The union for the Australian National University's few remaining in-house security officers has filed a claim with the Fair Work Commission claiming an officer's attendance at an industrial meeting was behind a postponed redundancy offer.
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Dean Browne, 38, said he agreed to end his 12 years at ANU so he could move to the NSW south coast with his family after the university released its plans on November 18 to cut its in-house security team by five positions.
In a statement filed with his claim, Mr Browne said he was shown payout figures by an ANU human resource director on December 4 and plans were made to sign a package within two work days.
The next day, Mr Browne, the security officers' union delegate, attended a meeting with United Voice and ANU staff and management in support of his two security colleagues seeking to retain their jobs.
That evening he was told ANU was "seeking advice" on whether the redundancy deal could occur given the events at the meeting.
"I was devastated. One minute I was thinking I was good, and the next it's like, 'what the hell's going on?'" Mr Browne said.
"The only reason I can think of is that I attended the meeting."
An ANU spokesman said the university rejected any suggestion it had initiated the delay to the redundancy process.
"However, security staff and their union, United Voice, have raised a number of issues with the university related to the change management proposal, and have sought a commitment that no further action is taken to implement the changes until the issues are resolved," he said.
"As a result, the process is on hold until the issues are resolved - if the change management proposal is implemented, staff will be offered redundancies at that time."
United Voice ACT branch secretary Lyndal Ryan said the union - which threatened legal action last month if the outsourcing went ahead - had made a proposal to ANU at the December 5 meeting to keep the other two officers, but had indicated acceptance of Mr Browne's position being removed.
Ms Ryan said a security supervisor whose position was also part of the university's change proposal had signed off on a redundancy agreement on November 29. She said the union, while not representing the supervisor, alerted ANU to its opposition to the wider change proposal on November 28, making the signing of one package and not another "unfair and dumb".
The matter will be discussed at a conciliation hearing on Monday.
