Message from the Chief People Officer - Bargaining update
Over the last week in enterprise bargaining, the University has continued our commitment to making ANU one of the best places in the country to work and pave the way for other Australian higher education providers to follow.
Last Wednesday, the Vice-Chancellor personally joined the enterprise bargaining discussions to reaffirm his commitment to casual employees, and to present our offer with respect to casual job security and conditions, including:
-Reduction of 18.7 per cent of casual FTE over the life of the new Agreement
-Criteria to only use casual employment in specific and appropriate circumstances
-Commitment to create pathways for 116 FTE to non-casual employment
-12.5 per cent superannuation
-Long service leave after 10 years of service
-Sick leave, up to three instances per year
-Gender affirmation leave, up to 20 instances per year
-One week notice period to terminate employment by the University or staff
-Improved definitions for activities undertaken by our casual sessional academic
You can read about the Vice-Chancellor's vision for the University to lead decasualisation across the sector in his blog published last Friday.
Our approach to bargaining
Throughout bargaining, the University’s position has been to put our staff first.
We want to build and maintain employment arrangements to ensure we are well placed to attract and retain world-class staff, with consideration of the current challenges faced by the institution and sector more broadly. ANU has negotiated with the bargaining parties improvements to clauses relating to emergency service leave, personal and wellbeing leave, academic freedom and freedom of speech, a pathway to fixed term conversions after five years and paid parental leave for staff with less than 12-months service.
We want to support and enable staff to meet challenges and improve capacity to support career progression for staff. To this effect, we have negotiated and are in the progress of discussing with the bargaining parties to broaden eligibility to paid study leave, clearer probation processes, workloads, right to disconnect and flexible work arrangements.
We want to provide salaries that are fair and reasonable to ensure that staff are supported, and the University remains a competitive employer both within Canberra and across the broader sector. The University’s revised pay offer is 18.5 percent over the life of the new Enterprise Agreement. This will have you earning 20 per cent more in June 2026 than the beginning of this year. Further information on the University’s revised salary offer can be found here.
Bargaining discussions are still ongoing. We have ticked off a large number of key matters and are on a good path to reaching an agreement soon. We will continue to engage with staff and provide updates when available.
If you have any questions or feedback, please contact ea.comments@anu.edu.au
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Student safety and wellbeing
As we commence Semester 2 2023, we continue our ongoing commitment to fostering a culture where individuals feel safe, respected and empowered in their academic pursuits at ANU.
We’ve recently updated the Student Safety and Wellbeing Plan which highlights our collective progress in the critical area of sexual violence prevention and response over the last year. We thank everyone involved in this plan and those who are committed to improving student safety on our campus.
We are also excited to announce that ANU will partner with the Gendered Violence Research Network (UNSW) to undertake a mid-review of our Sexual Violence Prevention Strategy and will lend their expertise towards our next Student Safety and Wellbeing Plan (2024-2025). Led by Professor Jan Breckenridge, the team from the Gendered Violence Research Network will work closely with students, staff and the wider ANU community to ensure our next plan builds on previous work while embedding best practice.
While we acknowledge our achievements to date, there is much work to be done. We must remain proactive and work together to create environments where individuals feel safe, respected, and empowered in their academic pursuits.
The ANU fully supports the Student Union’s action today. Together, we are committed to building an inclusive community ready and willing to enact meaningful changes that will make our university a safer and more supportive environment for all.
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Human Ethics component of REMS to go live this week
Attention Human Researchers, the human ethics component of the new ANU research ethics management system called REMS will go live on Tuesday 8 August 2023. This NEW system will replace the ethics module in ARIES.
Please send an email to: REMS.ITS@anu.edu.au to sign up for the REMS practice system.
The animal ethics component of REMS will go live in September 2023.
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Student Experience Survey (SES) - Now open
Sharing your experience at ANU in the Student Experience Survey (SES) only takes 10 minutes and puts you in the draw to win $1,000!
Complete the survey by Sunday 27 August for your chance to win.
Complete the survey
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CartoGIS Training sessions announced
CartoGIS Services is a team of cartographic and geographic information system specialists working at ANU. They offer a range of training sessions on the creation, analysis, management and promotion of maps and spatial data.
Introduction to ArcGIS Pro (Self-paced online course)
Introduction to Story Maps (August 10, 17, 24 and 31)
Introduction to GIS Analysis for Research (September 28, and October 5, 12 and 19)
Training is free for ANU staff, HDR, and Postgraduate students.
For more information, visit the CartoGIS training webpage.
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Minute Taking Workshop
Thursday August 31, 9.30am-12.30pm
This training module explains best practice for minute-taking across three stages from planning to drafting and review. Participants will develop skills in listening, drafting and editing in the context of minute taking. The training uses various examples in relation to the university setting. For more training and development opportunities check out the 2023 Training Calendar on the Human Resources website.
Register here
