Protect all UTS staff during COVID-19 crisis

Professor Attila Brungs, Vice-Chancellor, University of Technology Sydney

The COVID-19 crisis is unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetimes. Its impact will not be short-term. We know that the situation will worsen before it improves.

As a public institution with a commitment to progressive social impact, UTS must do all it can to protect the safety and security of its people.

UTS has a responsibility to provide staff with financial security during the crisis. No staff member should be considered expendable.

The business of the university must take second place to protecting livelihoods. There is work to be done, we can redeploy, we can adapt. The priority must be people first; there will be time to fully address the finances when the crisis has passed.

This is how we stay safe and get through this. This is how UTS can make a real social impact.

Please add your name to the letter below.



Petition by
Vince Caughley
Vince Caughley
Marrickville, Australia

To: Professor Attila Brungs, Vice-Chancellor, University of Technology Sydney
From: [Your Name]

We the undersigned acknowledge the unprecedented challenges facing all staff and students at UTS, the efforts the University has been making to keep the UTS community safe, and the creation of a COVID-19 casual staff fund.

Notwithstanding this, we call on the University to take further urgent measures to maintain the employment relationship with staff to provide financial security, in line with UTS's role as a public institution.

TO THIS END WE DEMAND:

  1. The university honour all employment contracts, including with casual staff, to maintain staff livelihood in this period; shedding staff is not in the public interest

  2. Any managing change processes, current or planned, or threats to the current position of staff be immediately suspended until the COVID-19 crisis has passed

  3. Casual staff not be discarded to save the UTS balance sheet; the virus affects us all equally, and all staff deserve equal protection

  4. The casual support fund be used to keep casual staff financially secure, not to fund their sacking when they are most vulnerable; incomes must not only be protected when a staff member or family falls sick to COVID-19.