Sacked Humanities staff informed

Humanities employees waited with baited breath on Tuesday 18 January to hear whether they would keep their jobs, now the unlucky staff members leaving the faculty have been informed. This is according to our Danish sister-site Universitetsavisen.dk.

A total of 16 technical and administrative staff (TAP) are fired. A further 17 technical and administrative staff and three academic staff have either accepted an offer of voluntary redundancy with a half year’s salary, or chosen to work part time with full pension for the next 2 or 4 years, and will retire after that.

Additionally, eight vacant positions will not be filled.

Faculty Dean Kirsten Refsing announced last year that 35 jobs would be cut in 2011, to save DKK 15 million.

Anger and resignation

Faculty director Michael Cholewa-Madsen, says it is an unfortunate situation:

»It is sad to say goodbye to good employees, but the positive side of this is that we have had a long time to prepare ourselves, so that a large proportion of the cuts can be carried out via voluntary resignations,« says

According to Associate Professor Karsten Fledelius, vice chairman of the Faculty Collaboration Committee, reactions to the bad news varied.

»Several of the employees were very angry, others were resigned to it. But in general, it all happened peacefully«.

luci@adm.ku.dk