Staff protest plan to shed 220 jobs at Melbourne Uni

Melbourne University NTEU members are in a battle with the University of Melbourne to stop a proposed 220 job attrition.
A massive big-brother reorganisation, called the “Responsible Division Management” is being planned as well, to spill many jobs and make us reapply for positions which will have new position descriptions, including an attempt to force staff into giving up overtime, with a possibility of deeming some positions as necessary for operational needs on Saturdays and Sundays without overtime.
Melbourne University management pride themselves on doing things differently, on being the toughest and most reactionary management in Australia.
All along they have covertly supported the privatisation of universities, while publicly complaining about lack of government funds.
In the lead up to Melbourne University’s Open Day, management have paid massive amounts to have constant adds on commercial television and the ABC for the university’s Dreamlarge campaign.
However the NTEU had a strong stopwork meeting, with over 350 staff protesting outside the University administration.
Staff say that if the job cuts go ahead the University will increase the demoralisation, stress and lack of morale already experienced.
Professor Verity Burgmann suggested, at the Stop Work meeting, that staff should “Tell the Truth” on Open Day and advise students to go to another University. Melbourne University has ceased to care about education at all.
By Melanie Lazarow
Secretary, NTEU University of Melbourne Branch