The National Tertiary Education Union has written to Sydney’s vice-chancellor urging him to shed light on rumours of job cuts at the university.
In a letter sent on 14 November, the union requested an urgent meeting regarding the rumours and called for management to confirm or deny them either way.
“The Union is extremely concerned about rumours of widespread redundancies planned by the University management,” said Michael Thomson, NTEU’s president. “The Union has had no notification of these redundancies. If the University is intending to make staff cuts, they have not followed due process,” he added.
In a statement reported in The Australian, a university spokesman said: “It is clear that if the University is to meet its financial targets and have the capacity to invest in its future, there will need to be a reduction in expenditure in the coming year.”
“Widespread discussions are being held with a number of senior staff and until those talks are finalised it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the spokesman added.