WorkSafe NSW puts UTS job cuts on ice
A work safety watchdog has taken the extraordinary step of blocking university job cuts, ruling the redundancy process poses a mental health risk to workers.
A broke university has been forced to put job cuts on ice after a government safety regulator intervened on psychosocial grounds.
SafeWork NSW issued a prohibition notice on Wednesday to the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), which recently announced plans to sack staff and suspend more than 100 courses.
The SafeWork ruling has forced UTS to cancel all meetings with staff about its cost-cutting plan, and pause the release of a change proposal that was due this week.
National Tertiary Education Union NSW division secretary Vince Caughley said the university planned to sack 400 staff.
“In pushing ahead with their disastrous change plans, UTS management once again underestimated the serious and damaging impacts their choices have on staff and the community,’’ Mr Caughley said.
“SafeWork NSW’s intervention is a rare and damning rebuke that underlines just how reckless these cuts have been.’’
NTEU national president Alison Barnes said the intervention “exposes a governance crisis that extends far beyond one university’’.
“It’s symptomatic of a system where vice-chancellors make damaging decisions without accountability to the communities they’re meant to serve,’’ Dr Barnes said.
“The fact that a workplace regulator had to step in to protect university workers speaks volumes about how disconnected university management has become.’’
A UTS spokesman said the university needed to cut costs.
“We are frustrated by the ongoing delays in releasing the change proposal for consultation and are very concerned about the impact this is having on our community,’’ the spokesman said.
“The need to reduce expenditure is necessary as we have had deficits for five years and our revenue does not cover our ongoing operating costs.
“This is not financially or operationally sustainable as continued losses erode our cash position and have the potential to compromise our ongoing operations’’.
The UTS spokesman said the university needed to become financially sustainable in order to “invest in our teaching, research and our students’’.
“We reject the NTEU’s contention that we have not adequately conducted preliminary consultation on the need for the changes and the desired outcomes,’’ he said.
The spokesman said the safety and wellbeing of staff, and the management of psychosocial risks, “are of paramount importance to us’’.
“We are aware of staff expressing concerns about the effect these protracted delays (in negotiations) are having on their wellbeing,’’ he said.
SafeWork has ordered that the change proposal be paused until it is satisfied that appropriate safety measures have been put in place, following consultation with workers.
UTS annual reports reveal an operating loss of $81m last year, and $107m in 2023.
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