Wintec redundancies not related to building projects, says CEO

Redundancies at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) were not related to planned $115 million building projects, chief executive Mark Flowers said today.

Mr Flowers confirmed this week the institute staff should expect up to 60 redundancies.

Wintec was in good shape but it was necessary to correct a problem of over-staffing which he had inherited when he took the role two years ago, Mr Flowers said.

The confirmation of job losses comes just two weeks after the polytechnic announced it was planning a $62 million 5000-seat indoor stadium, and four months after it revealed it would spend $53 million upgrading its Hamilton city and Avalon Drive campuses.

Mr Flowers said it would be difficult to get staff to support the projects when they saw their colleagues' jobs cut.

"Most don't understand the difference between capital and operating spending," he said.

Wintec would not be viable in the long run if it didn't stop spending more money than it received.

"But the spending and the potential redundancies are not directly linked," he said.

The upgrade project would be done in two stages.

Work on the first, expected to start early next year and cost around $16 million, would be funded from the institute's reserves.

Money for the second would need to be borrowed near the end of 2005.

"It all comes down to making sure we get more students. If we don't get more students, we'll lose more staff," Mr Flowers said.

"I hate the whole process... it's unsettling, unpleasant, but it's an unfortunate reality."

- NZPA