Union lashes JCU ahead of all-staff meeting and more job losses
The tertiary union has lashed James Cook University for an alleged failure to take responsibility for “poor performance” while paying bosses “huge salaries” and cutting frontline jobs to save cash.
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The tertiary union has lashed James Cook University for what it says is a failure to take responsibility for “poor performance” while paying bosses “huge salaries” and cutting frontline jobs to save cash.
An all-staff meeting at JCU’s Smithfield campus will convene on Monday to announce a university-wide general restructure.
It follows the proposed axing of 17 positions, recommended by a change proposal targeting roles attached to the Marketing, Future Students and Admissions Directorate.
The university has been tight-lipped about exactly which of its three campuses would lose staff but the National Tertiary Education Union has revealed to the Cairns Post a total of 28 positions are being “disestablished”, 26 in Australia and two in Singapore.
The NTEU said some new positions would be created, but at lower levels than before, meaning people affected would either take a pay cut or be made redundant.
The changes would amount to a total net loss of 17 positions.
But 16 of those would be in Australia due to the directorate’s work being largely moved to JCU’s Singapore campus.
It’s understood a 44-hour work week and more repressive labour laws mean it’s cheaper to employ staff in Singapore.
Queensland Division NTEU secretary Michael McNally said a number of staff in other parts of the university had been called into meetings by management last week to discuss further redundancies.
“We will know on Monday how many are proposed to be cut and people will know just how many jobs are in the gun,” he said.
“We expect that the cuts will disproportionately impact JCU in Cairns.
“It’s the death of a thousand cuts at JCU as management again slashes jobs.”
On Saturday, a JCU spokesman said the university was facing “significant financial challenges, including softening domestic enrolments, the emergence of new participants in the tertiary sector, and increased competition, and there is a need to realign existing resources to deliver the services required to compete in the new higher education environment”.
Mr McNally said the university could not continue cutting jobs and provide an excellent education.
“There’s been a decade-long pattern of that and this has made JCU’s viability as a university campus addressing the city’s needs increasingly uncertain,” he said.
Citing the remuneration package of JCU vice chancellor Professor Simon Biggs that amounted to $840,000 – $854,999 in 2023, Mr McNally lashed the institution for axing frontline staff while paying “huge salaries” to bosses.
“JCU management needs to take responsibility for the poor performance of the university, they pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses but it is always the frontline staff that suffer,” he said.
JCU, which posted a net loss of $39.7m in 2023 and $48.9m in 2022, defended the cutting of marketing jobs by stating “changes will also deliver greater efficiencies, reduce costs, and realign functions between the teams working across JCU’s campuses,” a spokesman said.
The latest round of redundancies follows a streamlining restructure in 2022 in which 145 jobs were slashed across three campuses and the institution proposed another 30 job cuts in 2023.
JCU joins institutions throughout the county including Australian National University and the University of Southern Queensland, both of which have announced job cuts this month.
Professor Biggs was contacted for comment.
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