Applications for voluntary redundancies closed Tuesday but not everybody will get to go

Not all 501 will get to go – “this is the start of a process through which there will be further consultation with colleagues and consideration of the impact of the proposed VRs on the institution. Some assessments will be simple and others more complex, and the process will include consideration of whether the removal of the position will have a significant impact on our education and research,” Vice Chancellor Michael Spence tells staff.

To address this there is a new seven-day consultation with work units on VRs management wants to accept (independent of any invoking of Enterprise Agreement processes).

This appears a concession to National Tertiary Education Union concerns that staff-cuts, are “part of a long-term process of restructuring the university workforce,” which “would see permanent jobs replaced with fixed-term and casual jobs that can come and go at management’s whim,” (CMM September 23).

However, the campus branch of the Community and Public Sector Union takes a more immediate view. While it specifies five conditions for VRs, the CPSU tells members, ““It would seem perverse to prevent people going if they can do so with a financial package, particularly as this may help to reduce the need for forced redundancies,” (CMM November 3).

In September, 100 VRs was speculated as the minimum management was looking for (CMM September 23).