22.6 C
Byron Shire
March 29, 2024

University staff fear forced cuts

Latest News

Blue skies for Bluesfest day 1

If yesterday at Bluesfest was anything to go by, it's going to be an incredible event and with the weather holding, (so far) the Easter weekend's future is looking bright.

Other News

Iconic Lennox beach shed upgraded –  not demolished

Lennox Park and the shelter shed has now been upgraded and reopened.

It’s a biggest little town festival! 

Supporters, performers, and volunteers gathered to launch the Mullum Laneways Festival 2024 last Friday. 

New report highlights gaps in rural and remote health

The second annual Royal Flying Doctor Service ‘Best for the Bush, Rural and remote Health Base Line’ report has just been released. Presenting the latest data on the health of rural and remote Australians and evidence on service gaps, it identifies issues in urgent need of attention from service providers, funders, partners and policy makers.

What the duck!

Most days I ask myself ‘what the duck’ is happening here? How could Trump be president again if he...

Blue skies for Bluesfest day 1

If yesterday at Bluesfest was anything to go by, it's going to be an incredible event and with the weather holding, (so far) the Easter weekend's future is looking bright.

Hiatus Beers

Launched to market in July 2022, Hiatus Beers is all about brewing crisp, refreshing, full-flavoured, non-alcoholic beer.  The founders...

Dominic Feain

Southern Cross University staff are bracing themselves for more pain as management attempt to find $3 million dollars in savings to offset federal government funding cuts.

National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch president, Kate Mitchell, believes the university will struggle to find enough voluntary redundancies among its members, raising fears of forced staff cuts.

‘We had 15 staff members cut in a round of redundancies last year, again from a funding shortfall, so we don’t know where they will come from,’ she said.

‘Staff morale is terrible, really terrible. I’ve been here for 13 years and I’ve not seen it at such a low ebb.’

SCU management notified staff on Monday that there would be a round of voluntary redundancies in response to increasing pressures on the university’s budget, ‘exacerbated by the federal government cuts to higher education’.

Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Lee said it wasn’t an easy decision and followed consultation with staff and representatives from the CPSU (Community and Public Sector Union) and NTEU (National Tertiary Education Union).

‘The decision to proceed with the voluntary redundancy round has not been easy given my respect for all staff and the roles they perform,’ Professor Lee said.

Professor Lee said there was no firm number of redundancies being considered and forced redundancies were not being considered at this stage.

‘We have asked for applications and will await the response from staff,’ he said.

Universities Australia warned of a ‘Dickensian future’ for students earlier this month in response to $3 billion of cuts in this year’s federal budget, which triggered announcements of voluntary redundancies at Central Queensland University and the University of Canberra.

Meanwhile Ms Mitchell confirmed management had given no indication how many redundancies were needed to make up the shortfall, but she believed it would struggle to balance the books this way.

‘A hundred staff might come close to $3 million but then there’s next year’s budget and the years after that.

‘Surely an organisation of this size should be able to cope with $3 million in other ways?’

The university has given academic and administrative staff until June 21 to apply for voluntary redundancies.

‘The bottom line is there’s a lot of fear and worry about continuing employment and I suspect they won’t get a lot of hands up because firstly we don’t really have any extra staff … we weren’t running on a lot of fat to start with,’ she said.

Ms Mitchell said more than half the undergraduate teaching at SCU was done by casual staff, further reducing the pool of available redundancies.

‘You can’t make a casual redundant and casualisation is very high at SCU,’ she said.

‘In recent years it has only gotten bigger – across the sector it’s about 50/50 for undergraduate teaching and SCU reflects that, but on the higher end of the spectrum.

‘Due to the vocational nature of many of our courses like nursing and education, where in fact many tutors are working teachers and working nurses, we’ve always got slightly skewed numbers, but nevertheless there are many here who have been teaching for more than five years regularly and should be tenured but are not, which is another money-saving strategy.

‘We’re expecting a more detailed proposal from management in the next week or so, and with the June 21 deadline I would think toward the end of the first week in July we’ll get the next lot of news.’


Support The Echo

Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.

Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week – or maybe more – we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.

1 COMMENT

  1. One of the main reasons for low morale among staff is the sweeping changes and total disregard for their expertise which has been orchestrated by the new management which has been inserted in the past few years.

    Staff are being asked to give back their water coolers while the new management, who have been parachuted in, drive around in sports cars, draw enormous salaries and live at their beachside houses, all the while insisting that the staff who have worked there for years find more savings.

    I’ve seen evidence that new middle management is borderline incompetent, while they also draw large salaries due to their artificially elevated pay grades.

    No wonder staff morale is low.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Retired local professor launches book on grief

A leading international thinker and researcher in the development of innovative sport coaching and physical education teaching has returned home to Byron Bay and is launching his first non-academic book, 'Grief and Growth', on April 4 at The Book Room in Byron. 

Resilient Lismore’s ‘Repair to Return’ funding

On the eve of the second anniversary of the second devastating flood in 2022, Resilient Lismore has welcomed the finalisation of its funding deed with the NSW Reconstruction Authority, which will enable the continuation of its ‘Repair to Return’ program.

Editorial – Joyous propaganda! 

The NSW Labor government marked its one year in office this week with a jubilant statement of achievements issued from Macquarie Street HQ.

Man charged over domestic violence and pursuit offences – Tweed Heads

A man has been charged following a pursuit near Tweed Heads on Monday.