Reviews result in nine job losses

Nine University of Otago staff have lost their jobs after reviews in two service departments.

A review of human resources and payroll resulted in five redundancies, with four redundancies in the commercial printing department Uniprint, university human resources director Kevin Seales said in a statement yesterday.

Some people had already left, while others were still working out their notice periods, he said.

Some staff in those departments had also had changes to their hours, Mr Seales said.

He did not say how many, or what the changes were.

Mr Seales was asked whether reviews were planned for, or under way in, any other service departments, but he did not respond.

Job losses are also looming for a small number of the university's academic workforce of about 1500 as the university tries to trim costs before a government funding reduction of at least $5 million next year.

Reviews are under way in academic departments. Mr Seales said yesterday the results of one, the closure of the design department and the establishment of the department of applied sciences, had been completed.

Final decisions had been made and communicated to staff, he said. He did not provide details.

The Otago Daily Times understands four academic staff might have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced.

Details of restructuring within the College of Education, which may result in the loss of 15.6 full-time equivalent positions over the next 18 months, and the merger of two departments in the School of Business, likely to result in the loss of about 10 positions, are expected to be known later this month.

The fourth review is in the social work department, which is being restructured into the department of sociology, gender and social work.

Changes would not be made there until after a new professor of sociology was appointed, Mr Seales said.

This position had been advertised and applications closed on August 20, he said.

- allison.rudd@odt.co.nz