UNIONS representing Charles Sturt University staff have claimed a victory in their dispute with the university over a restructure that will see four faculties condensed into three.
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The restructure, first mooted by CSU in August, will see the existing faculties of Arts, Business, Science and Education replaced by faculties of Science, Human Services, and Arts and Business from the start of 2016.
The change was endorsed at a University Council meeting last week.
Initially, CSU said there would be 14 administration roles lost across all its campuses as part of the restructure, but vice chancellor Professor Andrew Vann yesterday said that number had now been contained to a net loss of 3.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions.
But that assurance has still not satisfied the National Tertiary Education Union, which says the university has not “justified the cost of the changes or the damaging impact on the confidence of its staff”.
The union has also maintained that the figures cited by the university do not take into account cuts to casual administrative positions.
“It is important to understand that this original number of proposed job cuts was just the tip of the iceberg,” NTEU branch president Dr David Ritchie said.
We know that many more jobs were slated to go, as staff currently occupying contract and fixed term positions were not included in this number, and there remains uncertainty over final numbers given that change proposals for other work units are still being rolled out."
However, Dr Ritchie was claiming a significant victory in winning agreement from the university management to “enter into a more consultative process with staff and the NTEU regarding the implementation process and the provision of information”.
Professor Vann conceded the change would be “challenging” for some, but he believed the new model would serve the university well without affecting on teaching standards.
He also rejected union claims that the university was overlooking the impact of casual job losses.
“This change to a three faculty model does not directly affect casual staff and reports that 5000 casual positions are at risk have no basis,” he said. “CSU’s casual staff numbers vary according to workload demands.
“There may be some efficiencies in our casual staffing once we have finalised the permanent positions but many of the casual staff are employed on projects and contracts that will not be affected by the proposal.”
