University redundancies hit staff morale - union

BY JO GILBERT

A "rising tide of negativity" is building at Canterbury University as staff cuts become a drawn-out, piecemeal affair, a union representative says.

Support-staff restructuring has cut 65 jobs, while another 102 are on the line and one area is still under review. Many new roles have been, and will be, created and advertised on the open market.

The restructuring, dubbed Project Star (supporting teaching and research), began in mid-2009 and is expected to be complete by year's end.

Tertiary Education Union university branch president Megan Clayton said members were upset the restructuring had become drawn out.

"There is a rising tide of negativity since we've had this process go on almost a year now. Everybody is being affected," she said.

About 70 per cent, or 1200, of the university's approximately 1800 staff were union members.

Staff were initially "reasonably happy" with the project's processes and consultation, Clayton said, but now felt it was difficult to change the thrust of proposals through submissions.

Project Star aims to free up the university's budget for academic services by reviewing 1200 non-academic roles. Vice-chancellor Rod Carr has said it would save up to $3 million from the support services budget.

The savings will allow the university to hire more academics and improve the declining academic staff-student ratio.

The project is being handled in seven portfolios.

Sixty-five jobs have been axed from the four confirmed portfolios – financial services; information and communications technology (ICT); areas that report to the deputy vice chancellor's office (including the NZi3 ICT Innovation Institute and the Erskine Programme); and communications and external relations – and 38 new positions will be created.

Proposals have been released for two of the three remaining portfolios – international/student (ISS) services and learning resources (including libraries and facilities management) – with 44 jobs in the former and 58 in the latter expected to be cut.

Nineteen new ISS positions and 58 new learning resources roles are proposed.

The final portfolio will review the cultural support teams (Maori and Pasifika services).

Job axed after 18 years

Canterbury University staff member Marilyn McLaren will soon be clearing her desk instead of preparing to celebrate 18 years in the job.

The copy centre manager has been made redundant under Project Star (supporting teaching and research).

Her last day is expected to be June 4, a month shy of her 18th anniversary with the university.

McLaren, 56, started as an afternoon copy centre supervisor in 1992. Just before Christmas last year, she learnt of a proposal to axe her job. In March, it was confirmed.

"I am gutted. I take pride in my job. When I found out I was so upset and I was so very angry," she said.

"I thought, `Do they, the people making the decisions, know what I actually do? Do they understand what we all do here?"'

Her submission put those questions to university management, but she thinks consultation made little difference.

Morale dropped after the first proposal was announced, and for those made redundant it was hard to stay motivated, McLaren said.

"I have never seen it so low. For me, I just want to go. It's hard serving students who don't really know what's happening," she said.

"All of the general staff are struggling to come to terms with what is happening to their colleagues.

"It is also meant to be business as usual, but with so much uncertainty it is very difficult for general staff to carry on with their work."

Her job will be merged into a new role managed by the university's digital media manager. "Maybe I might be better to move on. There is life outside the university," she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News