Academic and professional staff have hit out a survey they've been asked to complete by University of Wollongong management.
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Staff say the 'shameful' survey "forces us to list our preferences before we can proceed'.
The survey comes after staff indicated they would not support any of the three options presented by Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings to help UOW recover from a projected $90 million budget shortfall.
At least 150 people would lose their jobs, regardless which option staff opted for.
But late Tuesday, in a statement, Professor Wellings said the options had been revised after staff feedback.
Staff earning below $70,000 per annum will now be exempt from any salary cuts. Meantime superannuation contributions and any redundancy payments will be calculated based on a staff member's salary prior to any temporary reduction in pay.
Staff are being asked to indicate their preferred option in a survey that opened on Wednesday and closes at 11.59pm on Friday.
Read more: UOW amends offer to lowest paid staff
But Georgine Clarsen, the UOW branch president of the National Tertiary Education Union said the NTEU had written to UOW and Voice Project, the company responsible for running the survey, to express their disgust.
"We cannot just vote for option 3 as we have intended and as they indicated we could do," Ms Clarsen said.
"Instead management ask us to then choose between equally unacceptable options of 1 and 2 as our second and third choices.
"We see this as push-polling and not a genuine survey that honestly seeks our views. We are forced to vote for options that we do not support - and we are given no opportunity for feedback in this survey.
"We are vigorously objecting to this sleight of hand in every way we can. With our VC and with the private company who shamefully produced such a biased and unprofessional survey.
We are vigorously objecting to this sleight of hand in every way we can. With our VC and with the private company who shamefully produced such a biased and unprofessional survey.
- Georgine Clarsen, the UOW branch president of NTEU
"However, under these shameful circumstances, we advice all staff to vote for option 3.
"With option 3 we stick with our hard-won Enterprise Agreement and make management come back and talk to us about the changes they are seeking."
Prof Wellings said a decision needed to be made on the best way to approach "this historic downturn in income within the overall constraints of the university's budget plans".
Read more: How did it all go so wrong, so fast for UOW?
"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," he said.
Ms Clarsen said the changes weren't good enough and the "dreadful" survey did not allow staff to give 'genuine feedback" on the options presented.
She also took offence to senior executives trying to influence staff into voting a certain way.
Seven of UOW's top executives were paid over $4 million combined in 2018.
In a letter written to all staff, which the Mercury has seen, UOW Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Joe Chicharo wrote, "My personal recommendation to each of you is to choose option one as it will minimise institutional damage and reduce uncertainty".
Staff were far from happy with this suggestion.
"I'm so disgusted by this bullying tactic to influence votes! Isn't this illegal! If not illegal, it's a stand over tactic and unethical!"
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