A LEGAL showdown is brewing within the walls of the University of New England as a senior academic and the UNE chancellor battle over the running of the university council.
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Professor Margaret Sims has been a member of the University of New England Council for the past six years, and recently became the acting president of UNE’s branch of the National Tertiary Education Union.
It was at that point chancellor and council chairman James Harris sent Professor Sims a letter asking her to resign from the council because of a “conflict of interest” between her council and union roles.
Professor Sims declined and sought her own legal advice on the matter, engaging high-profile Sydney barrister Bret Walker, who told her the university was being discriminatory and breaching industrial relations law.
When she refused the request to step aside, Professor Sims said Mr Harris had advised the “conflict” would impact on any staffing issues the council had to consider and so had excluded her from those discussions and removed those items from her business papers.
“This has severely curtailed my ability to carry out my duties as the academic voice on council and deprived council of critical educational expertise in its decision-making,” she said.
It has also angered UNE union members, who rallied at UNE before the last general council meeting, during which Professor Sims tried to present her legal advice, but failed to gain the support of the council members. She told The Leader she would now seek further advice, hopefully as soon as next week, and couldn’t rule out the matter ending in court.
“I have to go back to my legal team first, but we’re considering all options at this point,” Professor Sims said.
She is also determined to retain her place on the council.
“The fundamental issue of staff rights has to be fought ... (because) if I give in, it may authorise other universities to take the same action,” Professor Sims said.
“I can’t step aside now, I just have to grin and bear it.”
She’s also disappointed by the lack of support from other members of the council and said they had a responsibility to consider both sets of legal advice.
“My advice is that (what the council is doing) is not legal and any decisions that are made are illegal and would have to be revisited,” Professor Sims said.
She also sees the two roles as “complementary, not conflictual” because in both cases she was ensuring decisions over staffing were “fair and legal”.
Uni has taken legal advice
THE University of New England said it had nothing to do with union membership.
“The university has a number of members of the NTEU on its council. They do not have the duties of president,” a university spokesperson said.
They said the university council had taken external legal advice to guide its decisions on the matter and in March council members decided unanimously Professor Sims would have a potential conflict of interest in relation to a number of matters that came before it.
“She will be effectively sitting on both sides of the table in enterprise agreement negotiations; she will be voting on changes that affect staff and then representing staff if the changes are
disputed; she will be part of the governing body of the university that takes disciplinary action against a staff member and then defend the staff member against the university,” the spokesperson said.
