NTEU PETITION ON GENERAL STAFF TRANSITION GUIDELINES & RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION POLICY TO PROFESSOR MARGARET GARDNER, VICE-CHANCELLOR, RMIT UNIVERSITY I believe that all staff are entitled to expect change at work to be managed and guided by principles that ensure consultative, transparent and fair processes. As a RMIT staff member I am strongly opposed to the policy changes RMIT is making to the General Staff Transition Guidelines and the new Recruitment and Selection policy. I object strongly to not being consulted about the changes to the Transition Guidelines and wish to register my lack of confidence in a process that I believe is unfair to staff and lacks transparency. I am particularly opposed to the fact that if there are even minimal changes to positions, the guidelines give no protection to staff from being forced to apply for their own job in a competitive selection process with other internal and external applicants. These guidelines encourage the use of a \'spill and fill\' process and severely erode general staff job security. I also object to the changes in the new Recruitment and Selection policy. The removal of the elected staff representative from selection panels is deeply flawed and unfairly excludes staff as useful and legitimate stakeholders in the selection process. Furthermore, the decision making is now concentrated in the chair and makes no requirement of the chair to include the views of the selection panel. I have no confidence in this as a selection process as it is not transparent, rigorous and is open to cronyism. I am calling on the University to agree to the following: *Develop clear and unambiguous practices for aligning the new and existing positions where roles have been redesigned or restructured. *That these are provided to all affected staff and WCC staff and NTEU representatives. *These practices are evaluated at the end of 2007 with WCC staff and NTEU representatives. *Classify all new positions through a properly constituted classification committee in accordance with the RMIT policy. *Amend the Transition Guidelines to include practices that minimise staff redundancy including funded retraining for affected staff. *Retain elected staff representatives on all selection panels and the requirement to include the views of the selection panel. *Reinstate casual staff as internal staff members and internal applicants for selection purposes.

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