Fired staff now notified at Health faculty

The staff hoped until the end to keep their jobs. But it was all in vain. Today Wednesday, the unfortunate ones who will get sacked were informed that they no longer have a job.

According to the information given to the university board at the meeting yesterday, around 50 administrative jobs will be cut at the Faculty of Health 6 December.

The round of cutbacks is due to a former government demand for DKK 80 million lower administration costs. 14 staff have agreed to resign voluntarily, 17 will work a reduced number of hours and 17 will get sacked.

Sack before Christmas

At the Department of Forensic Science a further four staff members will get fired because of what the management describe as a »structural adjustment«.

Another 19 staff members have agreed to resign voluntarily at the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Science and the School of Foresty in the department in the suburb of Nødebo which is a part of the Faculty of Life Science will cut a unknown number of jobs.

Ingrid Kryhlmand, employee representative of the administrative staff, criticises management for giving people the sack just before Christmas. This was just like it has done the last couple of years.

Other, more humane, ways

She says she is sure it would be possible to handle the staff cuts in a more considerate fashion.

The management could for example have stopped hiring new staff for two years, and waited for the needed number of staff members to retire because of age, she points out.

»It is impossible to explain to the staff why more cutbacks are needed when they are burdened with such a big workload already and the management expect a surplus on the budget of DKK 275 million in 2011,« she says.

Management go free

The main reason for the 50 person job cut is that the former government demanded of the University of Copenhagen that it save DKK 80 million on administration and management costs as a part of the economic rescue plan after the international financial meltdown in 2008.

Staff had hoped that the new Social Democratic government would give up the demand, but this didn’t happen.

Ingrid Kryhlmand thinks it would have been fair if management took its own share of the load for once, she says. The political demand was to cut administration and management costs and not only administration, she argues.

clba@adm.ku.dk

Stay in the know about news and events happening in Copenhagen by signing up for the University Post’s weekly newsletter here.