We are working towards a better future for casuals and those without secure jobs.
Across the country university workers, both those who have secure work and those who are working on short term and casual appointments, are banding together to end the scourge of insecure work.
At every workplace members are aiming higher and pursuing changes that will lead to more secure and stable work.
Casualisation and exploitation of vulnerable workers on casual appointments is rampant across the sector.
Australia is experiencing a flood of insecure work and universities are at the forefront of that trend, where the business models of the sector are built upon the exploitation of staff who are in insecure work.
NTEU estimates that less than 1 in 3 university workers have secure employment. For students that means that you have a greater than 50% chance that the person teaching you does not have a secure job, has no office to meet you in, no certainty that they will be working next semester and are effectively forced to work when sick.
Casual employment is not just an economic problem, it has an enormous impact on the mental health of workers who live with constant insecurity. Over-reliance of casual labour doesn't just sell those workers short, it sells Australia short. These are the scholars that we will need to rise to the challenges of the future, to do the research, and to teach the next generation, but they are being shut-out of building a career, undermining the future of the academic profession and our universities.
At the same time, workers who are supposedly employed on a permanent basis also suffer from an abiding sense of insecurity as wave after wave of restructures leave them constantly jus one change management away from losing their job.
To compound the problem a shameful and growing list of employers have been caught out engaging in wage theft by underpaying casual staff, and campaigns by members have recovered millions of dollars in payments for those who have been underpaid.
Tertiary education workers, both those who have secure work and those who are working on short-term and casual appointments, are banding together to stop the twin scourges of insecure work and systemic underpayment.
Casual workers are represented within NTEU by the National Tertiary Casuals Committee, made up of elected Casual Representatives from Branches from each Division.
2022 National Tertiary Casuals Committee
It's going to take all of us to win secure jobs. Join today and get involved in NTEU campaigns on your campus!
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