Another 36 jobs cut at UOW as union warns of relentless restructuring agenda
Cuts come as governance reforms loom
The University of Wollongong has confirmed 36 more jobs have been cut by the final change management plans released this week.
Staff in two divisions — Brand, Marketing and Communications, and Information Management and Technology Services — are impacted.
A university spokesperson said affected staff are working through expressions of interest and redeployment options, with 28 vacant roles open for them to apply for.
NTEU UOW branch president Dr Susan Engel believes part of the blame on consultant-driven restructuring: “It’s certainly, in our view, part of that broader strategy for restructuring and a new model that we don’t think [is] servicing the university very well,” she said.
“Because of the needs of our staff and the loss of knowledge, we have asked a number of times ... for a halt to these redundancies, but the university is pressing ahead with these aggressive cuts.”
She added: “The transformation unit is apparently [to] be a permanent fixture, and we’ve been told to expect constant change management.”
Dr Engel said one lesson from the university’s earlier transformation process was the need for executives who stay long enough to see decisions through. The executive responsible for the Brand, Marketing and Communications proposal left before it was announced; responsibility fell instead to vice-president operations Stephen Phillips, who signed off on both change plans.
Mr Phillips was named in evidence during the final day of the ICAC’s public hearings into governance failures involving former UOW governance executive Alyssa White and then-chancellor Michael Still. The commission has made no findings, and its report is due at the end of August. In evidence on July 10, Ms White, who introduced Phillips, a former Sydney University colleague, to Professor Lu, told the commission she shared material with him ahead of his interview.
UOW said the Brand, Marketing and Communications plan was signed off by three people: then-interim deputy vice-chancellor Professor Joe Chicharo, Mr Phillips, and vice-chancellor Professor Max Lu. Prof Chicharo’s interim appointment ended last week, after which Phillips took over overseeing implementation. The process was, the spokesperson said, “consistent with the university’s standard governance processes for workplace change under the Enterprise Agreement”.
Chancellor recruitment
UOW’s Enterprise Agreement negotiations begin next week, while the chancellorship remains vacant. Michael Still resigned earlier this month, saying he didn’t want the ICAC matter to affect university operations or interrupt the search for his successor.
Asked about the timeline and whether a recruitment agency had been engaged, UOW said the appointment would follow an open process, overseen by the UOW council under the University of Wollongong Act 1989, with consultation across the university and other stakeholders. It did not address the recruitment agency question.
Earlier this month NTEU general secretary Damien Cahill was quoted in the Illawarra Mercury saying the university council should be dissolved in the wake of "the biggest crisis in the university's history" - the ICAC investigation. Dr Engel also is unconvinced: “I’m still lacking confidence in council, given the structure of it.”
Union and uni in agreement
Both UOW and the NTEU have welcomed the federal government’s new governance standards. “Strong governance, accountability and transparency underpin public confidence in higher education, and clear sector-wide expectations benefit every institution,” the spokesperson said, adding UOW’s own governance renewal program already aligns with the standards.
Dr Engel said the union has been “very actively involved” in shaping the threshold standards, but wants more: “We need the New South Wales government to change the legislation for universities to ensure better staff representation, fewer consultants on councils, and some of those transparency requirements.”
