CSIRO to cut 350 jobs as Adelaide staff face anxious wait on future
CSIRO workers, including hundreds in SA, face mounting anxiety as management remains silent on where 350 jobs will be cut from Australia's premier science organisation.
Local CSIRO staff faces an anxious wait to find out if they will still be in a job for Christmas after management announced sweeping job cuts.
Australian’s premier science research organisation plans to cut up to 350 jobs from the 6000 workforce, without giving specifics other than to say staff facing the axe will be told over the next three days “in a respectful way.”
It leaves staff across the nation wondering if it will be them facing a bleak Christmas, or close colleagues.
In SA, as at June 30 the CSIRO employed 274 people at locations including Waite Campus at Urrbrae, and Lot 14 in the city, working in areas including health and nutrition, environment and agriculture, digital technologies, energy and minerals. This is down from around 400 several years ago.
CSIRO left the SAHMRI site last financial year.
The CSIRO Staff Association is trying to find out exactly where and what jobs will be lost but as of Wednesday had no indication from management whether any SA positions were in the firing line.
CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton said the organisation faces financial sustainability challenges and needs to adapt to “deliver the greatest possible impact of the nation through out research.”
“We must set up CSIRO for the decades ahead with a sharpened research focus that capitalises on our unique strengths, allows us to concentrate on the profound challenges we face as a nation and deliver solutions at scale,” he said.
Mr Hilton noted federal funding for the CSIRO had been running at about half the inflation rate for the past 15 years, while the cost of conducting research has increased significantly.
The CSIRO Staff Association has blasted the federal government over the “deep and devastating cuts” saying more than 800 research and science support roles already had been slashed.
CSIRO Staff Association’s Susan Tonks called it a sad day for publicly funded science in Australia.
“The Albanese government is just sitting back and watching it happen,” she said. “They are now responsible for cuts to public science that exceed the Abbott Government – cuts that current Labor MPs rightly slammed at the time.
“These are some the worst cuts the CSIRO has ever seen, and they’re coming at a time when we should be investing in and building up public science.
“We don’t need a crystal ball to know these cuts will hurt – they’ll hurt families, farmers and our future.”
The CSIRO’s top ten inventions in the past century include:
Fast Wi-Fi
Plastic banknotes
Hendra virus vaccine
Extended wear contact lenses
Aerogard insect repellent
Total Wellbeing Diet
RAFT polymerisation for creating plastics
BARLEYmax supergrain barley
Self-twisting yarn
Softly washing liquid for wool
