Axed teachers reinstated in long-running saga
Almost two years after a State Government department cut 12 teachers in one unit, four have been reinstated and the department told to compensate those who challenged the cuts.
The saga has been described as an “unnecessarily difficult and protracted process, poorly managed throughout.”
The tale of how 12 lecturers at the Hospitality unit of Regency Park TAFE were axed just before Christmas 2011 has emerged in a recently published decision of the Teachers Appeal Board.
Senior lecturers Ivan Livera and Oliver Kenny were told in December 2011 that they were among 12 lecturers to be ‘redeployed’ by the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, (‘DFEEST’).
They challenged the decision, engaged lawyers and headed to the Teachers Appeal Board.
When DFEEST’s chief executive reversed the decision one working day before a scheduled hearing in April 2012, they were still none the wiser as to why their positions had been abolished.
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“The procedures DFEEST adopted here were unbelievable,” Livera and Kenny’s legal representative Kris Hanna told InDaily.
“There were 12 teachers and they were all suddenly taken out of their normal roles and put in a room.
“They were offered separation packages and for some of them they were just worn down by the process and they left.
“Psychologically, it was just shocking.”
A DFEEST spokeswoman told InDaily “seven staff received and accepted a Targeted Voluntary Separation Package (TVSP) and have left the organisation”.
“Two staff were formally re-instated into Hospitality, two staff were ‘placed’ in Hospitality as additional positions and one staff member was redeployed and then matched to another position in the organisation.”
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The two Hospitality workgroup lecturers then sought payment for their costs in launching the appeal.
In the decision published this month, the Teachers Appeals Board recommended an ex gratia payment be made to the two hospitality lecturers, Livera and Kenny, to “ameliorate the costs they have incurred in preparing for the hearing of this matter” and the parties “engage in informal discussions with a view to resolving the matter, at least reaching agreement with respect to the facts, in order to narrow the issues and reduce the expenses associated with long hearings”.
The board members, Judge Leonie Farrell, Donald Peter and Sue King, found that while the board had no power to order any compensation payment, they would have done so if that power existed.
“Had this been a jurisdiction in which costs could be ordered we would have made such an order,” the board said in its decision.
Despite the lack of power to award costs, the board then went on to recommend the Department make a payment and resolve any outstanding issues.
For Livera and Kenny, it was a long and difficult process.
Oliver Kenny ultimately settled his claims and concerns with TAFE and recently departed, while Ivan Livera remains.
DFEEST chief executive Raymond Garrand confirmed this week that recompense had been made in line with the recommendations of the appeals Board.
“In regards to the matter which was before the Teachers’ Appeal Board in relation to Oliver Declan Kenny and Ivan Livera, a negotiated settlement was reached that took into account the decision and the employees were recompensed part of the costs and reinstated,” he said.
Kris Hanna said the saga was a case of “cutting too deep”.
“They cut so hard the Hospitality unit couldn’t function.
“We then had to go through this process where the decisions were reversed, recompense made and yet, still no clear communication of why these people had to go through such a process.
“There were occasions where senior staff were just humiliated; it’s been very difficult for them.”
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