TEU members will not accept job casualisation in bargaining

Increasingly vitriolic attacks by employers on workers was the topic that concerned many TEU branch presidents as they gathered in Wellington this week for their first annual summit.

The lockout of workers at both the Port of Auckland and the Talley’s-owned AFFCO meatworks, along with the unwillingness of the employer to negotiate at Oceania rest homes, are three of the most public examples of emboldened employers taking the opportunity to attack working conditions and job security. TEU branches around the country are actively supporting the workers and the families in all three of these disputes. However, many are now also wondering what this might mean for the tertiary education sector.

Three quarters of TEU members will be negotiating a new collective agreement in the next few months.

Branch presidents at TEU’s summit this week agreed many tertiary employers like other employers were pressuring for more casualised jobs and less secure work.

“It’s not as public, but we are facing the same issues as those other workers,’ said TEU’s Eastern Institute of Technology branch president Gordon Reid.

“Casualisation, poor job security, intransigent human resource strategies are bad for education as well as those who work in education. We will not accept attacks on quality education in any negotiations,” said Mr Reid.

Tertiary Education Union