The next set of staff savings will be more painful

At La Trobe U 239 people have had their application for voluntary redundancy approved with a net saving that is the financial equivalent of 160 FTE, just ahead of what management expected.

The VR result comes a week or so after staff voted decisively for the university’s proposal for temporary cuts to wages and conditions, in part to save the “financial equivalent of around 225 jobs.”

But anywhere between 215 and 415 involuntary departures could still be required. Vice Chancellor John Dewar has long warned the university community that LT U’s financial circumstances are such that it must make staff savings (CMM May 13), including voluntary redundancies (CMM June 24).