Lily Wright, Sydney
On August 25, a meeting of National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members employed at the University of NSW condemned UNSW's August 23 announcement that it would shed up to 500 administrative and support staff jobs, and decided to take lunchtime protest action on August 30.
An email sent to 1200 UNSW employees on August 23 called for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy. It was accompanied by a notification to the university's 120 security and cleaning staff that their jobs will be made redundant as part of an outsourcing program.
The next day, hundreds more administrative and support staff in faculties and schools across UNSW were sent emails offering similar voluntary departure packages.
In June, Fred Hilmer, former CEO of Fairfax Holdings and the architect of the Howard government's competition policy, took over as UNSW vice-chancellor. "Professor Hilmer has previously said that there were too many general staff, but we had no idea of the extent of his desire to slash jobs", NTEU UNSW branch president Susan Price said. "To achieve his aim of reducing the ratio of general staff to academic staff to something akin to Melbourne University would require a cut of 300 to 500 general staff in one fell swoop, which is unprecedented."
"Who is going to pick up the workload?", Price asked. "What criteria is management going to use to determine who stays and who goes?"
Price said that it appeared Hilmer wants "to improve research and the student experience, yet the scope of these potential redundancies would suggest that no area of the university is exempt from potential job losses", which would have "a damaging" impact on the areas UNSW claims it is prioritising.
The NTEU, Price said, does not accept the premise on which UNSW is basing its job cuts. UNSW has claimed that every dollar spent on divisional support functions is less money available for academic and research activities. "Their own figures show that the highest-ranked research university in Australia, the Australian National University, currently employs 1.5 general staff for each academic staff member", Price explained.