Coronavirus university rescue package plea: Calls for funding as thousands face unemployment
Thousands of university lecturers, teachers and support staff are expected to join the unemployment heap, unless the NSW Government supports calls for a rescue package for the industry. SEE THE PLEAS FOR SUPPORT HERE.
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University educators and NSW Labor are desperately calling for the NSW Government to issue a Tertiary Education rescue package in order to save thousands of jobs.
NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay and Shadow Tertiary Education and Innovation spokesman Clayton Barr joined representatives from the National Tertiary Education Union to launch a petition calling on the Government to save university jobs.
The launch of the petition at the University of NSW comes as the loss of foreign students forecasts thousands of jobs will be shed from campuses across the state.
At UNSW it is understood almost 500 jobs, or 7.5 per cent of the workforce would land on the unemployment heap, while at The University of Wollongong 150 staff across its campuses would be let go.
The University of New England estimates more than 200 job cuts in Armidale, while The University of Technology Sydney is expected to cut 400 to 500 staff if immediate support isn’t provided.
National Tertiary Education Union secretary, Michael Thomson said the NSW Government needed to play a role in the protection of jobs at universities across the state.
“Universities, in regional areas particularly, are major employers and this is going to have a major impact on the wider community,” he said.
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“We would like to see funding injected into universities to strengthen employment and the state government direct universities in how they spend these funds.”
Ms McKay said one in five positions at universities across the state, which employ more than 100,000 people, were currently at risk.
“This is about saving jobs and livelihoods” she said. The Premier can’t ignore the enormity of the crisis.”
Mr Barr said current funding from the NSW Government wasn’t having a meaningful impact in saving jobs and called for the NSW Government to match the $460 million investment made by the Victorian Government.
“Universities are doing everything they can to stem these cuts, but even with every other saving measure available to them they still have to cut thousands of jobs,” Mr Barr said.
University of Sydney European Studies teacher, Dr Robert Boncardo, said the situation for workers in the sector looked “more and more dire every day”.
“We are looking at thousands of jobs on the chopping block,” he said. “But hundreds of part time and casual staff are already out of work.
“There are talks of thousands of forced redundancies at flagship universities across the country.”
Dr Boncardo said he would support calls for the NSW Government to fund a rescue package to support employees.
The NSW government provided a general deferral of payroll tax, estimated to be worth up to $100M for universities and also established a $750 million University Loan Guarantee Scheme to help NSW universities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $20 million in crisis accommodation, legal advice and coordinated support for other social services is also on offer.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Tertiary Education Minister Geoff Lee were contacted for comment.