Despite Victoria University’s unequivocal denial that it is not targeting out union officials, the National Tertiary Education Union claims that branch president Paul Adams is uniquely singled-out for compulsory retrenchment. On Tuesday in an open letter to VC Peter Dawkins the union stated, ”it is highly unusual that the president of the NTEU VU Branch was the only staff member targeted for a forced redundancy in the whole of the College of Arts and Education, and is possibly the only person in all the university to have been targeted in this way in the current change processes.”

However VU management yesterday rejected this;

“No staff members have been deliberately targeted for a forced redundancy in the College of Arts and Education, nor in any other college or department of Victoria University. Following a significant decline in student interest, VU has done what it has done in previous years – discontinued non-viable courses. Several courses in the culture, communications and creative writing discipline group within the College of Arts and Education fell into this area.

“All staff in affected areas have undergone a process of identifying suitable mitigation options spanning most of 2017.  The process was scrutinised on at least two occasions by the Fair Work Commission, who found that the university’s processes were consistent with VU’s industrial relations obligations.”

Last night the NTEU said it stood by its claim.