University of Newcastle Restructuring – Research and Innovation
8 August 2016
The Research and Innovation restructure was announced on 22 June 2016.
At a staff forum, an organisational chart was shown to staff which included numerous fixed term positions related to strategic funding. This information was not provided to the unions in our briefing.
The É«ÀÇÉçÇø(CPSU) requested this information be provided as part of the consultation process as members were very clear they need to see the full picture to be able to comment on the proposed structure in an informed way.
UoN refused to provide the information, causing the É«ÀÇÉçÇø(CPSU) to notify a dispute under the enterprise agreement. The consultation period was extended by a week as a result.
A dispute resolution meeting was held to discuss the matter on 14 July 2016. During that meeting the É«ÀÇÉçÇø(CPSU) was provided with an email that had just been sent to staff advising that the extra positions would only be available subject to funding.
As a result, the positions were notional and the duties had not been fully scoped. Reluctantly, it was agreed to resolve the dispute on this basis and focus on finalising our written submission which can be read
A recurring theme in the feedback was under-resourcing and work overload.
The final paper was released on 27 July. It was pleasing to see the feedback had resulted in some changes being made. However, we remain very concerned about understaffing and the loss of critical resources.
The new structure will now move to an implementation phase and it is expected that this plan will be released shortly. The É«ÀÇÉçÇø(CPSU) encourages all members to be mindful of reasonable workloads and speak up where you believe the workload is too high.