Thanks to everyone who has participated in the bans this week, forgoing pay in the face of management’s aggressive tactics.
We’ve got management rattled, and promising positions on key matters early next week, but nothing on workload (yet). We’ve got to keep the pressure high to get what we need.
Please read this email carefully, as it contains critical information with regards to protected industrial action and your rights.
In this email:
Join us Monday 9 September at 12pm for an all-member meeting. We will discuss the new bans, and how we can work together to win the outcomes in bargaining that we deserve. Register here.
Presently, we have three possible scenarios live around protected industrial action at VU. How this impacts your work depends on what bans you can take.
As a reminder, from Monday 9 September, further bans on VU systems will commence, including:
- a one-week ban on Microsoft Teams, commencing 12:01am 9th September 2024
- a one-week ban on Microsoft SharePoint, commencing 12:01am 9th September 2024
- a one-week ban on Microsoft Outlook, commencing 12:01am 9th September 2024
- a one-week ban on Cisco Jabber, commencing 12:01am 9th September 2024
- a one-week ban on Zoom, commencing 12:01am 9th September 2024
- a one-week ban on Engageware (formerly TimeTrade), commencing 12:01am 9th September 2024
Bans on StudentOne and Right Now will also remain in place for the week.
The teaching ban will conclude today, Friday, 6 September at 11:59pm.
To ensure you remain up to date around the outlook ban, we will update you daily via text message. Check your spam folder in messages on your phone if you haven't been receiving our messages or email us at [email protected].
We will of course continue to email members on their personal emails if this is up to date on the NTEU database.
In week 1 of the bans, many members received notices from management that stated that “the University will not accept partial performance”. If you have received such a notice, you have essentially been stood down if you are participating in the Teaching ban (noting this ceases 11:59pm tonight), or the ban on Right Now and Student 1, meaning you do not have to go to work.
NTEU has granted access to the defence fund for impacted members. To learn more about the stand down notice and what it means, you can view our advice here.
We also understand that members in the Learning Hub have received a stand down notice in respect of the new bans set out above. For these members, if you participate in the new online systems bans, you will not be entitled to receive pay, and VU will not accept any work from you, until 11:59pm on Friday 13 September 2024. You are entitled to not attend work during this period and failure to attend work is protected industrial action.
If you have not received a non-payment notice, please proceed to Scenario 2.
If you participate in the bans, but do not receive a stand-down notice, you can turn up for work and implement the bans as we initially envisioned. This means not using the online systems as outlined above.
VU management has three options in this situation to respond to your industrial action. They can:
- Ignore the action and keep paying in full. This option is common.
- Give a notice that no payment at all will be made during ban (as they have in other work areas). The notice must state management will also not accept any work from you until you resume normal duties. Your pay cannot be stopped until after you have received this notice.
- Pay a proportional amount, reflecting the proportion of your job that you are still doing. Particular rules apply to this option and you must be given a notice with the details of the proportion of the reduction to your pay. If you believe that the amount that is to be deducted is unreasonable or disproportionate, you should contact us immediately at [email protected].
If you are coming off the teaching bans, but can access Student One or Right Now systems, you remain stood down for next week if you meet all the following criteria:
- You may use Student One or Right Now as part of your ordinary duties (this means you may use it at any time during the course of your employment, not just next week) and;
- You received a stand down notice last week. We encourage members in this category to stand with your colleagues and hold the line.
If you do not use any of the banned systems and have not received a non-payment notice, you can go to work normally.
To support members who have been stood down, NTEU has granted access to the defence fund. Funding has now been approved for week 2 of the stand down action.
You can access the form and read eligibility criteria here.
Yesterday, we opened a donation portal for fellow VU members calling on their help to support members have been stood down. In a powerful demonstration of solidarity, members across the country have pitched in nearly $3000 dollars in the first 24 hours to support you in the struggle for better working conditions and fair wages.
If you have any questions, email the branch [email protected].
In strength and solidarity,
NTEU VU branch