Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union members at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa | Massey University are preparing to fight for every job in the wake of today’s announcement of further job cuts by Vice Chancellor Jan Thomas.
The calls for “voluntary enhanced cessation” (voluntary redundancy) target up to 125 jobs across the Library, College of Health, and College of Sciences, with the College of Sciences hit hardest with 90 to 100 jobs on the line. The announcement comes despite years of ongoing cuts in these areas preceding the announcement, and the government’s recent cash injection.
If they proceed, the cuts will further diminish the University and further increase unsafe workloads for staff.
Kaiwhakahaere | Organiser Ben Schmidt describes the feeling on the ground as one of “devastation and anger. It is unbelievably short sighted of the Vice Chancellor to keep slashing jobs across the university when the government has allocated a significant amount of new money intended to stop the cuts, along with an upcoming review of tertiary funding.”
“Jan Thomas has repeatedly failed to front up and meet with the staff of the university about this, or provide any clear and transparent information to justify it. This is a major upheaval and as such we believe a change proposal should be produced and staff properly consulted before any decisions are made. As yet, this has not occurred.”
“The Vice-Chancellor must immediately stop these cuts, engage with staff, and work with TEU and the government towards a more constructive alternative.”