Teacher pay rises add up to department job cuts

Over 50 jobs at the NSW Department of Education have been cut, as part of a massive internal restructure to give teachers a pay rise.

More than 50 NSW Department of Education jobs – including four executives – have been dissolved amid a massive internal restructure that will see bureaucrats and bean-counters axed following an enormous increase to teachers’ wages.

The Daily Telegraph has confirmed 67 roles in the Education Department’s head office have been deleted, however it is understood some of those roles do not represent actual staff headcount, but include the dissolution of jobs that have remained vacant over some time.

More than half were on temporary contracts due to expire next year, but have been slashed early. Four of the impacted staff are senior executives.

The initial cuts have been made within the Department’s ‘Education and Skills Reform’ division, responsible largely for vocational education and training, and support for apprenticeships and traineeships in schools and TAFEs, however sources say the ‘efficiency’ targets have at least two other and much bigger divisions – Teaching, Learning and Student Wellbeing, and Public Schools – in the crosshairs.

Public Service Association General Secretary Stewart Little said the union’s members at the Department of Education had been advised earlier this week that 88 roles were being deleted, raising questions over the possible impact on school kids.

The NSW Department of Education is cutting 67 roles. Picture: Getty Images

“We are concerned about how this might impact on our children’s education and we have asked the department for more information regarding which roles will be going,” he said.

“We know a world class education system is key to our kids competing on the world stage for the jobs of the future, and we will fight any attempt to short-change our kids in the classroom.

“The union is meeting with our members at the Department of Education and getting instructions from them as to how to proceed.”

One department source said the cuts were being referred to internally as a “Hunger Games scenario” in which staff who have been made redundant are forced to compete for a smaller number of new generic roles such as ‘project officers’ and ‘policy officers’.

The source said head office staff feel they’ve been “sacrificed on the altar” of the teachers’ union, who in September last year secured a pay rise of up to 20 per cent for some staff, worth $1.9 billion over four years.

In the lead-up to the 2023 state election, then-Opposition leader Chris Minns promised to reduce the number of senior bureaucrats across government by 15 per cent.

Bureaucrats in the Department of Education are not strangers to restructures and redundancies since the election of the Minns government, with the Student and Parent Experience Directorate disbanded late last year and former School Infrastructure boss Anthony Manning shown the door.

Last year, teachers in NSW secured an enormous pay rise over four years. Picture: Getty Images

A spokeswoman for Deputy Premier Prue Car said the government’s “record investment in education” would be targeted “inside the school gates”.

“Changes are under way within the Department of Education’s corporate office as part of our work to ensure our education system is focused on its core task of supporting teaching and learning in our schools,” she said.

“We inherited the largest debt in our state’s history, and an education system in decline. It is our priority to ensure taxpayer money is spent responsibly.”

While some of the redundant staff will move into new roles under a ‘new structure’, others will be considered for redeployment elsewhere in the department or the government more broadly, while voluntary redundancies will be offered as a last resort.

“In order to reduce duplication and focus on service delivery and lifting student outcomes, the Department of Education has begun consultations with corporate staff about a restructure, with any roles impacted by this to be prioritised for redeployment into other roles across the department and sector,” a spokesman said.

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Originally published as Teacher pay rises add up to department job cuts