After listening to feedback from University of Wollongong staff vice-chancellor Professor Paul Wellings has improved options for lowest paid staff as the uni tries to reduce costs following COVID-19.
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The revision means UOW staff earning less than $70,000 a year will now be exempt from any salary cuts.
And any superannuation contributions and redundancy payments will be calculated based on a staff member's salary prior to any temporary reduction agreed to under either enterprise agreement variation option.
Casual staff members were already exempt from the proposed salary reductions.
The revision comes after Prof Wellings outlined the university's financial position to staff in an online briefing on Thursday and staff and unions launched a campaign to save jobs.
Two of the three options he presented involve varying enterprise agreements by reducing pay on a sliding scale according to salary levels of between 5 per cent and 10 per cent for 18 months, or between 7.5 per cent and 15 per cent for 12 months and enabling staff to reduce their working hours proportionate to their pay cut.
The third option involves no change to current employment conditions.
Should staff indicate a preference for the third option, the university will not pursue additional options but instead proceed to make cost-savings under existing enterprise agreement terms and conditions.
This will include reducing the workforce through natural attrition, workplace change, redundancies and lapsing employment contracts.
As each option yields progressively less savings in staff-related expenses, so the potential for job losses grows with each option.
Professor Wellings invited staff to review the presentation and explanatory information provided on the staff intranet and discuss it with their manager and provide feedback. In response to that staff feedback, the vice-chancellor has amended and clarified the options.
"We need to make a decision on the best way to approach this historic downturn in income within the overall constraints of the University's budget plans," Prof Wellings said..
"Last week I outlined three options, and since then there have been a number of meetings in faculties and divisions to explore the implications of the three options.
"There was consistency in the feedback staff gave during these meetings and we are now responding by varying and clarifying aspects of both enterprise agreement variation options".
Staff are being asked to indicate their preferred option in a survey that opens on Wednesday and closes at 11.59pm on Friday.
The survey results will be shared following collection and analysis by the independent survey provider.
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