On Tuesday, Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar sent an email to all La Trobe staff revealing job cuts were inevitable, as the university was facing a shortfall of between $285 million and $350 million over the next two years.
Professor Dewar said the expected loss was caused largely by the reduction in the number of international students enrolling at the university.
“We estimate that about 40 per cent of our expected cohort has either not arrived this year or has returned home,” he said.
Offering voluntary redundancies would help reduce the university’s 2020 shortfall of between $33 million and $66 million, after gaining $72 million in recent weeks from deferring capital spending and staff recruitment, and discontinuing some casual staff from June 1.
However, Prof Dewar said he estimated the voluntary redundancies would save the university only around $5 million and thus further jobs would have to be cut.
“Given that staff costs are about 60 per cent of our budgeted expenditure, and that we have already made significant non-salary savings, it is inevitable that we will have to make a proportionately significant saving in salaries to address our gap,” he said.
“If we closed the gap entirely through staff savings, this would be the financial equivalent of about 200 to 400 jobs.
“This is about six to 12 per cent of our workforce.
“This does not mean that we will lose this number of roles but it gives you an indication of the scale of the challenge we face to bridge the budget gap caused by this crisis,” he said.
The potential cuts come after the Federal Government announced universities would not be eligible for the $130 billion JobKeeper scheme.
Prof Dewar told staff the university was searching for other ways to save money and said he was working with fellow vice-chancellors to negotiate with the National Tertiary Education Union to agree to the Australian Universities Job Protection Scheme, which could potentially save hundreds of jobs over the next two years.
“If approved by staff, it will allow salary savings measures that will contribute to saving La Trobe jobs,” Prof Dewar said.
“These measures could include a reduction in pay, a reduced employment fraction and pay and increment freezes.
“If La Trobe staff support the variations contained in the scheme, we estimate that it has the potential to contribute a further $30 million in savings for the rest of the year.”
The scheme would also help reduce the university's estimated 2021 budget gap of between $80 million and $115 million — the financial equivalent of 600 to 800 jobs.
“None of us want to see job losses on this or any scale,” Prof Dewar said.
“This lends added importance to the Australian Universities Job Protection Scheme.
“It means that we can all contribute to saving as many jobs as possible.”
State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed said it was worrying when big organisations faced cuts in regional areas.
“Across the entire sector, a loss of more than 20 per cent of staff will severely impact the ability of our tertiary institutions to deliver quality teaching and training in both the metropolitan and regional areas but I expect the regions will be particularly hard hit considering their smaller campus sizes and lower resistance to cuts,” she said.
Ms Sheed has called on both the Victorian and federal governments to support all regional universities during the pandemic.
“We’ve long known we have difficulty retaining professionals in the regions and we also know one of the best ways to attract and keep professionals, such as health workers, paramedics, social workers, doctors, nurses and teachers, is to train them here,” she said.
“They come from our community or become part of the community and they stay.”
La Trobe University said eligible staff would be asked to express interest in voluntary redundancy by Friday, May 22 and following an assessment process, if the redundancy was approved, most staff would be advised of this decision by Monday, June 22.
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