Over 300 professional staff positions disestablished, while senior executives are cocooned from cuts.
Intro: A new Professional Services ‘Transformation’ initiative is the sequel to the Hunger Games round of academic staff redundancies at Macquarie which have occurred over the past year. Professional staff, who work alongside academics to support students, will be required to fight each other for new positions. We are particularly concerned that many positions have been downgraded, with the implication that those who survive will be doing the same work for less.
Summary:
- In a wide reaching ‘spill and fill’ exercise, Macquarie University has notified professional staff that over 300 full time equivalent positions will be disestablished across Student Services and its four Faculties. [1]
- The University seeks to save up to $8.1M in professional staff costs.
- Hundreds of staff are being asked to ‘express interest’ in new roles and are concerned they will be forced to accept positions which are lower paid or be made redundant.
- These latest job cuts are in addition to the 239 professional and over 150 academic staff jobs already lost since the start of the pandemic.
- The University proposes to close Faculty Student Centres, with students asked to seek support through a centralised model.
- The University executive has continued to swell and have not taken a pay cut during the period of “budgetary crisis” that they say necessitates job cuts.
- There is no evidence that Macquarie University is facing any major budget problems and experts have stated that the University’s finances remain “healthy” (see this Article). Staff have not been provided with a budgetary update, as the University avoids scrutiny of its true financial situation.
- Academic and professional staff, already working more intensively because of the pandemic, are facing increasing workloads, with students receiving diminished support services.
- The Macquarie NTEU Branch Committee and its members will actively oppose these blatant attacks on staff job security, pay and working conditions. We will engage broadly with the University community to voice their concerns and campaign against these cuts.
Lead: This week, the University has notified over 300 professional staff that their positions are to be disestablished in a ‘spill and fill’ exercise. The University proposes to save $8.1M in professional staffing costs. Hundreds of staff are being asked to express interest in lower paid roles, or be made redundant. Staffing cuts are to continue while the University executive continues to grow, and the University refuses to disclose its true financial situation.
Quote: “This latest ‘spill and fill’ of hundreds of professional staff is a sequel to last year’s Hunger Games style academic staff cuts. Professional staff, who have worked tirelessly to support staff and students over the most turbulent period of the University’s history will now be required to fight between themselves for positions, many of which have been downgraded. Management claim this initiative is about putting “students first”, but are ignoring the fundamental role that professional staff play in enabling the optimal student experience both directly and through their role in supporting the wider University community.”
[Nikki Balnave, NTEU Macquarie Branch President]
Lead: The University has already cut over 230 professional staff jobs, and over 150 academic staff jobs since the start of the pandemic. Students will lose tailored support services during this latest attack on jobs, and staff will be given the ‘option’ of taking lower paid roles or face the sack.
Quote:
“It feels like an episode of Squid Game is playing out at Macquarie Uni. The University is telling staff they are valued and that these changes are designed to promote “better career pathways.” Yet, these changes simply seek to ‘spill and fill’ hundreds of jobs, with colleagues asked to express interest in lower paying roles, or face being unemployed. These changes demonstrate cognitive dissonance on the part of management, and there are certainly no winners for staff from this grim episode!”
[Benjamin Dougall, NTEU Macquarie Branch Vice-President, Professional Staff]
Lead: The proposed job cuts and lowering of grades will disproportionally impact women employees, many of whom are already on modest salaries, and will negatively impact staff on parental leave and with carer responsibilities. Many of these staff are being encouraged by the University to express interest in lower paying jobs simply to remain employed.
Quote:
“After women have borne the brunt of job losses during the pandemic, the University management launches yet another attack on women’s employment. They are leveraging staff anxiety over an uncertain job market to squeeze even more work out of staff, often for less pay. This demonstrates management’s lack of respect and regard for the very workers who have kept the University afloat and tended to its students’ needs during the lockdowns. The job cuts will mean more administrative work for academic staff too – work that is often picked up by women and casual staff. The proposal is an incredibly damaging initiative that will have long-term negative impacts on the University’s capacity to meet student administration and support needs.”
[Cathy Rytmeister, Professional Staff employee]
Lead: Disestablishing over 300 FTE positions means the University is restructuring approximately 25% of its ongoing professional staff workforce, believed to be the biggest assault on staff jobs in the history of the University. Lowering of pay levels means many staff will leave the University and take their organisational knowledge and experience with them. This will leave many students, and the remaining lower-level staff, struggling to negotiate the University bureaucracy.
Quote:
“The work of the business school staff through programs have been the most valuable part of my university career both in development and the connections I have made with the staff and other students. I managed to land my dream graduate role, and I wholly attribute this to the amazing and dedicated staff of Macquarie University Business School. Without their round the clock support and passion to enhance the experience of students I don’t believe Macquarie University can offer the same value to students.”
[Emily Freeman, Final Year Bachelor of Commerce student]
Conclusion – NTEU Stepping into Campaign Mode
The NTEU is putting serious resources into fighting these changes. The NTEU at a local, NSW, and National level are stepping into campaign mode. They will be reaching out to academic and professional staff, to students, to the media, to the public, particularly prospective students and their parents in North-Western Sydney, and to community leaders. For too long, Macquarie management have felt insulated from public accountability, and the NTEU is intent to make sure that is no longer the case.
