But 277 FTE positions will go 

The bottom line: Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardner says Monash U’s finances are not as bad as reported in the media and savings so far “have mitigated our revenue loss for 2020” which she puts at $350m. However, “there are not enough non-salary savings or reserves to bridge the revenue loss in 2021.”

How to deal with it: Professor Gardner was one of four VCs who negotiated an accord with the National Tertiary Education Union to protect jobs by temporarily cutting staff conditions.

The union withdrew the national agreement after half the country’s VCs rejected it, but Professor Gardner has consistently said it will be the basis for Monash U’s savings plan.

What’s proposed: Staff savings include, *freezing all increment progressions to July ’21, * deferring the Enterprise Agreement’s 2 per cent pay rise, due in December to July next year, * redeploying staff, * staff reducing leave balances above 30 days, * a voluntary five-day leave purchase.

How jobs could go: Voluntary separations before targeted redundancies. The university commits to, “only make targeted redundancies where there is a permanent abolition of a substantial work function or insufficiency of work in a particular unit or work function.”

Existing casual and sessional staff have “priority for work opportunities where they could have reasonably expected to work and where that work is available.”

What won’t happen: no non-executive salary reductions, no stand-downs, no forced reductions in fractions, no cuts to casual and sessional pay, no compulsory long-service leave.

What next:  The university will use the process set out in the national accord. The plan goes to the federal leadership of the National Tertiary Education Union and then to a vote of union members at Monash U. If they approve, all staff will be invited to vote in the last week of June, on required changes to the enterprise agreement. And if the union rank and file says no, it’s back to savings under the existing enterprise agreement, which would not be good.

The yes case: “It is our hope we can achieve the required job reductions through voluntary separation packages. This is only possible if we are successful in a yes vote for the enterprise agreement variation,” Professor Gardner says.

But, and it’s quite a but: “There is no scenario, based on current information, that allows us to avoid 467 job losses, without the enterprise agreement variation. We have worked cooperatively with the NTEU to develop a temporary variation to protect as many jobs as possible at Monash U. This proposal is estimated to save 190 jobs.”

The 467 FTE that would go under the existing enterprise agreement are 179 academic full-time equivalents and 288 professional staff FTE. And they would need to go by year end, “ to deliver the savings needed for 2021.”