Deakin University staff cuts over COVID-19
A Victorian university has unveiled a plan to cut 300 jobs in response to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with expectations its campuses could lose up to $300 million by next year.
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Deakin University is planning to cut 300 jobs from its campuses due to the financial hit from the coronavirus.
The university will put forward proposals to staff to reduce 400 jobs — 100 of which are currently unfilled vacancies.
The losses will be the equivalent of one in 20 full time workers across all faculties, portfolios and campuses.
The university has estimated its operating revenue will fall by $250 to $300 million next year due to the financial impact of the pandemic.
Deakin’s Vice-Chancellor Iain Martin said the university spent 55 per cent of its revenue on staff.
While we will do everything possible to minimise staff impacts, we must look at our employment costs as well as continuing to minimise other expenditure to adjust to where we need to be,” Prof Martin said.
He told staff the university was proposing to combine debt and cost savings to “ensure that Deakin is in the best position to preserve as many jobs as possible in the medium term”.
“I acknowledge again that managing 2020 and the next two to three years is about far more than money, but without a solid and sustainable financial position we will not be able to make the impact generating contributions that will be needed across our communities,” Prof Martin said.
The university would not be a signatory to the National Tertiary Education Union’s (NTEU) Australian Universities Job Protection Framework proposal.
The proposal seeks to avoid stand-downs without pay, cut external appointments, allow redundancies only if work has stopped permanently, ensure casuals get work that needs to be done and see the continuation of superannuation payments.
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