Staff at Otago Polytechnic are seeking more information so they can respond to draft plans to chop jobs and possibly rehire axed staff into new roles in the mega-polytechnic Te Pūkenga — New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.
The calls coincide with a visit by leaders of Te Pūkenga, which is driving the restructure.
It plans to make 400 redundancies nationwide across all polytechnics and hire similar numbers of staff into the new roles.
Three senior leadership staff — Te Pūkenga deputy chief executives Gus Gilmore, Andrew McSweeney and Megan Gibbons — met Otago Polytechnic staff and local work-based training organisations in a series of meetings yesterday, along with the co-lead for Te Pūkenga region four.
Region four includes Otago Polytechnic, Southern Institute of Technology, Ara Institute of Canterbury and Tai Poutini Polytechnic on the West Coast.
The meetings were part of a five-week staff consultation about the plans, announced earlier this month.
Decisions about what comes next are expected in August.
Staff attending the meetings said they felt in the dark about how departments would be structured in the future, and the information presented was only about senior role changes.
"Without more detail it is difficult to respond to the consultation fully. We are waiting for more," one staff member, who did not wish to be named, said.
"People are keen to get on board, but don’t know what they are getting on to.
"There is also a sense of frustration, more than anything else, that we are having to take our energy away from our work with students at a busy time, in order to engage with this process."
Staff described the polytechnic as being "in limbo".
Some roles were empty because staff had left and not been re-recruited due to the uncertainty.
"Staff are being given a sense that everything will be ironed out and we will all be in a great place in the future, but it is a matter of getting there."
Staff also called for retention of Otago Polytechnic’s independent status and appeal.
Te Pūkenga plans include centralising administration and support functions such as business development and marketing.
Under the plans, local departments involved in such functions would be scrapped and staff possibly rehired into nationally-run departments.
Otago polytechnic has more than 900 staff and Te Pūkenga is still tight-lipped about how many could be affected by the changes.
Mr Gilmore said after the meetings in Dunedin that they had "really valued the opportunity to get so many perspectives" and appreciated the time staff had taken to work with them.
"We are grateful for their thoughts and suggestions and their interest in creating an organisation that meets the needs of the future."
Meanwhile, the state of Te Pūkenga’s finances are a mystery as its annual report remains unpublished.
The Office of the Auditor-General said yesterday it was still "working with Te Pūkenga to get the audit completed".
