Media Release: Education told to come clean or . . .

Sue Walsh, President of the Public Service Association of NSW, has written to Andrew Refshauge, the Minister for Education and Training, and Jan McClelland, the Director General of the Department of Education and Training, demanding that we be provided with details of where the cuts in TAFE and the Department of Education & Training will be.

She has told the Minister that the union and our delegates and members must have substantial information by next Friday. If not the members will take industrial action.

"The lack of detail in the Department's proposal is simply outrageous," she said. 20 percent of administrative and other support staff are to be eliminated and they have not provided the most general of detail.

"The managers have been working on this proposal for months and must have a very good idea of where the cuts will be and where the relocations will be. It defies belief to pretend otherwise."

"They will not supply the simplest details, like how many jobs losses will be from TAFE and how many from DET."

"How can we possibly discuss their proposal if we do not know how they propose to shape corporate services and other administrative and support functions? They say the district offices and new regional headquarters will not have the same functional arrangements as the district offices and state offices have now, yet will not tell us what the new functional arrangements are."

"We also need hard information on their proposed timetable. A few weeks ago they were saying they wanted it all done by the end of the year. Now they are saying eighteen months."

"Our members have had experience with previous TAFE and DET restructures, and have no confidence that this restructure will be anything other than another cost cutting shemozzle."