In the News
Casualisation a “dirty secret”
Casualisation of the workforce is “the dirty little secret of university expansion”, the National Tertiary Education Union told the public parliamentary hearings into insecure employment bill.
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Yes sadly this is not a secret. In fact I was told by another person working in my institution (he is lucky enough to be on a contract from years ago, but is also the most inefficient worker in the department) that its’ done to keep us on our toes! I too am a woman, have been working in a casual/short term contracts fro 7 years and also deliver a large proportion of lectures in our course. I tried to claim half an hour for administration/planning for the last fortnight and was aksed to explain myself!!!
When asked by my HoS what we could do about collegiality and collaboration in the school I thought to myslef well perhaps we need to give people more security in their workplace for a start!
Seems to me to be a very short sighted and unsustainable way of educating our future leaders, professionals and not to mention health professionals.
Yes retraining and getting out of this system is very attractive to say the least!
The effect of the government’s new bill will be that causals will loose their jobs and permanent staff will have their teaching loads increased, hurting everyone.
Casualisation is a decision made by universities, and by academics. It can’t be entirely blamed on “funding”, or “the government”. Permanent staff members at universities chose this path.
I’m glad to hear the NTEU talking about casualisation, job security and the next generation of academics, but as a member it’s not something I hear them discussing much. It’s generally pay rises, and more pay rises. I would accept a pay cut for more security.