates the Minimum Standards for Academic Levels (the MSALs), which replace the former Academic Staff Position Classification Standards (or classification descriptors). The MSALs were introduced to the Higher Education sector by virtue of the making of the Higher Education Academic Salaries Award 2002.

General Staff Classifications (Schedule 2)

Under the Agreement ANU officer grades 1, 2 and 3 have been broadbanded in most streams. The Agreement also incorporates the Position Classification Standards (or classification descriptors) provided for in the Higher Education General Staff Salaries and Classifications Award 2002. These descriptors are similar those that are contained in the ANU Enterprise Agreement 2000 — 2003, but have been updated to remove anomalies, inconsistencies and obsolete references.

Intellectual Freedom (Clause 3)

The Enterprise Agreement includes a statement of principles that supports intellectual freedom when it is exercised in a manner consistent with responsible search for knowledge and its dissemination. Further it recognises that staff are encouraged to comment on the operations of the University within the University environment.

Intellectual Property (Clause 3)

The Agreement recognises the economic and moral rights of all staff and students through reference to the University's policy on Intellectual Property.

Workplace Bullying (Clause 65)

Workplace bullying is recognised as a form of misconduct or serious misconduct in the Agreement.

Misconduct and Serious Misconduct (Clauses 64, 65 and 67)

The Enterprise Agreement clarifies the definitions of misconduct and serious misconduct by providing examples of possible instances of each. Further, it provides for a common procedure to deal with an allegation whether the allegation is made against an academic or a general staff member. The provisions demonstrate a clear focus on procedural fairness that will allow for faster resolution of issues, including facilitating reviews of decisions.

Career and Performance (Clause 48 and Part Four)

The Enterprise Agreement will support the development of performance objectives by all staff and provides for staff development to achieve these objectives. As well, the Agreement:

• supports career development within the University
• provides for leadership development
• establishes common performance management procedures for academic and general staff, which are streamlined to facilitate faster resolution of underperformance issues.

For further information on the Career and Performance Development Scheme go to: http://info.anu.edu.au/hr/HR_Help/HR_Information_Sharing_Network/2004_Sessions/_CPDS_April.ppt

Incremental Salary Progression (Clause 21)

The Agreement provides for incremental progression subject to satisfactory performance and acquisition of increased skills, experience and knowledge.

Indigenous Employment (Clause 46)

The Enterprise Agreement incorporates an indigenous employment target of 2.2% of the workforce by 2012 (which equates to 68 FTE based on the current FTE number of total staff) and an advisory committee to provide support and assistance in the development of initiatives relating to the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.

Grievance Resolution and Reviews of Decisions (Clauses 68 and 69)

The ANUEA 03-06 provides for grievance resolution in relation to any matter of employment conditions in addition to the review of decisions (see below) regarding termination of employment, demotion, disciplinary action, annulment of probation, refusal to convert a casual employee, and other matters. Such reviews are to follow the principles of procedural fairness.

Review of Decisions (Clause 69)

The clause provides that the only types of reviews that have automatic access to a Review Committee are those arising from decisions to terminate a staff member's employment or demote a staff member. All other decisions will be dealt with at the Executive level (currently called Executive Director, Administration), unless he/she determines that it is appropriate to forward it to a Committee. In addition, the right to have a decision reviewed at all has been extended to general staff members in circumstances where such right did not previously exist.

Occupational Health and Safety Agreement (Schedule 6)

The provisions of the OH&S agreement have been streamlined significantly, and includes an express statement to ensure that staff members may raise OH&S issues without prejudice.

Senior Management Positions (Sub-clause 5.3 and clause 16)

Those senior management positions currently excluded from particular clauses of the ANUEA 2000 — 2003 will continue to be excluded from those clauses. The list of excluded clauses has also been expanded to include the provisions applying to termination of employment (eg notice periods and the requirement to follow full disciplinary processes prior to termination of employment — the failure to include these in the previous Agreement represented an internal inconsistency in the drafting) and the clause providing for ��special conditions applying to NARU, Warramunga Seismic Array and Siding Spring Observatory �� (i.e. remote localities and district allowances).