Consultancy, secondary employment and internal work

The Consultancy, Secondary Employment and Internal Work Policy and Procedures replaces the previous policy and procedures for Outside Work and Business Interests.

Key changes include changes to:

• terminology
• consultancy
• secondary employment
• internal work.

Terminology

In addition, definitions have been updated or created for key elements of the policy suite.

Consultancy

The following are key changes for consultancy:

• Greater clarity over consultancy processes. Three types of consultancy are defined in the policy: Standard Consultancy, Teaching Consultancy and Academic Consultancy.
• Academic consultancy has been defined as all those activities that many staff engage in by providing a service to their discipline, government agencies, or during the dissemination of knowledge to their colleagues. Common examples include honorariums, speakers’ fees, payment for reviewing grants or theses, and service roles on journals. Clearer guidelines have been provided for how these transactions are to be conducted through UQ for payments above $1,000, and staff can receive payment directly for transactions below $1,000.
• Greater clarity regarding when personal payments from consultancy activities are available and approval processes.
• Externally generated consultancy funds generated by standard and academic consultancy activities have been moved to a “restricted” fund code, which means they are no longer considered operating funds and can be carried forward at the end of year. Such accounts may accumulate balances of up to $200K, and these funds may be carried forward from year to year.
• Consistent approach to research and consultancy indirect cost recovery by recognising that indirect costs are real costs incurred by the University and maintaining a 40% flat rate on total costs across all consultancy and research activity.
• For standard consultancies (Type 3) with direct costs less than $10K, indirect costs (overheads) must be charged, but stay in academic consultancy accounts for academic purposes.
• CI salaries must be fully priced in the contract for consultancy projects and cannot be priced as in-kind. For contract research, under limited conditions, CI salaries may be priced as in-kind with Level 5 Authorised Officer (HoS) approval. When considering pricing CI salaries as in-kind, the loss of UQ funds should be assessed against:
  • criticality of the project to the CI’s career
  • criticality of the project to UQ’s strategic objectives; and
  • and the partner’s genuine ability to pay.

Secondary employment

The following are key changes for secondary employment:

• Removal of reference to 200 hours as a restriction to time allowed for outside work (now secondary employment)
• Approval from your supervisor for conducting secondary employment is no longer required for most types of activity (with the exception of a second academic position, or the holding of certain types of directorships).
• Staff are required to disclose secondary employment in the new Secondary Employment Register.

Internal work

It is common for staff from one UQ organisational unit to provide a service for another (client) UQ organisational unit. The new policy defines internal work for the first time and provides greater clarity on how these activities are to be transacted:

• Such activities are normally to be considered within the workload of the staff member.
• Staff are not permitted to receive personal payments for internal work from the client UQ organisational unit.
• Where the activity is substantial in nature, the client UQ organisational unit may transfer an internal fee to the home UQ organisational unit of the staff member.
• Where the activity is substantial in nature and outside of normal workload, staff may be remunerated for internal work by the home UQ organisational unit through standard remuneration process such as a bonus, or where the activity is recurring, through a market loading. The usual HR approval processes required for these mechanisms apply.