As of the moment, the Auckland University of Technology made its decision to drop its contentious redundancy plan and this decision was made to take effect just for now. After the university’s mismanaged plan-holding to require 170 personnel redundant or dispensable, which has caused legal challenges in the process, pompous personnel or staff have now been told that they can remain doing their jobs for a period of at least 6 months.
Prior to a letter that was sent to the university’s staff and has been seen and read by the Herald, Damon Salesa, the vice chancellor of AUT, confirmed the withdrawal of the issue on redundancy plan. The chancellor stated that the said withdrawal entails a continuous employment of every affected worker and this employment also applies under similar terms and conditions which also include salary.
However, when a worker wants to seek discretionary or non-compulsory redundancy, he can do the processing within the next 7 days. Salesa, along with other university officials said that they consider this as a very difficult time and that they profoundly regret all the negative results of this specific situation.
David Sinfied, AUT branch president and Jill Jones, organizer of Tertiary Education Union expressed their “positive outlook” regarding the university meeting that was held yesterday and also witnessed by the Herald. In addition, the university administration had unreservedly apologized for the impact caused by the issue especially at the end of affected workers.
The proposal on academic change for Group One, also dated Sept. 06, 2022, had been pulled or taken out while keeping the affected workers employed at the same time. There will be no proposal for changes that are going to be issued unless further changes are contemplated for educational staffing. Issuance of change proposal should be done not later than the 17th of July, 2023.
Prior to this issue, the Auckland University of Technology takes the responsibility of paying whatever cost is incurred by the union’s legal ventures and pursuits. An official said that this issue has been a long, hard, and difficult road but this entails fair and good results.
It is remembered that in the previous month, the university has been fined $3000 due to its failure to comply with the Employment Court’s order. As a result, the court ordered and required the university to get back from the very beginning of the initiative and start the process of their redundancy plan once more.
