CSIRO staff 'not allowed to attend conferences' as budget cuts hit hard, staff say

Updated

CSIRO scientists are being refused permission to attend conferences and morale has plummeted as budget cuts hit hard, staff members say.

About 20 per cent of staff are set to lose their jobs over the next two years as a result of a loss of $115 million in funding and internal restructuring.

A senior research scientist, who did not want to be identified, said the Federal Government was treating the CSIRO like any other public service organisation, instead of recognising that it had unique requirements as a research and development body.

"The fundamental issue is that there is no differentiation of conditions on the basis of the very different function we have relative to other parts of the public sector," he said.

He said staff had been told that all travel requests exceeding $20,000 had to be approved by the Industry Minister's office, regardless of whether the funding had been secured externally.

The scientist, who has been with the organisation for more than 20 years, said he had been knocked back for both international conferences he had applied to attend this year for reasons other than funding, which meant consultation with peers in other countries was more difficult.

This is the destruction of an institution, and possibly applied science in Australia Senior CSIRO scientist

"They clearly see travel as a perk, rather than as a fundamental part of a scientist's job," he said.

"It appears that international travel is judged in some way that decisions on giving permission/denial to take part is unrelated to the actual utility or cost."

CSIRO staff association spokesman Anthony Keenan said the erosion of conditions was having a dire effect on morale.

He said travel was often integral to researchers' work, and many CSIRO scientists were looking to secure university work because they were unhappy with the way they had been treated.

A CSIRO spokesman said the organisation acknowledged the effect on morale the cuts were having, and the results of the staff survey were "as expected given the magnitude of change".

"We are making sure senior management get out to the various sites to talk with staff to show they acknowledge the magnitude of change, listen to people's concerns and provide as much clarity as possible on matters that affect staff," he said.

He said budgetary cuts meant travel was being curtailed and the approval process for international travel was the same as for other public servants.

"In an effort to minimise the number of staff affected, we have had to look at all areas of expenditure and travel is included," the spokesman said.

"Travel fully funded outside CSIRO is not subject to the above process. However, it still needs to satisfy the requirements of delivering on our strategy, objectives and commitments, and that the purpose, outcomes and benefits of the travel are clear."

Open plan office 'cubes' unsuitable for work, scientist says

Office space has also been recently curtailed, and scientists and researchers were being made to move into open plan office "cubes" they say are unsuitable for their work.

"Each standardised cube has about 0.5m length of book shelf, so anyone who has a professional library with more than this has to keep it at home," the scientist said.

I have witnessed cube farms where everyone is wearing their (privately supplied) headphones in order to be able to work CSIRO scientist

"There is no differentiation of function, so people whose duties require them to be on the phone all day are not segregated from people who need a quiet workspace."

He said thinking was an essential part of the job, and some CSIRO staff had been forced to wear headphones or work from home to get their work done.

"I have witnessed cube farms where everyone is wearing their (privately supplied) headphones in order to be able to work, and I have spoken to people who choose to work from home when they need to concentrate - i.e. the office space is no longer suitable for their function.

"CSIRO staff are treated as commodities, whose function and requirements are essentially interchangeable with any other public servant."

The scientist said morale at the organisation was at an all-time low. A recent internal survey of employees revealed one third were "seriously considering" leaving.

"Those people who have options are jumping ship as soon as they can," he said.

"This is the destruction of an institution, and possibly applied science in Australia."

The CSIRO spokesman said about 720 staff were expected to lose their jobs by the end of June next year.

Topics: science, science-and-technology, research-organisations, academic-research, budget, australia

First posted