CIT teachers feel 'disrespected' by Shorten's 'aggressive' merger campaign

Résumé détaillé

Union members push back on merger proposals as CIT cuts jobs.

Teachers at the Canberra Institute of Technology feel "dismissed and disrespected" by a campaign from the University of Canberra's vice-chancellor to merge the two institutions, a union representative says.

The backlash to the merger proposal comes as the CIT has cut two more executive roles and is offering voluntary redundancies to bring stability to its finances.

Australian Education Union TAFE vice-president Karen Noble said Bill Shorten had run an "aggressive" campaign which had resulted in the majority of submissions to an inquiry on CIT governance being in favour of a merger.

"Our members and CIT staff across the board are feeling quite dismissed and disrespected by the ferocity of his campaigning. So, if it is that we are to work more closely in the future, the relationship is already not... in a great place. Some damage has already occurred to that," Ms Noble said.

"We already work well with UC, and we will continue to work well with UC, but we need to work with a full range of universities and education providers, and not just be locked into UC."

The Australian Education Union (AEU) said in its submission that elsewhere in Australia vocational education has come off second best inside dual-sector universities.

It argued that the CIT's problems would not be solved by merging the governance of the two institutions and CIT staff would move to largely weaker conditions.

The AEU's position is at odds with the National Tertiary Education Union, representing university staff, which said creating a dual-sector university was necessary for the survival of ACT public tertiary education.

Secondary school principals, Canberra Airport chief executive Stephen Byron, the Pharmacy Guild, ACT senator David Pocock, and the Australian Institute of Architects also put their support behind the merger proposal.

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