In this update:
Register below for Friday’s meeting to induct onto the branch committee James Lloyd, Kate McKenzie, Gareth Nealon and Caroline Williams; and appoint current Ordinary Committee Member Jack Markovs as Branch Secretary. It’ll also be a good opportunity to see the full composition of the new committee taking over the reins in October 😊
The meeting will run on Zoom THIS FRIDAY at 10am: register here
There will be refreshments available at the branch office (10-12 Parkway, right next to Barry J Marshall Library) after the event, so come down to share in some snacks once the meeting closes.If you have any questions, please get in touch.
If you haven’t yet printed out some flyers or put up some posters on the payrise, you can access them here. We've seen a great response from these flyers and the emails letting UWA staff know about their pay rise, so make sure your colleagues know why they’re seeing more money in their bank account. If you can’t access a printer, let us know and we can arrange some copies for you.
As you’re completing your tax returns, remember that NTEU fees are typically tax deductible. If you pay your fees by payroll deduction, the details should already have been sent to the ATO on your behalf. As an NTEU member you have access to various benefits and discounts, including a free consultation with a financial adviser, and up to $3000 off for developing a full financial plan.
You’ll have received an email from National Office on Friday with more details; log on to the member portal to access all your benefits. The NTEU Tax Guide 2023-2024 is also a good resource. Also consider making an appointment with UniSuper, particularly if you have been affected by the ‘remediation’ program.
We recommend all existing or lapsed Health and Safety reps to attend the UnionsWA conference in September (more details are here). Under your Enterprise Agreement you are entitled to 37.5 hours paid leave per year for exactly this kind of purpose. Please get in touch early if you are interested in going and we can help you access the leave.
You will have heard about the Federal Government’s intention to introduce caps on international student numbers. The government has already increased the hurdles prospective students face in applying for student visas, for example by significantly increasing the cost of student visa applications. Alarmingly, even before the specifics of prospective changes have been determined, some Vice Chancellors have taken the opportunity to warn of impending job losses.
While the NTEU continues to be critical of the reliance in higher education on international student fee income, and how international students have been targeted by unscrupulous education providers, agents and labour traffickers; the NTEU’s view is that the Government must ensure that there are no job losses that result from their changes to international education policy and legislation.
The NTEU is actively lobbying government as part of our response to the Universities Accord campaign and the issue around international student numbers will remain a focus of the NTEU. You have the opportunity to support the campaign and lobbying effort by calling on the Federal Government to protect staff against any job cuts and to improve the governance and transparency of the sector.
For more details and to sign the petition visit the Better Unis website.
The ‘third space’ is work that has qualities of both academic and professional work but does not fit neatly within either, and tends to span across categories. Think for example of education design, learning technology, academic development, careers and work integrated learning, technical and specialist work, and other types of academic-adjacent or ‘blended’ work.
If you work in the third space, please take a moment to complete the NTEU’s survey on third space experiences in higher education: Survey here.
News broke over the weekend that one of the largest academic publishers, Taylor & Francis, had sold access to its publications to Microsoft, so that the company could "improve relevance and performance of AI systems". Understandably this has caused significant anger and distress among authors and academics (if you’ve ever been published in a T&R journal, for example, your work may be affected and you won’t have been informed). When asked to comment, T&R said they were "protecting the integrity of our authors’ work and limits on verbatim text reproduction, as well as authors’ rights to receive royalty payments in accordance with their author contracts".That last bit is particularly important and can cover many ills: read your publication contract.
Given the speed at which AI technologies are advancing there probably isn’t a carve out for use of your work for in this way, which even a few years ago would have been in the realm of science fiction. The University Library staff ran an excellent session yesterday on the ‘opportunitites, risks and ethical considerations’ in using AI for research. The recording is available under "Searching for Literature and Information" on the Library Guides website and is well worth watching.