The hard work to merge Uni Adelaide and Uni South Australia isn’t done, but with just over six months to amalgamation day enough is accomplished to ensure the new Adelaide U will be a happening thing.
There is just one problem; sorting out what the people who are doing the work to make the merger happen are paid before and after the launch. At present, staff still employed under the two existing universities agreements can be paid different rates for the same jobs.
And the major university union, which will be critical in smooth staffing for the new U, wants it sorted now, before the enterprise agreement for the new university is in place, which will be hard to achieve this year.
“It is completely untenable for AU to employ staff to do the same job for different pay and to allow this to continue until the conclusion of bargaining,” National Tertiary Education Union State officials Andrew Miller and Anna Strzelecki warn.
They call on the joint leadership of the merger process to adopt the higher payrate at either existing agreement for all academic and professional classification levels by end August and to guarantee no reduction in employment conditions for anybody continuing at the new university.
“Staff should not have to wait for bargaining to conclude to enjoy pay equalisation and parity,” Miller and Strzelecki argue.
To which an unidentified representative for the new institution replies, the two existing agreements will apply until the Adelaide U agreement is in-place. “There are many nuances and complexities in the differences between the salary structures of the two existing universities,” is the reason.
Which rather sounds like management expects bargaining to be complicated and contentious.
Just like it always was at the two previous institutions.
