U-Vet members campaign to protect jobs

Staff at the University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Animal Hospital in Werribee have come together to campaign to save staff jobs and protect the service against harmful cuts.

Delegates and NTEU members penned an open letter outlining concerns about reduced opportunities for staff and students, extreme workloads, diminished clinical experiences and damage to reputation in both the local community as well as international accreditation as a training institution. Despite reduced staffing in 2020, the hospital continued to serve a similar number of clients in the community as previous years. Clinical and professional staff have both reported high levels of stress related to workload, as well as reporting low confidence in the management of the service.

The site received an improvement notice in 2018-19 following high levels of workplace injuries. These issues were later resolved, however further concerns were reported to the Branch more recently.

While a large proportion of University staff shifted to working from home while Victoria’s pandemic restrictions were in place, hospital staff continued to serve students and the wider community under intensely difficult circumstances, with regular COVID-19 testing and changes to rostering that moved staff in to work areas they were unused to or not trained in.

After members and delegates met to discuss their experiences and reactions to the proposed changes, the idea of an open letter was born, with staff, students and the community adding their names online before the document was submitted as part of the consultation process.

A physical copy of the letter has also gained a large number of signatures on site. Additionally, staff, students and the community have been encouraged to submit photos and testimonials to show how much they value the service and want it to thrive. As well as a training institution, U-Vet is highly valued in both metropolitan Melbourne and across Victoria.

Beyond the campaign of NTEU members and staff, a change.org petition lamenting the loss of a 24 hour service attracted over 4500 signatures. In response to this, the campaign and attention from local media and government, management have already walked back the cuts to the 24 hour service, citing the change as a ‘temporary’ measure. It remains to be seen whether the promised service quality can be maintained if the staff cuts go ahead. ◆

Simon Linskill, Branch Organiser, University of Melbourne

For further information on the campaign, including the open letter, testimonials and photos, the campaign website is: fvasunion.gitbook.io/u-vet-open-letter