Deakin staff want transparency during job cuts

STAFF at Deakin University are signing an open letter addressed to vice-chancellor Professor Iain Martin urging transparency and more information as the university prepares to cut hundreds of jobs in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The drop in international students has seen revenue plummet across the university sector. Professor Martin has previously estimated Deakin’s income this year would be between $80 million-$110 million less than 2019, growing to $250 million-$300 million less by the end of 2021.
In response, the university is proposing to reduce staffing levels by 400 across its five campuses (including Geelong Waterfront and Waurn Ponds) – 300 existing staff, as well as another 100 vacancies that will not be filled.
The open letter, which is posted online and had more than 120 names (including students signing in solidarity) added to it by Friday last week, states the “top-down” nature of Professor Martin’s decision-making process about the job cuts was “both disturbing and insulting”.
“Your unilateral action to dismiss our casual colleagues, in order to force more work onto full-time staff (including clawback of past hours allegedly ‘not worked’, in the months when we were assisting the university in its major transition to online learning) would be stressful at the best of times”.
It states there are “many ways for institutions to handle financial pressure”, and equivalent savings to the proposed redundancies could be done in other ways, such as a voluntary staff pay cut, leave without pay and voluntary redundancies.
“Why are staff not being given the option to suggest, and vote on, other measures they are prepared to take to support this great university?
“Moreover, in forcing such a radical change program on us, while your reported 25 per cent pay cut is welcome, why have you chosen not to lead by example like ANU’s Brian Schmidt, who has announced a 20 per cent pay cut for himself and 10 per cent for his leadership team?”
The open letter makes five demands:

• Detailed financial transparency around any decision to shed staff, such as the calculations to reach the figure of 400 job losses and details of any financial options that have been pursued
• The Deakin executive to take meaningful pay cuts before any Deakin staff are made redundant
• Voluntary redundancies and leaves without pay to be offered to staff before any decision of forced redundancies is taken
• Clear and detailed information about all aspects of the intended “Major Workplace Change” and
• Transparent counting, public acknowledgment, and meaningful support of all casualised employees who have lost jobs.