THE UNIVERSITY of Newcastle is planning for staff to start returning to campuses one day a week from May 11, ahead of students returning for small lectures, group work, tutorials and laboratory classes from semester two.
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UON Pro Vice-Chancellor (COVID-19 Response Leader) Learning and Teaching, Professor Liz Burd, said the return of staff to campuses would "match" the return of NSW students to schools, starting one day a week and increasing over time.
She said a "special arrangement" that allowed all staff to work from home would expire on May 8, but she expected some will apply to continue this arrangement.
"The managers are used to dealing with some of the complexities around those work relationships, so it will be negotiated at a manager level, rather than the Vice-Chancellor signing these things off," she said.
Professor Burd said she expected about 20 per cent of staff will be on campus on any given day next week and this will rise to 50 per cent within the month.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Newcastle branch president Dan Conway said staff were "yet to be briefed" on any such plan.
"Staff have made significant efforts to prepare for, and deliver, learning online," he said.
"Some staff have reported elevated levels of anxiety.
"For some staff, this anxiety has been further fuelled by a seemingly premature rush back to campus, only to continue online delivery in the majority of cases."
Remote classes resumed on Monday after an extended mid-semester break and following UON's directive to staff to take annual leave between April 20 and 24.
Professor Burd said she made the recommendation to allow academic staff time to develop online work for the rest of semester and for other staff and students to "recover".
"I acknowledge some people felt they were forced to take holidays when they would have preferred not to... I knew that possibly was going to be the case," she said.
"Sometimes as an executive you don't feel as if everyone will like your decision, but you have to make the decision that's best overall for the staff within that institution."
Mr Conway said the direction was given to all staff "unilaterally and without consultation" and pushed hundreds into a negative leave balance.
"Each of these staff is afforded, under their enterprise agreement, the right to consultation around a direction to take annual leave in circumstances where the agreement allows for such direction," he said.
Mr Conway said many staff had provided "compelling arguments" in their applications to be exempt from the directive, but these had been rejected.
He said the union had tried to achieve an "agreeable outcome" with management, but it had maintained "the COVID-19 crisis allows them to give such a direction".
The NTEU has sought arbitration in the Fair Work Commission and the matter has been listed for July 13 and 14.
Mr Conway said UON leaders continued to say it was in a strong financial position, but should also be "clearly articulating how they intend to mitigate any adverse impact on staff through means other than reductions in staff conditions and entitlements; or if such measures are required at all".
Professor Burd said remote teaching and learning would continue for semester one and trimester two.
She said students in a handful of courses were on campus this week for small group sessions to cover practical components of subjects.
Students in another 20 courses will do the same next week.
She said all students were expected to return to campuses from semester two for small lectures, group work, tutorials and labs.
Some courses will be offered online next semester for international students.