WHILE Monash Gippsland campus staff union members have moved to defend work bans on releasing some students’ semester results, numerous students are not impressed.
Students have been advised by the National Tertiary Education Union that, in its efforts to pursue a new Enterprise Agreement for staff wages and conditions, the bans would affect some students.
The union apologised for the “significant inconvenience” the bans would cause for those students and said “we are trying to limit this” but the move was opposed by students who spoke with The Express on Friday.
One student, who did not wish to be named, said he was “disappointed” in the union’s decision. “After all my hard work in the last few months – and it is hard enough going through that whole process – all you expect at the end is that your results will be released on time,” the student said.
“You pay all this money and the simple reward that I want in the end is to have my results, now I feel like I am being punished by the other parties involved.”
One student said there had been no prior warning about the action.
“We got nothing to say this might be happening, we were just told that it is – which is frustrating,” they said.
“This is not what I expect from a top class university – I understand it is the right of administrative staff, but I find it disrespectful.”
NTEU delegate Anne Lorraine said the ban was “not an unusual action” and had been “determined to be quite effective”.
“We don’t want to disadvantage students and if there are certain conditions where it would be detrimental if that information was not provided, there are exemptions,” Ms Lorraine said.
“If students can satisfy those exemptions, there is a lot of give in that.”
