Trick or treat?

This year Halloween came early for employees of the university. At 14.03 on 28th October all employees received the following email.

"XYZ University has decided to start co-operation procedures concerning the university's entire personnel in order to rationalize its operations and improve competitiveness. A briefing concerning these procedures will be held today at 15.00 in XYZ Hall.
- Rector XYZ"

So, what are "co-operation procedures"?

They are negotiations between staff representatives and the employer that are obligatory under Finnish law when employees are to be made redundant.

Needless to say, the email caused some considerable consternation.

Elk's Street was unable to attend the meeting at such short notice, although did spy a national broadcasting corporation vehicle heading in the direction of the university. In an atmosphere of silence, staff were told that 30-50 people would be fired and the redundancies would affect all units and all staff, including researchers and teachers.

The announcement was big news in the local media with headlines such as "XYZ University staff silenced by surprising lay-offs" and "News of lay-offs surprises university staff".

And then the spinning began.

With gobbledegook messages such as:

"The co-operation procedures are a result of the implemented measures above and pending long-term plans. The aim is to create the best possible operational preconditions for the expertise that supports the university's strategy. For this reason, the university has decided to strengthen the resources of functions which support the university's targets and core know-how."

And the appearance in newspapers of statistics of mysterious provenance and of an accuracy that would make Brezhnevian bureaucrats blush, under headlines of "Administration swallows in XYZ twice as much as in comparison university".

When unions representing workers pointed out that the university was not under such financial strain that immediate lay-offs are unavoidable, and when it became clear that the university does not yet have a defined strategy, the propaganda spinning accelerated.

Interestingly, the right-wing student union came out with proclamations such as "students support lay-offs", probably because the neoliberal business theory taught here proclaims that lay-offs of state employees must by definition be good. The caveat that any changes must not be to the detriment of the student body becomes rather untenable in a context where the rector has acknowledged that "compared to international standards the teacher-student ratio is dreadful."


What does Elk's Street think?

This farce has been extremely damaging for the image of the university. There was absolutely no need for such grand announcements; rationalisation measures could just have well been carried out by not replacing retiring workers and transferring workers from one function to another, particularly since the redundancies seem to be affecting the support staff more than teaching or research staff. Following the disastrous implementation of the so-called new university pay scheme, this has been another example of the unbelievable incompetence of university management.

While the university will still be able to attract students - today's news is tomorrow's chip wrapper - the effect on staff will be more long-term. Motivation has already been affected, there is no point working hard if you are in for the chop, and people are honing their CVs and tending to their network of contacts. The ability of the university to attract and retain good members of staff has been badly damaged. It is already difficult enough to get good people to work here. The location is remote, in a small town in the middle of the forests, and the salary, with the exception of those on professor pay scales, nationally and internationally uncompetitive. As it becomes evident that the university had no clearly defined strategy when the announcement of redundancies was made, it is increasingly obvious that the aim of any strategy is to reduce the number of employees; research and teaching considerations are secondary.


How will Elk's Street be affected?

Elk's Street is unlikely to be made redundant in this round of lay-offs but the outlook for 2010, when the new Finnish university law comes into force, is somewhat stormy. The new law is ostensibly to give universities greater autonomy but is basically a Helsinki-based money grab. Only the new so-called "peak" university, an amalgamation of three existing universities in the metropolitan area, has been guaranteed funding, with the regional universities left to fend for themselves. University staff cease to be state employees, meaning a considerable reduction in benefits (pension, medical etc) and protection against redundancy.

There is one last thing to note - Finland is going through a wave of announced lay-offs and retrenchments, with daily announcements in the past weeks. The fact that the announcements started immediately following the elections, when the usual suspects were returned to power, is of course entirely coincidental.