The University of Newcastle has agreed to uphold a decision made by the Fair Work Commission to re-credit staff with leave they were forced take over Easter, but will simultaneously appeal against the ruling.
The university has also agreed not to direct professional and teaching staff to take forced annual leave over the Christmas/New Year period, while academic staff will be required to take leave as per their enterprise agreement.
As the Herald previously reported, the National Tertiary Education Union challenged the university's decision to direct staff to take five days annual leave at Easter and started proceedings before the Fair Work Commission in April.
The university says it made the decision as a cost-saving measure, to give staff a rest and students a chance to catch up, but NTEU said the university acted against the provisions of the academic staff and teachers enterprise agreement and the professional staff enterprise agreement.
The university agreed at the outset of arbitration its direction was not permitted for academic staff at all, or for professional and teaching staff who were forced into negative leave balances. UON agreed to recredit or repay these staff.
The scope of the dispute was then narrowed to the direction applying to professional and teaching staff. The FWC ruled these staff should also be recredited or repaid.
Following the decision, the NTEU said there was apprehension over whether the university would comply with the decision and whether it would uphold its direction for all staff to take leave over Christmas.
The re-crediting of the Easter leave is expected to cost the university $6 million, according to early calculations.
University vice chancellor Alex Zelinsky told staff in an email on Friday the university would need to examine ways to save money, which may include job losses.
He said the university would appeal against the FWC decision, but as the appeal process would take some time, the university would re-credit all staff annual leave balances for the five days' leave deducted.
"With the impact on our staff in mind, particularly when many staff have already made plans for this coming Christmas and New Year period, we don't want staff left guessing about how the appeal will impact their leave plans," an email from Professor Zelinsky said.
The email said the university would not direct professional and teaching staff to take annual leave between December 21 and January 8, but would "strongly encourage" those staff to take the break they felt they needed over this period.
As per their academic agreement, academic staff are required to take leave over Christmas or seek approval to take leave at another time. The Herald understands NTEU currently has a dispute against that clause of the agreement.
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