Student council sacks staff

By Alice Barker

MELBOURNE -- Action taken by the student union executive council at the Victorian University of Technology to force staff redundancies may be a sign of what is in store for student unions under Kennett's new legislation.

At an executive council meeting on July 25 SU president Zoltan Kovacs moved to eliminate five staff positions and make four staff redundant. The positions targeted are: Welfare and Education Department Coordinator, Women's Research Officer, Media Officer, Clubs and Societies Officer and Sport and Outdoor Education Officer. The executive also passed a motion to sack Tony Andreevski, the editor of the student newspaper Genesis who has been outspoken in his opposition to the executive's actions.

Kovacs justified his proposal in economic terms; he outlined a plan for the SU to borrow money to finance the construction of a multi-purpose sporting complex on campus. With student unions battling for money, this will no doubt lead other right-wing union leaderships to trade student services and activities for cash. Non-profit areas such as welfare and women's services will, as always, be among the first to go.

Industrial relations within student unions is a notoriously dirty business; staff are subject to the whims of the annual change of student representatives. In this case, the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union have clearly affirmed the staff's status as university employees and have declared the actions of the SU executive invalid. This will give protection to the staff currently targeted for redundancy but it will not prevent the executive continuing their attacks on student's services.

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