Staff cuts necessary: polytechnic

Staff cuts to the Otago Polytechnic's School of Architecture Building and Engineering were "absolutely'' necessary despite a recent increase to the school's roll, the acting head of school says.

Nine full-time and part-time staff (6.3 FTE staff) were made redundant from the school late last year.

At the time, Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker said the reason for the reduction in staffing was because demand from students for training was not strong enough.

"What drives the training is the students that want to be trained ...

"They're just not there, queuing at the door, wanting to be taught.

"That's the reason for the reduction in staffing.''

Figures provided to the Otago Daily Times show the school has grown by 63.1 equivalent full-time students (efts) on last year.

Tertiary Education Union Dunedin organiser Kris Smith said the redundancies showed the institution's disregard for a forecasted boom in the construction industry over the next five years.

"It is a bitter pill for people to swallow when they have made submissions that the drop was a blip and that wasn't listened to.''

Ms Smith said there had been at least one forced redundancy.

The cuts were "awful'' for people who lost jobs and demoralising for staff at the school, she said.

Acting head of the school, Chris Morland, declined to say from which programmes staff had been cut, but confirmed two carpentry staff "that were surplus to our requirements'' were made redundant.

One carpentry staff member retired voluntarily and took redundancy, while the other was on a fixed-term contract that was not renewed, he said.

The redundancies were not performance-based, and he did not believe there were any "forced'' cuts.

"We called for people to revue their situations and come back to us with solutions.''

Numbers in the carpentry programme were "fantastic'' this year, with an additional 11 efts enrolling. However, staff numbers were unlikely to bounce back, he said.

"We are on a very fine balance between things looking very good and things looking rather drastic.''

The school was working hard to rework old qualifications to fit with changes to the market place, and the new staff/student ratios reflected this, he said.

Mr Ker said further proposed redundancies planned for the programme would not occur because of the recent growth.

margot.taylor@odt.co.nz

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