PROBLEM? Poor University management SOLUTION? Sack 450 staff in Newcastle
May 4, 2005
The National Tertiary Education Union today vowed to defend as many jobs as possible in the wake of the of Newcastle University’s Vice Chancellor announcing yesterday that there will be 450 forced redundancies to address a supposed budget shortfall.
Prof Nick Saunders made the announcement to staff meetings yesterday afternoon, without even advising the University Council. The VC refused to speak to the NTEU before making the announcement but is determined to push ahead with the sackings by July.
Back in early March the NTEU demonstrated that the actual deficit was considerably smaller than $23M that the VC now asserts - he has overplayed the extent of the deficit in order to divert attention from the real cause – significant cutbacks in government funding over the past 5 years to the higher education sector and long term poor management at the University.
“The VC is trying to paint the need for massive staff cuts as a foregone conclusion, rather than attempting to address the real problem – forcing the Howard Government to appropriately fund universities,” said the NTEU State Secretary, Ms Chris Game. “This is a ‘scorched earth’ style of management that will result in 1 in 5 staff sacked and dozens of courses axed. NTEU calls on the VC to meet with us to discuss this dreadful situation.”
“Newcastle University is the Hunter’s premier educational institution and one of its largest employers. This Government is hell bent on turning Universities into corporate businesses and making them fund their activities by raising fees and getting into business deals rather than concentrating on teaching the nation’s future generations and undertaking research,” Game said.
“The VC’s plan seems to be ‘get rid of 450 staff and solve the deficit’, but there has been no disclosure of the huge cost to the University of making so many staff redundant in one fell swoop. The ongoing impact will be enormous – both in terms of the University’s budget and on the community of Newcastle and the Hunter region,” Game went on to say.
“This won’t be allowed to happen. The current Enterprise Agreement declares that redundancy should be used only as an absolute last resort. The NTEU is in the process of undertaking rigorous analysis of the University’s financial status so that a true picture of the need for any redundancies can be reported to our members.”
“We must also see if there are other areas of expenditure which can be looked at, rather than the VC’s preferred option of taking an axe to its core function – the delivery of quality teaching and research.”
What is happening at Newcastle is just the thin edge of the wedge of the industrial changes for the sector announced last Friday by Minister Nelson. The Education Minister has obviously targeted University workers and their families to be at the top of the Howard government’s hit list.
For further information or comment, contact:
Ms Chris Game, Secretary, NTEU NSW, Tel: (02) 9212 5433