National Tertiary Education Union - June 2020

 “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”

Arthur Miller

On 1 June 2020 - I received a welcome email from the National Tertiary Education Union, a “democratic organisation that is run by and for members”. 

The email also said, “Your membership is important to us” and “Membership also means getting to have a say”.

I’ll include the first point regarding what my “membership” was supposed to support: 

• Negotiate collective agreements that protect and improve members pay and conditions.

I want readers to keep this in mind as my story continues. My gut instinct about unions being gutless and somewhat “powerless” proved true. But I didn’t expect the kind of betrayal I experienced from the “leaders” of the NTEU, a union so vocal about “wage theft”. 

Remember, I became a union member at the same time as making a workers compensation claim. It was a coexisting issue with my membership. Both happened at the same time. I was never informed by anyone, including the NTEU, about a claim form I should have also received at this time.

The email also said: 

“Within the next month you will receive a Welcome Kit from your local Branch office. If you have not received your welcome kit, please contact the branch at the email above.”

I never received a Welcome Kit, and readers will find out my many attempts in trying to contact my branch organiser, to get information I had a right to know. 

I should have been informed of what my legal benefits were under workers compensation regulations. All I had as a continuous response from the branch organiser of the NTEU, was silence. 

On 3 June 2020, I emailed the NTEU branch organiser to organise an introduction meeting. I wrote:

“As a new member of the union, is it possible to make a time to talk with you next week. I’ll read the information in the introductory package when it comes through and the FAQs. I’m likely to have questions that would be great to discuss over the phone.

If there’s a time you have available next week to chat on the phone, I’d be grateful.”

It started professional and well enough. On 5 June 2020, I received a reply from the branch manager: 

“I am available for a phone discussion anytime on Monday from 11.30 - 3pm. I have the same availability on Tuesday. When would be best for you?”

I replied later that day:

“Thanks for getting back to me. I thought Monday is a public holiday. How about Tuesday at 2pm. Is that still available. Would you like me to call you at that time?”

There was no response and an introduction meeting never happened. 

Let’s find out why, in later posts. 

The union breached policies toward me as a member, by also engaging in the psychological torture of workplace mobbing and ostracism. They chose to ignore me and omit information I had a right to know about workers compensation laws and regulations and my legal entitlements. Those legal entitlements were never passed on to me, by the self-insurer, Catholic Church Insurance. 

It is the betrayal on the issue of “wage theft” that the NTEU national president has been so vocal about and active in, that makes it worse in the harm they agreed to cause me. 

I want answers to my questions, in due time, from the NTEU National President, Alison Barnes. To date, those questions continue to be ignored and go unanswered. 

This post is based on documents 67-68. Just like my relationship with the NTEU starts professional and well enough, so too does my relationship with Catholic Church Insurance. I have only the case manager to thank for that.