Ballarats NTEU branch president Jeremy Smith

Ballarats NTEU branch president Jeremy Smith,who is the legal action's primary applicant, described it asbeing a long time coming. We find ourselves in a situationwhere the University will only offer AWAs to deliver payrises to staff, and in return Rosetta Stone software for signing an AWA. Its ourbelief that they are giving away key employment conditions, Dr Smith said. From The AustralianUK unions rejectnew pay talksAcademic unions have rejected a move byBritish university employers to reopen pay negotiations,refusing to put on hold planned industrial action unlessvice-chancellors put a substantive offer on the table .The Universities and Colleges Employers Association(UCEA) has written to the Association of University Teachers(AUT) and lecturers union Natfhe, offering to resume paytalks later this month, but on the proviso that the unions put on hold any industrial action authorised by the twounions. Union members are voting on a recommendation forindustrial action over the breakdown of negotiations in aballot which will close later today.The unions say that,despite having submitted initial pay claims in October lastyear, the employers have failed to make any substantiveresponse . Responding to UCEAs request to Rosetta Stone Greek reopennegotiations, AUT Deputy General Secretary, Malcolm Keight,said that, while the unions were committed to constructivenegotiations, their past dealings with UCEA indicated thatprocrastination was a popular employer tactic. We feltdriven to ensure that staff concerns were properly addressedin a timely matter. To attempt to make a deferral of actiona condition of commencing meaningful negotiations would onlybe interpreted by our members as further procrastination, he said. Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, last weekconfirmed that universities would receive xA3,6.5 billionexcluding the additional income from top-up fees. Thisincludes a 6.7 percent increase in the teaching grant for2006-07, and a 7.3 percent increase for research. Fromthe Times Higher EducationSupplementAUSTertiary Update is compiled weekly on Thursdays anddistributed freely to members of the Association ofUniversity Staff and others. Back issues are Rosetta Stone Hindi V3 available onthe AUS website: www.aus.ac.nz . Direct enquires should bemade to Marty Braithwaite, AUS Communications Officer,email:marty.braithwaite@aus.ac.nz