Dismayed polytech staff have consulted an employment lawyer after Te Pūkenga’s chief executive made an announcement about job losses on live radio, before consulting with them.
Peter Winder said hundreds of jobs would be lost at the new mega polytech, during an interview on Radio New Zealand (RNZ) on Friday.
At least 200 and less than 1000 jobs will go, he said, as the national tertiary provider looks to slash millions from its budget.
The “brutal reality is, there will be some job losses”, he told Stuff.
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But members of Christchurch-based Ara Academic Staff of Canterbury (AASC) are “very concerned” about the comments and instructed senior barrister Kathryn Dalziel to act on their behalf.
AASC represents around 320 staff and tutors at Ara Institute of Canterbury, which is now part of the Te Pūkenga network.
They consulted with Dalziel to issue their own statement expressing their dissatisfaction about Winder’s remarks on the “potential loss of jobs and reorganisation”.
While his comments on the “proposed shift to on-the-job learning”, inferred “the workplace is a better learning environment than...
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