June 17, 2020

UOW management sets out to save 200 jobs; survey results released

Unions given chance to back agreement

University of Wollongong (UOW) management is asking union representatives to back an enterprise agreement variation in an attempt to minimise job losses as the results of its recent staff survey are released.

The survey, which asked staff to indicate their preferences from three available options to achieve the employment-related savings needed to restore UOW to a sustainable financial position, showed a majority of participants want to preserve all current employment conditions provided under the University’s two enterprise agreements.

The survey results come as some staff who indicated a preference for this option have since expressed concerns that they did not fully appreciate the consequences of their choice or had been persuaded by union campaigns suggesting a fourth option would evolve, which is not the case.

Generous pay and conditions

The conditions staff have sought to retain include salary and, for permanent staff, 17% employer superannuation contributions, generous annual leave, long service leave, other special leave provisions and future scheduled pay rises: 2% in November 2020, 2.5% in November 2021 and a further 2.2% increase in June 2022.

Full time equivalent salaries under UOW’s academic and professional enterprise agreements range from $49,977 to $182,845 per annum and are from 17% to 56% above those specified under the applicable modern award. The scheduled pay increases will together add a further $25 million to the University’s employment-related costs over the period.

Retaining these conditions while at the same achieving the necessary employment-related savings requires University management to implement far-reaching organisational changes, resulting in significant job losses.

Before initiating these changes, the Vice-Chancellor will ask the University’s Joint Consultative Committee (JCC)—an ongoing forum for consultation with both staff representative unions, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)—to consider this opportunity to save jobs by supporting the enterprise agreement variation offered to staff as Option 1.

The University’s senior executive team has already voluntarily accepted a 20% reduction in salary for 12 months from May 2020.

University management seeks to minimise job losses

In a message to staff, Professor Wellings acknowledged their expressed preference for Option 3, but also noted the strong support for Option 1 shown by survey participants.

“My view is that we should seek to minimise the number of job losses while securing a sustainable financial position. We need to live within our means.

“The selection of Option 3 preserves employment conditions but will necessitate significant job losses and institutional change.

“In order to take every step possible to minimise job losses, I have asked the management team to provide the complete draft variation to enterprise agreements for Option 1 to the Joint Consultative Committee to immediately explore whether our local staff representatives will agree to support that option.

“If accepted, this will save about 200 jobs, which will have a significant impact on the region’s economy and support its economic recovery,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

The financial impact of COVID-19 has left UOW facing a $90 million budget shortfall in 2020. Further savings are necessary on top of savings already achieved since January for not only 2020, but also for 2021 and 2022. Option 1 provides a reduction in employment-related expenses of $53 million over the three years.

Decade of growth is over due to COVID-19

All sectors of the New South Wales economy are under immense stress, with NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet this week foreshadowing a 10 per cent contraction this financial year.

“We’ve enjoyed a decade of steady annual revenue growth that has enabled us to fund salary increases and absorb rising costs while maintaining an annual surplus of around 2% to invest in new equipment and upgrades to technology and facilities. Those days are now behind us. This pandemic has changed everything.

“COVID-19 has brought permanent, far-reaching changes to our world, our economy and to higher education globally. No university is immune from the global recession we are now in and doing nothing is not an option.

“There is no feasible scenario that allows us to achieve the necessary savings in employment-related expenses without either sacrificing some of our generous salaries and conditions or reducing the size of our workforce. Our only choices are in how we balance these two approaches,” Professor Wellings said.

Proposed options surveyed

The survey followed a detailed briefing to all staff about the University’s financial position on Thursday 4 June, provision of further explanatory information via the staff intranet and a period of staff and union consultation.

In response to staff feedback, the three proposed options were varied on 9 June to exempt staff earning a full-time equivalent salary of less than $70,000 from any salary cuts.

Two of the three options proposed to achieve these savings involved varying enterprise agreements by reducing pay on a sliding scale according to salary levels of between 5% and 10% for 18 months, or between 7.5% and 15% for 12 months and enabling staff to reduce working hours proportionate to their pay cut. The third option involved no change to current employment conditions.

As each option yielded progressively less savings from salary reductions, so the potential for job losses grew accordingly.

The survey was available to all staff covered by UOW’s two enterprise agreements and was open from Wednesday 10 June until midnight on Friday 12 June.