MPs slam plan to sack 200 TAFE staff

A spokesperson for TAFE NSW said that as part of reforms, they were prioritising resources for frontline teaching by reducing duplication and corporate/back office inefficiencies and “looking at the mix of contractors, consultants and employees”.
“Critically, there will be no changes to frontline teaching and education support roles,” he said.
However the moves to cut 91 permanent staff and 105 contingency staff (contractors) in a planned restructure, have been slammed by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) NSW.
Assistant state secretary Troy Wright said little detail had been provided about why the cuts were being made, “or how services will be maintained once staff have been made redundant”.
“This is an attack on the very idea of publicly-funded vocational education by ideological vandals who want to eliminate public sector competition for private sector colleges,” he said.
In the light of claims that the Berejiklian Government spent more than $6.4 million on consultants for TAFE NSW since the last financial year, NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay also described the cuts as “disgraceful”.
State MP for Lakemba and Shadow Minister for Skills and TAFE, Jihad Dib, said cuts to campus support staff would directly impact on students and have an “enormous impact on teaching staff”.
“This is just another nail in the coffin of TAFE,” he said.
State MP for Bankstown, Tania Mihailuk, added that the State Government should be investing in local institutions such as TAFE that will benefit the local economy and create more local jobs “instead of short-changing our communities with ruthless cuts”.