CPSU/PSA threatens to close SCU's Coffs Campus because of heat

General staff at Southern Cross University's Coffs Harbour campus will be advised by the CPSU/PSA at a union meeting tomorrow to consider options such as abandoning their work stations, or calling WorkCover NSW onto the campus.

Many staff members have been sweltering in office temperatures that have hovered in the mid thirty degrees Celsius for weeks.

In many of these un-air-conditioned offices, temperatures have ranged from the low to mid thirties and sometimes above, for much of the summer.

Stephen Senise, Organiser for the Community & Public Sector Union at Southern Cross University, said that the management's failure to comprehensively deal with the issue has been an ongoing concern of staff since 1997.

"WorkCover NSW have set 26 degree as the appropriate temperature for an office work place."

"Obviously there's some give and take with that, and staff realise they're living and working in the sub-tropics, but we're talking here of office temperatures well above 30 degrees for days and weeks on end."

"You simply cannot under the law provide indefinitely for that kind of a work place."

"Staff understand that because of the nature of a university's administrative needs, general staff are required to work more or less uninterrupted through the hottest summer months."

"But management are obliged to adopt every possible measure and strategy for maintaining a viable and safe work place in these very hot conditions."

"Better yet management should ditch its long standing opposition to installing air conditioners."

"Unless matters improve, it would be the union's position that the current situation constitutes a violation of the OH&S Act on the part of the university, possibly even a breach of the conditions of employment, and that would be an unfortunate state of affairs."

"The union is committed to resolving this matter, either with the constructive engagement of management, or via the legal provisions which ensure and enforce appropriate workplace occupational health and safety standards," Mr Senise said.

Note: Click here for the PSA/CPSU policy on hot work.