NTEU complains that 'hiring freeze' leaves hundreds of positions unfilled at UNE

The UNE National Tertiary Education Union branch claims just nine roles of 232 currently unfilled in the university's organisational chart are currently advertised. The university disputes the number and claims it is recruiting 87 new staff at the moment.

Brand vice president for professional staff, Craig Johnson, said the university shortages are on top of the 200 or so job cuts in 2020.

Ironically, the HR department is particularly short-staffed, complicating the hiring process.

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Formally known as the "People and Culture" department, university staff have dubbed it "Person and Culture", he said.

"If there aren't enough people in recruitment, then even if there is good will to recruit people in other areas, it can't get done because the recruitment teams can't do it.

"There's a real negative feedback loop around high vacancy rates."

There are vacancies in both professional staff - technicians, administrators and other staff not primarily dedicated to teaching - and among academic staff, he said. Shortages range from the most junior to the most highly-paid executive-level staff.

The university has implemented what he called a "hiring freeze" by centralising authority for rehiring positions abandoned by resigned staff for months, or even years.

UNE VC and CEO Professor Brigid Heywood said the university had been going through the process of recruiting new positions that support the ten-year strategic plan.

"UNE has continued to recruit even during the pandemic, using digital recruitment processes, to fill vacant roles created through internal movements, as well as newly created roles," she said.

"Over 70 new starters commenced their employment at UNE in 2021. Currently, 87 roles are under recruitment.

"I commend UNE's staff for their hard work and dedication over the past two years through multiple challenges, including drought, bushfires, COVID-19 pandemic and the Armidale tornado event."

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A lab technician himself, Mr Johnson said some colleagues have been forced to do as much as 21, 12-hour days in a row, without a lunch break, overtime or time off.

UNE would be saving tens of millions in unpaid wages a year by the delay in rehiring unfilled positions, he said.

But the gap can only be made up by other staff.

"With the restructure and with this reluctance to fill vacant roles, it's just like it's a game of Jenga," he said.

"They just want to see how many bits of the uni they can pull out until it all starts to collapse.

"Then they'll go 'oh well that the point we need to operate at, that point of near collapse.'"

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The union plans to conduct a survey of staff to identify the mental health cost of the routine overtime and other overwork it claims members are being routinely subjected to.

It will also pursue the issue during industrial negotiations, and hopes to be able to include a section regarding understaffing and unfilled vacancies in the new university enterprise bargaining agreement, to be negotiated later this year.

"A university is not a hospital, we're not dealing with genuine emergencies. Or the kind of massive unforeseen incidents that have a direct impact on people's lives," Mr Johnson said.

"We're dealing with pretty routine stuff. To treat these periods as major exceptional circumstances that require emergency measures like running with really short staffing or large numbers of unfilled positions, it's a beat-up. They're not really the kind of crises that justify running people down to the bone."

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