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Up to 20 staff at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra have been told, as of Friday (16th September), that their jobs will no longer exist.

The ABC has reported that the cuts are believed to be in response to the Federal Government's ‘efficiency dividend’ announced last year that saw six of the nation's top institutions advise in February that they were facing $20 million cuts as a result.

Public sector union, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said that up to 20 employees at the NGA were told on Friday that they would lose their jobs.

CPSU spokesperson Beth Vincent-Pietsch told the ABC “syaff are upset and shocked.

"To be handed a letter that says your job is not going to exist come Monday is really confronting for people.

"They will stay at the gallery for at least seven months. There is a retention period there that they are entitled to.

"But will they be easily slotted into a different job? That's hard to tell."

Vincent-Pietsch said the head librarian was among the group of staff that would lose their current jobs, adding “these are people who are highly qualified with distinct skillsets.

"The idea that you can just take a head librarian and suddenly pop them into a mounter or cutter position for instance, that's just not going to fly."

In February, NGA Director Gerard Vaughan said he believed more than 10 of its 240 staff would lose their jobs as a result of cuts of $4 million over four years.

18th February 2016 - QUESTIONS OVER PROVENANCE OF 22 ASIAN ARTWORKS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

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