When staff show up, our pressure can win the rights we deserve.
Our bargaining team has been tirelessly advocating for our member-endorsed claims in negotiation with UTS management. But advocacy means nothing in the face of a University Leadership that refuses to make substantive concessions.
We have seen the callousness of this leadership team through the mishandled OSI change process and their refusal to take the psycho-social safety of staff seriously. But we have also seen that our pressure works and collective action can force management to do right by staff. After our last strike in November, the VC announced significant concessions on the issues members campaigned hardest for: scaling back course and subject closures, and saving Education and Public Health. Thanks to persistent pressure from local work areas, we’ve won even more concessions since then including, no forced redundancies, saving International Studies and Languages, and fewer redundancies targeting existing staff.
That’s why it’s so important to commit to our next suite of Industrial Action. By pledging to take protected industrial action, you’re not yet committing to a final date for action, but you are sending a strong message to UTS management: if our demands aren’t met at the bargaining table, UTS staff are ready to come out in force!
So, why parental & reproductive leave?
Parental & reproductive leave are two of the areas with outstanding claims being negotiated in March. By negotiating around parental & reproductive leave, we want to ensure our Enterprise Agreement includes improvements to leave provisions for staff. These are the outstanding claims that members want us to make progress on right away:
- 15 days paid Reproductive Leave.
- 8 additional weeks of parental leave for Primary Carers (38 weeks total), and Co-Parents Leave (12 weeks total).
- 17.5% Super to be paid by UTS on unpaid periods of parental leave.
- Full entitlement to parental leave in case of Pregnancy loss, still birth and infant death.
- Remove discriminatory barriers to accessing parental leave.
Now is the time to pledge, to invite others to pledge, and spread the word to wider staff and allies about why our claims matter for a better future at UTS. With enough members pledging to take action, we can put pressure on UTS Management to meet our demands and win a stronger Enterprise Agreement for everyone!
