EFFORTS to see a new university entity for Gippsland thrive are expected to be both eased and challenged over coming weeks.
News that the Federation University Australia name is expected to be debated in the State Parliament’s upper house within weeks – having already passed through the lower house – will be welcomed by Monash University Gippsland staff who have been hampered in their efforts to market the new entity without use of its name.
University of Ballarat Vice Chancellor David Battersby, whose university will take-over Monash Gippsland next year, told The Express he had been present for the initial parliamentary debate and was impressed with how seriously the matter was taken by both sides of politics.
He said two hours worth of “robust” questioning on issues of community benefit and costs and support from State Government preceded the legislation’s passage through to the upper house.
Professor Batterbsy said with State Higher Education and Skills Minister Peter Hall already adopting the moniker FedUni, it was expected this was how the new entity would be most commonly referred to.
A challenge, however, lays ahead for UB as it prepares to address staff, individually and collectively, over formal offers of employment with FedUni, with Professor Battersby saying different undertakings regarding future employment opportunities would relate to different categories of staff.
Monash Gippsland employs about 300 staff, some permanent and others considered casual, fixed term and contract.
A number of university sources have raised concerns that staff whose employment contract conditions expired before the planned UB take-over on 1 January next year had no guarantee of being offered further employment.
National Tertiary Education Union spokesperson Liz Schroeder said in an April meeting this year the union was given an undertaking any Monash Gippsland staff “still employed on 31 July (2013) with a contract due to expire between then and the end of 2013, would be offered another contract by Monash for at least 12 months or to the end of December 2014, whichever was the lesser period.”
Ms Schroeder said that undertaking had been “confirmed with management in a letter (from the union)” and there had been “nothing from Monash to say that we have misunderstood that”.
Professor Battersby, however, said “for those on contracts that expire between now and the end of the year we have to take into account whether there is an ongoing need (for that position)”, adding “in some cases there will be and in some there won’t be; we are in the process of working out how many of those there are, now”.
He said issues to be addressed would include whether an employee’s duties related to Monash Gippsland or Monash Clayton and whether an employee’s service delivery area overlapped with functions already being performed by UB staff.
Professor Battersby said staff “understood” discussions regarding future employment arrangements were “at the beginning of the process, not the end” and he had an “open door policy” with NTEU over such matters.
Meanwhile Prof Battersby, who is also Regional Universities Network chair, has welcomed the release of the National Party’s regional education and development policy.
He said the policy included initiatives in keeping with policies advocated by RUN.
