Christmas will be far from festive for a number of staff working at the Wollongong and Wollongong West TAFE campuses.
The State Government is slashing another 196 jobs from TAFE, with positions being made redundant on December 20.
This includes 14 permanent positions at Wollongong and Wollongong West, plus an unknown number of local contract positions.
Letters offering redundancies were sent out to workers late Monday afternoon.
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has advised its members not to respond to the redundancy letters while it fights to stop the restructure in the Fair Work Commission.
"The timing of this announcement is heartless, with workers told they will be made redundant just days before Christmas," CPSU NSW assistant general secretary Troy Wright said.
"91 permanent staff roles will be lost, along with a 105 contingency staff (labour hire).
"Very little detail has been provided about why these cuts are being made, or how services will be maintained once staff have been made redundant.
"In fact, the whole consultation process appears to be a sham, as NSW TAFE says the decision has already been made."
A spokesperson said TAFE NSW is part way into its six-year plan to transition to the One TAFE operating model - which is about delivering the quality training that employers want and students need.
"Critically, there will be no changes to frontline teaching and education support roles," the spokesperson said.
"As the matter is now before the Fair Work Commission for arbitration, it would not be appropriate for TAFE NSW to provide further comment."
Mr Wright added the cuts were another blow for the state's vocational education and training sector.
"The NSW Government has gutted the TAFE system and cut around $140 million in funding since 2014.
"This is an attack on the very idea of publicly-funded vocational education by ideological vandals who want to eliminate public sector competition for private sector colleges.
"The dismantling of the TAFE system has been particularly brutal in the regions - where thriving, well-staffed campuses have been replaced by with poorly staffed centres where students simply log on and pick up information from a larger centre."
Wollongong MP Paul Scully said it was "cold-hearted" to sack workers just before Christmas.
"We know there are going to be 14 jobs on the culling list from West Wollongong and Wollongong TAFE campuses," Mr Scully said.
"These positions are essential to helping the teaching staff at TAFE do what they do best, teach skills.
"Instead with these jobs disappearing, frontline teaching staff will be forced to pick up the slack."
Mr Scully was concerned about the future of West Wollongong TAFE campus in particular.
"We've seen how these same job cuts shut down the Dapto TAFE campus a couple of years ago and now they are going at West Wollongong and Wollongong," he said.
"Culling these jobs is the first step and I am very worried that the fate of Dapto will now be visited on West Wollongong."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
