Reference no: EM133960936

Question

Oz University and the NUTW

Oz University is a large University in one of Australia's major capital cities. In March 2017, Oz University and the National Union of Tertiary Workers (NUTW) made a joint application to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for intervention in their negotiations for an Enterprise Agreement. The parties had been at the bargaining table for 18 months, but negotiations were adversarial. Members of the NUTW had taken protected industrial action in the form of a 24-hour strike in December 2016, but this did little to progress the negotiations. The FWC accepted the application and Commissioner Pitt began facilitating negotiations by encouraging the parties to take a "problem-solving" approach. Trust was gradually built between the parties as they shared information and began identifying common interests and possible solutions. Given that negotiations had previously stalled, Commissioner Pitt adopted a "building block" approach, working with the parties on less controversial or complex issues before moving on to the more challenging matters. While there was some agreement in the initial stages, there were two sticking points that the parties could not reach agreement on - workload and pay. Over recent years, staff had been faced with additional teaching responsibilities and increased research expectations and felt that their efforts should be recognised and rewarded accordingly. Oz University presented an "ability to pay" argument to justify their position of offering a pay rise no greater than 1.5% which was not well received by the Union. Negotiations broke down again in July 2017 and further protected industrial action was taken by the Union. Commissioner Pitt subsequently stepped back from the facilitation as the parties appeared to prefer a more position-based approach to resolving the challenging issues of workload and pay. MGMT2040 Workplace Relations Final Examination (Session 2, 2021) 4 In September 2017, the parties again sought the assistance of the FWC and three weeks of intensive negotiations facilitated by Commissioner Pitt resulted in agreement being reached. The Enterprise Agreement was endorsed by a vote of employees and approved by the FWC in October 2017 after meeting the BOOT (Better Off Overall Test). The parties have since worked co-operatively to jointly implement the agreement, with any issues dealt with through discussion and workplace-level negotiation rather than formal dispute.

In this case, the parties invited the Fair Work Commission to intervene in their enterprise agreement negotiations. Do you think such state intervention should always be voluntary on the part of the parties? Why/Why not?