What is it about?
Collective bargaining is the foundation for democracy in the workplace, and a mechanism for ensuring workers in Australia have improved working conditions whilst striving to reduce inequality. Collective bargaining offers potential to improve democratic workplace participation and socio-economic status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, however, if done ineffectively can further entrench inequality. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workplace issues need to be at the forefront of bargaining. In the Higher Education sector, collective agreements with universities cover the majority of employees and are negotiated by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). The NTEU uses its bargaining power within the university sector to establish Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets and other targeted provisions within enterprise agreements. These targets and other provisions aim to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation on campus, ensure fair and equitable working conditions and challenge entrenched inequality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers within their universities. The NTEU has for over 20 years advocated for and won Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment clauses in enterprise agreements. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee, under the direction of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members has pushed for these for the benefit of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples employed or yet to be employed in the higher education sector. The increase in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in universities has and continues to be driven by NTEU.
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Why is it important?
The NTEU using its collective bargaining power has established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets and other cultural provisions within Australian university enterprise agreements (EAs), to help ‘close the gap’ on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage. This works to ensure there are fair and equitable working conditions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers within their university collective agreements.
Perspectives
Positioning myself within this research, I am the current Chair of the NTEU's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee. I am a Garigal, Awabakal, Darug, Wiradyuri woman with strong connections to Country and an Aboriginal academic at the University of Queensland where I research and teach in the areas of Employment Relations and Closing the Gap on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage in Employment and Education. I speak from my Aboriginal standpoint in this work, and my positioning highlights the way the NTEU's structure empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members. I represent all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of the union; however, this representation is not of self, it is a collective representation, that is driven by a) the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community that elected me, and the relationality that binds us as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Kwaymullina, 2016) and b) the representative structure the NTEU has set up in consultation with its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members as outlined below that allows for the self-determination of outcomes for our peoples.
Dr Sharlene Michelle Leroy-Dyer
University of Queensland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment provisions within enterprise agreements in Australian universities, the role of the National Tertiary Education Union and collective bargaining, Journal of Industrial Relations, September 2023, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/00221856231197516.
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