AASC Newsletter – June 2021

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  • AASC Newsletter – June 2021

Kia ora AASC Members,

Semester One has as usual been incredibly busy all of us at Ara, and I hope that everyone is finding some time to connect with colleagues, whānau and friends.

I realise there has been a trickle of information coming from the Committee about the activities of the union. Here is a summary of what has been happening … these updates will become more regular.

I am always available to chat, or if you want to email me, please do, or stop me in the corridor for a quick catch up.  Similarly,  other committee members are always moving around Ara and happy to discuss issues or suggest who might be best placed to talk about issues affecting members.

New Committee members

You might remember late last year I called for expressions of interest from members to join the AASC committee. We have been very lucky in retaining the services of the current committee who have been loyal supporters of the union’s work but it always helps to get fresh views. As a result, we have appointed four new members to the committee: Becky Bulman (Hospitality), Arifah Addison (EDI), Amit Sarkar (EDI) and Greer Smit (Health Practice). They will be formally proposed as committee members at the next AGM and we hope elected accordingly. In the meantime, congratulations and welcome.  For full list of committee members see here

AGM

Wednesday 28 July 12.45pm – 2.30pm is the time and date of the 2021 AGM.   The AGM will be held in L233 and as usual we will provide refreshments for those attending. I will be emailing more as the AGM draws closer because this is the chance to raise issue, make changes to the Rules and focus of the union.  Please email if you have any suggestions or thoughts at this stage.

CEA Bargaining

We have initiated bargaining for a new collective employment agreement. We will send out an up-date on details over the next week or so.  The new CEA should take us from October last year to Dec 2022. We have presented our claims to Ara and are waiting on their response. The current collective is still in force until we sign a new agreement.

Te Pūkenga

We have regular meetings via Zoom with the Te Pūkenga DCE for People and Culture Keri-Anne Tane. This week we are also scheduled to meet personally with Kerri-Anne.  We were also invited to a forum regarding the Te Pūkenga operating models by TEU where the combined unions presented to the Te Pūkenga CE and DCE’s as well as the Ernst and Young team charged with developing it. We will be providing updates on the AASC website about the process.

TEU

We are working on formalising a closer relationship with TEU given the establishment of Te Pūkenga.   I have had several meetings with Tina Smith the TEU President and a couple of weeks ago some of the Committee met with Tina and Sandra Grey National Secretary TEU to discuss how we can work collaboratively on issues which affect both our memberships while also retaining our independence.

Promotion/Progression

The union worked hard last year to develop a new promotion progression process. Thanks to feedback from members across the institute we feel the new process is less onerous and should better reflect the variety of skills and aptitudes among our members. As you can imagine, taking a new concept and placing it into a system which is linked to salary changes takes time … and I appreciate P&C in communicating and collaborating with us on that process. It is being rolled out in its new form this year.  The documentation is available on Waituhi.   If you need support with this, please email as AASC is happy to help.  Also, we would like to hear feedback on how the process is working for you.

Te Pūkenga Staff Committee

We will be putting forward a nomination for this role. There is further information available at Te Pūkenga Staff Committee.   If you are interested, or have some suggestions around this, please email.  We will keep you updated on this.

I hope this up-date has been of assistance.  We are committed to providing regular up-dates, especially in the current circumstances where there are on-going changes due to Te Pūkenga.  Please email anytime if you would like to check anything, ask for clarification or discuss.

Ngā mihi nui

Warwick Shillito
President AASC