The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has been rebuked by the Fair Work commission over matters that relate to governance.
"This is ironic, given the NTEU has been extremely vocal about governance in our world leading universities," the Executive Director of the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association, Craig Laughton, said.
Mr Laughton said anomalies in elections to fill union committee vacancies and the eligibility of some office holders to be elected in the first place.
"This raises several issues," he said.
"First, a union campaigning on a platform of good governance needs to be exemplary and it's clear that the NTEU is not.
"Secondly, elections for the NTEU, presently being conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission, are as the result of insufficient nominations for office, in other words a lack of people and interest.
"In a decision issued earlier this year the Fair Work commission said in relation to an NTEU application for an election to fill committee and other vacancies:
"…The organisation has previously indicated to the Commission that it has the practice of holding one election each year for all insufficient nominations and casual vacancies. However, the rule of the organisation do not currently reflect this practice. As such, it has been recommended to the organisation that it consider enacting rule changes to confirm this practice. It appears that the organisation is yet to take this step and is strongly encouraged to do so.
"…Commission staff also raised concerns with the organisation related to casual vacancies in some offices apparently occurring due to the relevant office holders becoming ineligible to hold office as a result of their unfinancial member status.
Later in the Decision the commission said: "…I take this opportunity to highlight the requirements of registered organisations to comply with their own rule and emphasise the risks associated with potential rule breaches."
Mr Laughton said a second irony was that the NTEU has been campaigning to have more of its members on university committees.
"How on earth can the union be pushing for such an outcome when it can't even fill its own committees?
"It will be interesting to see when the results of the latest union elections are confirmed, how many vacancies remain on its committees."
Mr Laughton said the union needed to clean up its act before looking over the fence and issuing hyperbole laden statements that are not the least bit constructive.
"Students, university employees and the higher education system deserve better," he said.
