Macquarie U announces jobs will go (just not how many)

It all could be worse this year – it will be next

The university is on-track to be down $40m-$60m in teaching revenue as management predicted (CMM May 29) and $80m all-up this year.  But as for ’21, Vice Chancellor S Bruce Dowton warns of a “shortfall” in “international teaching revenue” of $150m on 2020 budget, plus down another $20m.

And so, “this negative financial impact will flow through to impact our workforce necessitating an overall reduction in our staffing profile,” the vice chancellor says.

The university will accordingly offer voluntary redundancies, but if “insufficient staff” take them, “we would then move to consider a range of workplace change processes over the next 6-12 months.”  As to how many make an “insufficient” the VC is silent. The university community should have an idea how many staff are for the sack, when the VR process ends on October 30.

Perhaps to ensure nobody missed what this means Professor Dowton adds, “as a university community, we are facing some quite difficult times over the next six to 12 months. The situation that we are in means we will be saying goodbye to colleagues we have valued for their contributions and collegiality.”

The university does not have a lot of choice to cutting staff, as per the enterprise agreement. In May management knocked back the job protection accord established by four vice chancellors and the National Tertiary Education Union. This can involve staff accepting temporary cuts to conditions and a freeze on pay rises in return for commitments to protect specified numbers of jobs.


Subscribe

to get daily updates on what's happening in the world of Australian Higher Education