Industrial unrest looms at universities

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Industrial unrest is looming at the country's universities after Auckland staff roundly rejected a 1.5 per cent pay offer and their Otago colleagues started protest action yesterday.

The Otago University action began with a relatively innocuous poster and sticker campaign, but staff union representatives said this would build to withholding exam results and protests around graduation ceremonies next month.

A collective contract in force at the University of Auckland until the end of January prevents staff from taking industrial action for now.

But Association of University Staff (AUS) and Public Service Association members voted this week to set up an action committee to campaign for 8 per cent salary rises.

A stopwork meeting of up to 1600 union members will be held in a fortnight to approve a campaign strategy.

Massey University staff in Auckland and elsewhere will hold stopwork meetings in coming weeks, and unionists say they are unlikely to accept a 1.8 per cent pay rise after rejections of similar offers at Victoria and Lincoln.

Union negotiators at Auckland University are reluctant to discuss details while they remain in talks with the employer. But a membership resolution has raised the possibility of "marking to rule" and going on strike next year.

Academic staff are seeking pay rises of 8 per cent for each of the next three years, saying salaries have lagged up to 15 per cent behind inflation since 1990.

AUS branch president Professor Andrew Sharp said student numbers and workloads had soared in the meantime, making it harder for universities to attract and retain high-quality staff and deepening "a crisis in excellence".

The university's general staff want an initial 8 per cent rise, and then cost of living increases over the following two years.

University negotiators were unavailable for comment, but New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee chairman Professor James McWha has indicated frustration that Government funding restrictions are blocking higher pay offers.

Emphasising he was speaking only as vice-chancellor of Massey University, which has offered a 1.8 per cent pay rise, he said he believed staff genuinely deserved larger increases.

But universities were unable to pay more, as a 2.8 per cent rise in Government grants this year was given on condition that student fees were not increased.

He suggested universities and union representatives consider joining forces to prepare international salary comparisons for an approach to the Government next year for more realistic funding.

Professor McWha hoped changing perceptions of the contributions of universities, especially after the Knowledge Wave conference, might make the Government more receptive.

Association of University Staff national president Neville Blampied said New Zealand academic salaries were the lowest in the developed world, yet his members worked an average of more than 50 hours a week, similar to what was required overseas.

Although the union was opposed to raising student fees, he said high-quality education came at a price which the country had to pay if it wanted an adequate pool of well-trained professionals.