Employment Equity and Diversity

Public Employment Office

NSW Premier’s Department

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY (EEO)

ANNUAL REPORTING AND MANAGEMENT PLAN TEMPLATE

2005/2006

Agency Name: University of Western Sydney

Submitted on behalf of: Professor Janice Reid Vice Chancellor

Date: October 2006

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  1. INTRODUCTION

This template is designed to assist you in preparing your EEO annual report and management plan. All public sector agencies are required to report annually on their progress in achieving the objects of Part 9A of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act (1977). These objects are:

  • The elimination of discrimination in employment and
  • The promotion of equal employment opportunity

For women, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, people whose first language was not English, and people with a disability.

The Annual EEO report covers the policies/programs for the previous 12 month period. The EEO Management Plan includes EEO policies/programs for the next 12 month period.

Part 9A of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 Section 122J enables agencies to amend their EEO Management Plan. Amendments to EEO Management Plans should be forwarded as soon as practicable to the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment.

The EEO Annual Report lodgement dates are as follows

SECTOR / REPORTING PERIOD / LODGEMENT DATE
Higher Education / 1 Jan – 31 Dec 2005
Snapshot data 31 March 2006 / October 2006

You may find the following resources useful in completing the template:

  • General – Information about EEO in the New South Wales public sector can be found on the web site of the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment at
  • EEO Statistics for this reporting period will be provided annually to each agency by the Workforce Profile Unit, Public Employment Office, NSW Premier’s Department.

Contact Sharon Lowe, Team Leader Ph: 9228 3924

  1. AGENCY CONTEXT – INFORMATION

Universities should provide information on the following:

  1. The integration of equity into the University’s strategic planning, reporting and performance management frameworks;
  2. The senior management structure by gender, including the Executive, Deans and staff employed at HEW 10 and above;
  3. Measures implemented to ensure consultation with EEO stakeholders;
  4. Women’s representation on committees and decision-making bodies.

Please add comments if there are specific characteristics or issues that have impacted the organisation during the reporting period.

(i.e. Restructure, Amalgamation, Regionalisation, New Technology, New Functions).

IMPACT ISSUE(S) / COMMENTS
Restructuring university wide and cyclical review processes / Over the past seven years there has been a series of planned and phased structural reformstransforming the university from a federated structure with 3 members to the current unified structure with 3 Colleges and 17 Schools.
Restructuring of equity and diversity area. / An Equity and Diversity Unit has been established with a Draft 2005-8 Equity Plan. Recruitment action is underway for the new position of Director Equity and Diversity.
Decrease in public funding / A sustainability agenda has been developed to gain greater efficiencies and cost savings in service provision. A comprehensive review has been undertaken of all university structures, locations and operations to identify ways of increasing income, reducing costs and ensuring the sustainability of the university in the long term.
Preparation for AUQA Audit October 2006 / Whilst providing an opportunity for institutional improvements, preparations for AUQA are necessarily time consuming and expensive.
Changing industrial environment, introduction of new legislation and HEWRRS. / HR resources have been necessarily directed towards ensuring HEWRRS compliant staff agreements and issuing offers of Australian Workplace Agreements to all staff limiting resources available for strategic workforce planning, career development and performance management projects.
  1. EEO ANNUAL REPORT - STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Please complete the following tables from data provided by Workforce Profile Unit, Public Employment Office, NSW Premier’s Department.

3.1 Trends in the Representation of EEO Target Groups in %

3.1.1 Academic Staff

EEO Target Group / % of Total Staff[1]
Academic Staff / Benchmark or Target / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006
Women / 50% / 45% / 46% / 45% / 46%
Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders / 2% / 0% / .5% / .5% / .7%
People whose first language was not English / 19% / 23% / 24% / 25% / 25%
People with a disability / 12% / 6% / 6% / 6% / 7%
People with a disability requiring work-related adjustment / 7% / 2% / 2% / 2% / 2%

3.1.2 General Staff

EEO Target Group / % of Total Staff[2]
General Staff / Benchmark or Target / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006
Women / 50% / 66% / 66% / 66% / 66%
Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders / 2% / 1% / 1.3% / 1.3% / 1.4%
People whose first language was not English / 19% / 14% / 15% / 15% / 15%
People with a disability / 12% / 8% / 8% / 8% / 9%
People with a disability requiring work-related adjustment / 7% / 2% / 2% / 3% / 3%

3.2 Trends in the Distribution of EEO Target Groups

3.2.1 Academic Staff

EEO Target Group / Distribution Index[3]
Academic staff / Benchmark or Target / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006
Women / 100 / 87 / 86 / 87 / 86
Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders / 100 / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a
People whose first language was not English / 100 / 99 / 96 / 97 / 92
People with a disability / 100 / 104 / 101 / 102 / 95
People with a disability requiring work-related adjustment / 100 / n/a / n/a / n/a / 96

3.2.2 General Staff

EEO Target Group / Distribution Index[4]
General Staff / Benchmark or Target / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006
Women / 100 / 93 / 92 / 92 / 91
Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders / 100 / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a
People whose first language was not English / 100 / 100 / 100 / 100 / 100
People with a disability / 100 / 101 / 100 / 101 / 99
People with a disability requiring work-related adjustment / 100 / 103 / 103 / 104 / 108
  1. EEO ANNUAL REPORT – REPRESENTATION & DISTRIBUTION COMMENTS

Part 9A of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 requires agencies to report on the representation and distribution of the EEO target groups in their workforce. The NSW government has set benchmarks for the four EEO target groups that reflect their representation in the NSW population.

To achieve these sector wide benchmarks agencies should analyse agency EEO statistics and consider:

  • current performance against state-wide benchmarks
  • market/community demographics
  • core business requirements

Please evaluate your agency’s performance in improving the representation and distribution of EEO groups within your workforce. Please comment on any favourable/unfavourable variances against Government benchmarks.

Where possible, universities should also provide information about outcomes against the following indicators:

  1. Employment basis by EEO target group (full-time / fractional, continuing / contract / casual);
  2. Recruitment outcomes for members of EEO target groups;
  3. Academic promotion outcomes for members of EEO target groups;
  4. General staff reclassification outcomes for members of EEO target groups;
  5. Separations by EEO target group;
  6. Pay equity outcomes for members of EEO target groups, e.g. starting base salary, salary supplementation and market loadings, and performance pay and bonuses;
  7. Research participation by gender.

EEO Target Group / Comments - favourable / unfavourable variances
Academic Staff
Women / The representation rate of academic women has increased gradually from 42% in 1995 to 46% in 2006. Due to the small numbers of recruitments it is inevitable that progression towards the 50% benchmark is a gradual process.In 2005 there were 56 external recruitments of which 48% were women and 52% men.
Analysis of promotion statistics indicate that present promotion processes are working well.In 2005 there was an increase in the percentage of female applicants and overall women were more successful than males in obtaining promotion.
The representation rate of academic women at senior Levels D and E has exceeded the targets set by the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (AVCC) in the Second AVCC Action Plan for Women Employed in Australian Universities 2006-2010. At UWS in 2006 39% of Level D academic staff were women and 27% of Level E academic staff were women.
Separation rates for women academic in 2005 were 47% which is slightly above their representation rate of 46%. Also of concern is the fact that women accounted for 60% of ‘agreed period expired separations.
Another area requiring attention is Pay equity. Analysis of pay equity data indicates average base and average gross earnings for academic women as a proportion of total academic staff earnings were 94% in 2006.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people / .7% of academic staff are indigenous Australians, below the benchmark of 2%. In 2006 UWS had 5 indigenous academic staff, 1 Level A,2 Level B and 2 Level C.Given the small number of Indigenous Academics at UWS analysis of employment data is not likely to be statistically valid.
In 2006 a new Dean of Indigenous Education position was created and has recently been filled. Strategies to improve the representation rate of indigenous academics are under review.The development of a new Indigenous Employment Strategy is a priority.
People whose first language was not English / UWS has a representation rate of 25% which is above the benchmark of 19% and the rate has been consistently increasing since 1996 when the representation rate was 11%. However academic staff from LBOTE (Language Backgrounds Other than English) are concentrated at the Lecturer and Senior Lecturer level and underrepresented at the professoriate levels D and E.
In 2005 15% of external recruitments were LBOTE staff, well below their representation rate of 25%. Careful monitoring will be required in this area and strategies to retain and develop LBOTE staff are under review.
Encouragingly 30% of 2005 Promotions were LBOTE staff which is above their representation rate of 25% and 22% of separations in 2005 were LBOTE staff which is below their representation rate.
The average base salary earnings of full time LBOTE Academic staff were 98% in 2006 and the average gross earnings were 97%. For fractional LBOTE Academic staff the average base salary earnings were 100% and the average gross salary earnings were 100%
People with a disability / 7% of UWS Academic staff identified as having a disability in 2006 up from 6% in 2005 but below the benchmark of 12%.
Staff with a disability are evenly distributed across all academic levels.
86% of staff with a disability are full time permanent staff.
In 2005 11% of external recruitments and 16% of internal recruitments were staff with a disability which is above their representation rate. However the numbers are very small and at the lower Lecturer levels. In 2005 2 Level A Academics externally recruited and 1 Level A and 1 Level B were internally recruited.
The separation rate for Academic staff with a disability was 5% in 2005. This translates into 4 separations. Of concern is the fact that half of these separations were voluntary redundancy. Ongoing monitoring of these separation rates will continue.
The average base salary earnings of full time Academic staff with a disability were 99% in 2006 and the average gross earnings were 99%. For fractional Academic staff with a disability the average base salary earnings in 2006 were 99% and the average gross earnings were also 99%.
People with a disability requiring work related adjustments / 2% of academic staff have identified as having a disability requiring a workplace adjustment, below the benchmark of 7%. There has been no progress in this area with 2% level remaining constant from 2003 to 2006.
The distribution of staff is concentrated at Level B with 57% of staff requiring adjustment at this level and all but one of these staff members is in a full time tenurable position. There areno fractional staff.
In 2005 there were no recruitments or separations for academic staff with a disability requiring workplace adjustment.
The average base salary earnings of full time Academic staff with a disability requiring adjustment were 101% in 2006 and the average gross earnings were also 101%.
EEO Target Group / Comments - favourable / unfavourable variances
General Staff
Women / 66% of General staff are women. This representation rate has been steady at 66% since 2003. Women comprise 62% of full-time staff and 88 % of fractional staff.At Levels 4 to 8 Women predominate, but at the most senior levels, Level9 and 10 women’s representation is under 50%.
In 2005 there were 86 external recruitments 67% of whom were women. Women comprised 50% or more of external recruitments at every level except Level 7(44%) and Level 9 (40%). For the same period there were 60 internal recruitments 55% of whom were women. There were no internal recruitments at Level 9 and only 2 Level 10 internal recruitments both of whom were male.
There were only 21 reclassifications in 2005 which is a very small number to draw any meaningful conclusions from. 52% of these reclassifications were women which is below their representation rate. At the senior levels there were no female reclassifications at Level 8, 3 at Level 9 and none at Level 10.
Women made up 63% of all separations in 2005 and 70% of voluntary redundancies.
Analysis of pay equity data indicates total average base salary earnings for general staff women were 93% of total general staff average base salary earnings. Average gross earnings for women general staff were 95% as a proportion of total general staff gross earnings.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people / 1.3% of General Staff have identified as being of indigenous background which is below the benchmark of 2%.
These 14 indigenous staff are appointed at Levels 3 to Level 8. There are no indigenous staff at Level 9 or 10.
76% of indigenous staff are in permanent full time positions.
There were only 2 external indigenous recruitments in 2005 , both at Level 3. In 2005 there were no internal indigenous recruitments and no indigenous staff reclassifications.
There were no indigenous staff separations in 2005.
As a measure to improve indigenous employment at UWS a retreat has been arranged for all indigenous staff to focus on networking, training and career development issues.
Average base and average gross earnings for indigenous staff as a proportion of total general staff earnings were 88% in 2006 reflecting their representation at the lower and middle levels of the general staff population.
People whose first language was not English / 15% of General Staff have identified as having a language background other than English(LBOTE) which is below the benchmark of 19%.
The majority of LBOTE staff are in permanent positions. 80% of LBOTE General Staff are in Permanent Full time positions and 14% are in Permanent Fractional positions.
LBOTE staff are well distributed at all the general staff levels including senior levels.
People from a Language Background other than English comprised 15% of external recruitments and 23% of Internal Recruitments in 2005.
The separation rate for LBOTE staff was 20% which is higher than their representation rate.
The average base salary earnings of full time LBOTE staff were 100% in 2006 and the average gross salary earnings were 97%. The average gross salary earnings of fractional LBOTE staff were 94% in 2006 and the average gross salary earnings were 94 %.
People with a disability / From 2003 to 2006 the percentage of staff identifying as having a disability increased from 8% to 9%. General Staff with a disability are concentrated in the Levels 3 to 8 with fewer at the senior levels 9 and 10.
Disappointingly there were no external recruitments of staff with a disability in 2005 and only one internal recruitment. There were no reclassifications of positions occupied by a staff member with a disability.
8% of general staff separations in 2005 were staff with a disability and 10% of redundancies were staff with a disability.
The average base earnings of full time general staff with a disability was 104% in 2006 and the average gross earnings of were 101%. The average base earnings of fractional general staff with a disability was 93% in 2006 and the average gross earnings of were 93%.
People with a disability requiring work related adjustments / From 2003 to 2006 the percentage of staff identifying as having a disability has increased from 2% to 3% but is still below the benchmark of 7%
Disappointingly there were no external recruitments of staff with a disability requiring adjustment in 2005 and only one internal recruitment. There were no reclassifications of positions occupied by a staff member with a disability requiring adjustment.
The separation rate for staff with a disability requiring adjustment was 3% which is the same as their representation rate.
The average base earnings of full time general staff with a disability requiring adjustment was 106% in 2006 and the average gross earnings of were 102%. The average base earnings of fractional general staff with a disability requiring adjustment was 91% in 2006 and the average gross earnings of were 91%.
  1. EEO Annual Report – POLICIES / PROGRAMS

Part 9A of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 requires agencies to report to the Director Equal Opportunity in Public Employment the activities and programs implemented in the last 12 months

  • to eliminate and ensure the absence of discrimination in employment; and
  • to promote equal employment opportunity for EEO target groups.

What policies and programs have been developed and/or implemented to eliminate discrimination and promote equal employment opportunity within your agency during the past 12 months?

5.1 Policies and programs to eliminate and ensure the absence of discrimination in employment

POLICIES/PROGRAMS / HOW WAS THIS COMMUNICATED? / WHAT WERE THE KEY RESULTS?
Comprehensive and accurate EO statistical data is maintained. / Automatically generated emails were sent to all staff asking them to complete the EO Survey. EO Survey information was included in the newly developed Staff Induction Book. A lucky draw competition was held for all staff who had completed the EO Survey. The winner received an iPod. / The EO Survey response rate increased from 79% in 2005 TO 82.5% in 2006.
New Complaints Management and Resolution System to provide timely resolution of complaints and improve equity issue identification and equity planning / An integrated complaints management system is currently being trialled. / Trials still underway. New Complaints Management Policy released.
Review of equity and diversity at UWS / A widespread consultation process was conducted with stakeholders. / Establishment of UWS Equity and Diversity and the production of the Draft 2005-2008 Equity and Diversity Plan.
Review has been conducted of all equity and diversity policies. / A collaborative and consultative process. / A draft Respectful and Inclusive Work and Learning Behaviours Policy which is the overarching policy of the equity and diversity policy suite has been submitted for approval.
New Recruitment and Selection Policy / A draft policy has been released for comment
Recruitment and Selection training for all staff participating in Selection Committees / Regular training sessions are conducted by the Professional Development Unit and all staff who participate in Selection Committees are required to undertake this training. / Merit based recruitment and selection is promoted. Selection committees are well informed concerning equity issues relating to recruitment and selection.

Online Training Course on Workplace Discrimination and Harassment

/ Automatically generated emails go to all new staff asking them to complete this training within their first three to six months at UWS.
All line managers are required to complete the online training as a prerequisite for Management Essentials Training. / Information on equity and discrimination is widely disseminated through the university.
Joint Equity and Diversity and College Pilot program to develop college based equity and diversity initiatives. / Regular meetings between Equity and Diversity and College Management / This program is in initial stages where equity issues are being identified.
New Equity and Diversity Website / Website available to all staff and students / Provides a readily accessible information source for staff and students on equity and diversity policy and services
New UWS Staff Wellbeing Website / Website available to all staff. / Brings together in a single site, information for staff on employment conditions, work options and facilities and services available.

5.2 Policies and programs to promote equal employment opportunity for members of EEO target groups