First ever industrial action at Melbourne’s Centre for Adult Education

Staff at Melbourne’s Centre for Adult Education (CAE) are taking on-going industrial action from today (Thursday 29 August), for the first time since the centre’s establishment in 1947.
From today, members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) will be striking for at least one minute a day and up to one hour a day over stalled collective bargaining negotiations.
NTEU Victorian Division Secretary Dr Colin Long, said CAE staff have not received an across-the-board pay rise since 4 May 2010.
“We started negotiating for a new collective agreement in February 2011, with an in-principle agreement struck in December 2011. However, last year the Victorian Government refused to approve it. The union struck an in-principle agreement again in December 2012 but then six months later the CAE reneged on that agreement. Not only did it renege but it put 36 new changes on the table, mostly cuts to current entitlements,” Dr Long said.
“The CAE is attempting to reduce union representation, cut personal leave and remove paid long service leave for casual and sessional staff. It also wants to introduce unspecified changes to the entitlements of employees facing redundancy, reduce consultation rights and remove the compulsory monitoring of employee workloads. Read more...