Education Solidarity Network » Good practice

Labour rights to be protected at NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus

caut — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:38:32 +0000

Construction workers building New York University’s new Abu Dhabi campus will be guaranteed some basic protections under a deal announced earlier this month by the university.

NYU had been facing mounting criticism from human rights and labour organizations over the university’s controversial venture into the United Arab Emirates where the basic rights of workers are routinely violated. Human Rights Watch has reported that UAE labour laws, “fail to protect workers’ rights to organize and to bargain collectively, provide punishments for striking workers, and exclude from coverage domestic workers employed in private households.”

Under the terms of the deal reached this month, NYU will require companies contracted to build the university’s branch campus to reimburse employees for any fees they may have paid to recruitment agencies, ensure that overtime is voluntary and property compensated, and provide employees with vacation and paid holidays.

While the agreement is important, gaps nevertheless remain. There doesn’t appear to be any independent monitoring mechanism, nor is there a duty for employers to pay a living wage or recognize the right of employees to bargain collectively.

However, the deal may be something education unions can build upon to press their domestic institutions into fully respecting core labour rights when operating overseas.

Branch campuses – union advice for members

ucu campaigns — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:43:09 +0000

Hi all,

Thanks to the CAUT for the helpful posting on the OBHE report on branch campuses (called offshores in the UK), the UCU has just published advice for members whose institutions set up such campuses. This follows on from pioneering work by the NTEU in this area.

To view the UCU advice, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4368

To view the NTEU guidance, click here: http://www.nteu.org.au/publications/other/overseas

Down and Outsourced in America

caut — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:36:23 +0000

Psst, want a university course for less than the price of your monthly cell phone bill? It sounds too good to be true and it probably is. But that’s the sales pitch an American-based company is making to recession-weary college students in the U.S., according to an article published earlier this year in Inside Higher Ed.

StraighterLine is a private, for-profit operation that has partnered with three private colleges and Fort Hays State University in Kansas to offer on-line courses in writing, algebra, statistics, economics and accounting for just $99. The partner institutions have agreed to recognize the StraighterLine courses for credit. It’s the latest twist on the growing problem of the commercial outsourcing of higher education teaching.

StraighterLine’s plan to expand its commercial partnerships has hit a snag as the accrediting agencies are now taking a close look at the company. But StraighterLine isn’t the only outfit offering course delivery partnerships with universities and colleges. Higher Ed Holdings Inc., a Texas-based company, is providing on-line Master’s programs in education at Arkansas State University and Lamar University. It all means university and college unions need to think quickly about ways to defend the quality and integrity of academic work from these outsourcing arrangements.

Here in Canada and the United States, the law is pretty clear: outsourcing and contracting out is permitted unless there is specific agreement otherwise. That’s why some unions in Canada have directly taken on the matter in their collective agreements. The Saint Mary’s University Faculty Union, for instance, has some strong language prohibiting outsourcing:

Except to the extent and to the degree agreed upon by the Employer and Union, no work ordinarily performed or which could be performed by an Employee covered by this agreement shall be performed by another employee of the Employer or by a person who is not an employee of the Employer.

This language has the added protection of ensuring that new work may not be contracted out either. As we’re seeing, this is especially important now with the rapid rise in new forms of technologically-mediated course delivery.

The threat from outsourcing isn’t going away any time soon. However, collective bargaining may be one way that we can help close the door.

— David Robinson, Canadian Association of University Teachers

UCU Guide for branches fighting privatisation

ucu campaigns — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:37:56 +0000

UCU has produced this guidebook to help its branches, operating in th context of the increasing interest among UK universities in outsourcing areas of academic provision or in establishing public private partnerships with private education companies like INTO, Study Group International, Navitas and KAPLAN. This guide was produced in collaboration with Professor Dexter Whitfield of the European Services Strategy Unit (ESSU). You can access it here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/r/e/ucu_challengingthemarketguide.pdf

For the ESSU, click here: http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/

Education International Report on Public-Private Partnerships

ucu campaigns — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:14:18 +0000

Here’s a link to Education International’s useful recent report on the experience of dealing with Public-Private Partnerships in tertiary education, including EI’s own recommendations for unions facing PPPs:

http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1039&theme=gats&country=global

Unions sign historic international deals to protect academic freedom and staff conditions

admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:21:53 +0000

Half a million academics from around the world have joined forces to create a series of new international agreements that will help safeguard academic standards at home and abroad.

Developed from an initiative led by the UK’s University and College Union, unions from North America, Europe, Australasia and Africa sign deals at an international conference – Challenging the global market in education – held at the Institute of Education in London. The agreements make specific references to protecting academic freedom and monitoring the work of private companies in higher education.

The unions are concerned at a growing international market in tertiary education that has seen universities in the UK, America, Australia and Canada open lucrative campuses in the Middle East and East Asia, and say they will use the agreements to hold institutions to account for their overseas ventures.

Signatories will report abuses like those at the Singapore campus of Australia’s James Cook University, where a lecturer was suspended and dragged before a court of law for wearing a pro-democracy t-shirt. The conference will commit unions to discouraging staff and the academic community from working and sharing research with institutions with bad overseas records.

The agreements will also allow the unions to share intelligence and work on joint campaigns against private companies who are looking to set up public-private partnerships with universities to recruit international students. The unions oppose the creation of a two-tier workforce in higher education and believe that in-house alternatives carry far less risk to the reputation, academic standards and financial well-being of universities. The private firm, INTO, for example, has been overwhelmingly rejected by staff at every UK university that has been polled on whether or not the institution should work with the company.

Building international solidarity: A multilateral international agreement to defend education against global marketisation