Hunter TAFE staff rally - Friday

The Public Service Association, which represents nearly all staff in TAFE other than teachers, is staging local industrial action on Friday 12 March 2004 due to the slashing of jobs in the Hunter Institute

Members will be holding a stop work meeting for half of the day at Newcastle (Tighes Hill) TAFE campus. After meeting for an hour from 10:00am, members intend to demonstrate in front of the Student Administration and Corporate Services buildings on campus to protest against job losses in these areas.

Members from throughout the Institute, including the Central Coast and Hunter Valley, will be attending. It is anticipated that the provision of student and administrative services will be disrupted due to the industrial action.

"Hunter Institute management have had every opportunity to avoid this industrial action" said Steve Turner, Assistant General Secretary of the PSA. "They have repeatedly failed to accept responsibility for the job cuts and unconvincingly claimed they do not have any power to reverse them".

The Hunter Institute has shed more staff in the current Departmental restructure than any other Institute in the State. Approximately fifty jobs are being axed, with half of these coming from the Student Administration throughout the Institute. "It is outrageous that the Hunter Institute is trying to hide their own job cuts in the Departmental restructure", said Mr Turner.

The PSA is concerned not only for the workers that stand to lose their jobs, but also those that remain. It is foreseeable they will be left in an unsafe work environment in terms of workload, stress and staffing numbers. Further, cuts to student administration will obviously result in a reduction in the service to students in areas such as enrolments, exam results and TAFEcard.

The PSA also expects that local businesses which deal with TAFE will be disadvantaged, as accounts will be processed in Newcastle and then Bathurst rather than locally.