TasTAFE staff facing redundancy say morale has collapsed and colleagues are in tears as more job cuts loom across the training provider.
International student advisor James Field was told on Tuesday he was likely to lose his job, along with several colleagues.
Adult migrant English teachers were given the same warning the same day.
“Staff at TasTAFE, the morale is low,” Field said.
“My friends and my colleagues are devastated at looking down the barrel of losing their jobs because they care about the jobs that they do.”
Field, a CPSU delegate, said consultation processes were underway but he was pessimistic they would lead to anything other than redundancies.
He moved back to Tasmania specifically to work at TasTAFE and said he had not thought about what comes next.
“When you’re told you may be made redundant, it affects you emotionally,” he said.
“My closest colleague says she cried all of last week because she loves her job and she doesn’t want to give it away.”
Laboratory technician representative Mel Gleeson said the cuts to lab training would leave Tasmanian communities exposed.
Lab technicians work across pathology, water quality, food quality and schools, where they manage chemicals and risk-assess experiments.
“My concern is by taking away that quality training, that we’re leaving a whole lot of people in our community vulnerable,” Gleeson said.
She said the lab tech diploma once thrived with students “lining up to get into that course”.
Now only two international students remain enrolled and the course is closed to new entries.
Gleeson warned of a wider brain drain, with students forced out now planning to study interstate.
Labor leader Josh Willie said 56 job cuts had already been identified, with more jobs and courses expected to follow.
He called on the state government to outline “where the other TasTAFE cuts are going to come from”.
“TasTAFE is an investment in Tasmanians, it’s an investment in the skilled workforce and it’s an investment in the economy and opportunities here on the island,” he said.
“Cutting TasTAFE is detrimental to all of those things. We need to build TasTAFE up, not cut it – and that’s what Eric Abetz and Felix Ellis are doing.”
The state government defended its record, pointing to $364 million invested in TasTAFE over four years.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said TasTAFE needed to live “within its budget” and align its courses with industry needs and economic growth.
Asked where further savings would come from, the premier said decisions rested with the TasTAFE CEO and board.
“We’ll continue to see TasTAFE expenditure … rise in coming years,” he said.
