Just days before ANU staff vote on a management request to forego a pay rise, management has backed down on a significant savings proposal. The university is looking for a $100m reduction in staff costs, as part of a $250m spending cut.
As part of the headcount reduction, the university initially proposed cutting 50 jobs, by abolishing the existing College of Health and Medicine and moving its constituent medical research school and school of medicine and psychology to a new College of Science and Medicine. The third unit in the existing college, the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, would move to a new College of Law, Governance and Policy.
But now, while the proposed restructure stays, so do most of the jobs originally intended to end. While 13 positions are now proposed to go, two are vacant and 11 fixed term. To which National Tertiary Education Union leader Lachlan Clohesy responds, “it is hard to understate the significance of this win,” arguing no jobs protected by the ANU Enterprise Agreement have been lost.
It follows weeks of what management calls “thoughtful and considered feedback, ” and an about-face that follows trent. In 2021, staff dug in for 12 months and defeated a plan to cut neuroscience from Health and Medicine. That was part of a pattern. In 2012, when VC-before-last Ian Young announced savings in the music school, four years of protest followed, which only ended when his successor Brian Schmidt gave up on the cuts and instead gave the school $12.5m over five years in new money.
For now, with jobs not to go, ANU’s savings plan looks to depend in part on staff agreeing this week to give up the 2.5 per cent pay rise due under the existing enterprise agreement. That and Professor Bell announcing the end of year garden party is off.
