Sarah Stephen, Sydney
Staff at the University of New South Wales face an unprecedented attack in the wake of vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer's pursuit of his vision for UNSW as one of the "top three" universities in Australia.
Before the ink was even dry on the certification of UNSW's new enterprise agreement, management announced on August 22 the forced retrenchment of 120 cleaning and security staff. In addition, up to 500 administrative and support staff positions will be targeted for redundancy. The cuts will affect up to 10% of UNSW's 5000-strong work force.
Two mass meetings of staff — those covered by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) on August 25 and those in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) on August 29 — voted to hold a combined unions protest rally on August 30. The rally drew more than 400 people, including cleaners and security staff slated for retrenchment, members of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union. The rally was addressed by Labor MP for the local seat of Kingsford Smith Peter Garrett, Unions NSW assistant secretary Mark Lennon, CPSU (SPSF branch) federal secretary David Carey, NTEU NSW division president Stuart Rosewarne and LHMU NSW branch secretary Annie Owens.
A motion was passed unanimously condemning the plan to slash general staff positions, and calling on the university to commit to no forced redundancies and to properly consult with staff over the future of UNSW.
NTEU UNSW branch president Susan Price told Green Left Weekly: "The NTEU is appalled that the university is sacrificing the jobs of hundreds of staff, with apparently little or no concern for the impact on teaching and research, then in the same week launching an aggressive marketing strategy aimed at attracting top students from around the state with scholarships that could be partially funded out of these cuts." The university will spend $3.3 million trying to attract the top student from each of 830 high schools in NSW and the ACT with its new Academic Achievement Award scholarship, announced on August 29.
The August 29 Sydney Morning Herald revealed that Hilmer's $750,000 salary package ranks second highest in the country.
The UNSW management has assured staff that they won't be left to absorb "inappropriately heavy workloads" as a result of staff reductions; steps will be taken to either "streamline" or "drop" activities. However, the NTEU is concerned that the job cuts could lead to long-term damage to the institution, and undermine the core research and teaching activities.
While UNSW management assert that savings will be redirected into research activities and student experience, Price told GLW: "We understand that their intention is to redirect spending away from administrative and support staff, into an advertising and marketing strategy, undergraduate first-year scholarships and research infrastructure projects, with only a portion of these cost savings spent on employing additional staff in research areas." She added: "It now appears, from management representatives' statements to the NTEU on August 25, that they also need to find $9 million to fund student services put at risk by the federal government's 'voluntary student unionism' laws."
Administrative and support staff have until September 15 to comment on the proposal, or to express interest in a voluntary redundancy package. Management has said that if there are insufficient voluntary redundancies, forced redundancies will be necessary.
The workers took their campaign to UNSW's courses and careers day on September 2, distributing thousands of leaflets and collecting hundreds of signatures on a petition demanding no forced redundancies.