UNSW STAFF MEET TO PLAN ACTION ON JOB LOSSES
August 24, 2006
A mass meeting of NTEU members will take place on Friday August 25 at 12pm in Central Lecture Block 4 (Building E19, Kensington Campus, UNSW) to plan a response to job cuts announced this week. This will occur prior to NTEU representatives meeting with University management on Friday afternoon at 3pm.
University of New South Wales Vice Chancellor, Fred Hilmer is threatening the jobs of up to 500 General Staff. An email sent to 1200 staff on August 23, calls for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy. Additionally, one hundred security and cleaning staff have been told their jobs will be outsourced as part of the VC’s cost cutting. Administrative and support staff in some teaching Faculties are also caught up in these job cuts.
"Professor Hilmer has previously stated that there were too many General Staff, but we had no idea of the extent of his desire to slash jobs", said National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) UNSW Branch President Susan Price. “To achieve his aim of reducing the ratio of General Staff to Academic Staff - something akin to Melbourne University - would require a cut of between 300 and 500 General Staff in one fell swoop, which is unprecedented.”
“Who is going to pick up the work load of staff whose jobs disappear? What criteria is management going to use to determine who stays and who goes?" asked Price. "We haven't been provided with any evidence that there is any planning taking place at all," she said. "They appear to be tossing General Staff jobs in the air and modelling the University on how they fall. Our members will want answers."
The NTEU does not accept the premise on which the University is basing its argument. They say that "every dollar spent on divisional support functions is less money that is available for the University to spend directly on academic and research activities". Yet in their own figures they show that the highest-ranked research university in Australia, the Australian National University, currently employs 1.5 General Staff for each Academic Staff member.
"I think Professor Hilmer is showing his inexperience in higher education", said Chris Game, NSW NTEU Division Secretary. "By being dismissive of the role of General Staff, he is showing a distressing lack of understanding of the nature of this industry" she said.
For further information or comment,
contact:
Susan Price, President, NTEU UNSW
Branch
Ph: (02) 9385 2479
Chris Game, State Secretary, NTEU NSW Division
Ph: (02) 9212 5433