Melbourne Uni’s ‘Christmas Glynch’ strikes again
Less than 12 months after sacking more than 500 non-academic staff, the University of Melbourne has started a new wave of restructuring. Management is attempting to rush through major changes to staff numbers and job roles in at least 10 different areas.
The cuts target central non-academic work areas that provide services such as IT support, building supervision, timetabling, academic advice and career advice. It’s difficult to extract hard numbers from the numerous proposals presented, but the number of staff facing the sack could go as high as 100, including the entire career advice team. The most conservative estimate is that 50 jobs will go – a big hit to a workforce already decimated.
Between December 2014 and December 2015 the university implemented its so called “Business Improvement Program”. The BIP was the largest mass sacking in the history of Australian higher education. One in five non-academic staff were sacked, and their numbers have been strictly capped since. The resulting “savings” were invested into poaching well-published professors from other institutions. This has the effect of providing a short term boost to the university’s rankings in international league tables.
While the BIP has improved the university’s brand, it has made life on campus significantly harder for staff and students. Morale among general staff remains at rock bottom. Staff are overworked, and the loss of a critical mass of long-time employees has left gaping holes in organisational knowledge and experience.
Academics have experienced an increase in administrative responsibilities on top of their already heavy teaching and research loads. Students now wait in long queues to speak to inexperienced and overworked staff at the new student administration centre called Stop1. Satisfaction with support services has plummeted. All this at a university that charges premium prices to its students and promises a world class “educational experience”.
Part of the rationale provided to staff for the new wave of restructures has been that they are needed to address the organisational dysfunction arising from the savage nature of the BIP. The real driver, however, is an “efficiency dividend” that imposed ongoing reductions in staffing budgets following BIP. This has left some areas crippled, unable to fill vacant positions.
The drive towards restructuring has been accelerated by an apparent desire to avoid sacking staff during enterprise bargaining, which begins in June 2017. To avoid damaging staff members’ perceptions of management during bargaining, restructures announced just weeks ago are being rushed through before the end of 2016.
The upshot is that, for the third December in a row, large numbers of staff face the sack. Ever a champion of corporatised universities, vice-chancellor Glyn Davis continues to prioritise branding and padding the surplus over quality of education and working conditions.
Union members will be protesting against Davis, the “Christmas Glynch”, at 1pm in North Court on 1 December. Students and supporters are welcome.
