The profound impact of COVID-19 is being felt far and wide with many people in the community, including our students, losing their jobs overnight.
In navigating the crisis, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has been seeking to work with University of Newcastle management in formulating responses. We have supported some of management's efforts to minimise the impact on students and staff - in a hugely disrupted operating environment.
Part of this response has been to support our members as they put in countless hours to ensure students continue their learning online effectively despite all the challenges that they, their families, and the wider community, face.
This work remains, and now is certainly not the time to force staff to down tools in a sector that must continue to operate for the benefit of the whole community.
We were therefore shocked when the vice-chancellor, without consultation and despite many days of negotiations towards finding better options, recently directed all staff to take annual leave - even when some staff had no leave accrued.
Management claims staff have been allowed to apply for exemptions from forced leave.
However, NTEU is increasingly aware of many examples where such exemptions have been refused unilaterally, unfairly and inconsistently. Our view is the vice-chancellor overstepped the mark and is operating beyond our employment agreements. Subsequently, we have now sought the assistance of the Fair Work Commission to adjudicate the matter.
The privilege of having work these days is not lost on our membership when so many in the community have been thrust into unemployment.
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However, our society benefits from more than 150 years of the union movement's efforts to establish and protect workplace conditions, including the provision of paid annual leave for rest and recreation.
This is why we must, even in times of crisis, maintain that effort and not allow the thin edge of the wedge to be driven into essential conditions for all.
Our university is a prominent public institution and one of the largest employers in the region.
Now more than ever, at a time when society will look to trusted institutions for guidance, the university must do the right thing and support all staff, including casual and fixed-term staff, to continue to place students at the centre of everything we do.
