EIT’s
chief executive Chris Collins received a pay rise of between 14 and 19
percent in the last reported year, according to information released last week by the State Services Commission.
Mr Collins’ remuneration rose from between $290,000-$299,999 in the
year June 2011-12 to between $350,000-$359,999 in the year June 2012-13.
That is an increase of at least 14 percent.
Meanwhile staff at EIT received a pay rise last year of 1.3 percent –
just one tenth that of their highly paid boss. Moreover, students saw
their fees rise by up to 4 percent.
TEU’s national secretary Sharn Riggs says EIT has its priorities wrong.
“The polytechnic needs to invest the money in the people who need it most, not the people who already have the most.”
At the end of last year, the polytechnic lost a significant amount of
money when the government cut level 1 and 2 course funding to
polytechnics. EIT ran a deficit budget last year as a result and now,
just six weeks ago the polytechnic told staff that it would have to find
$2 million dollars to make its budget for next year tally. That will
mean budget cuts and some staff losing their jobs.
“Government funding cuts are hard enough for staff and students,
without EIT’s council making the situation worse by giving the
equivalent of a whole salary’s worth of pay rise to its chief
executive,” said Sharn Riggs.
“Mr Collins now gets paid more than the deputy prime minister.”
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