‘You should expect to do free work.’

James Arbuthnott
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

A union official, who prefers to remain unnamed, has been campaigning for casual tertiary workers for over a year now. He recalls a tutor telling him about an email they received from their coordinator: “As a casual employee, you should expect to do free work.”

The rise in casual work followed the government’s removal of restrictions on the use of limited term contracts in 2008. But although it accelerated the replacement of limited-term contracts into casual employment, the restrictions are only partly to blame. ABS statistics report ‘those without holiday or sick leave entitlements’ make up 76.9 percent of university staff. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) says keeping them in insecure employment means casual employees’ rights can be bypassed.

In 2017’s State of the Uni survey, only 36 per cent of respondents viewed their jobs as secure. Eighty-four per cent of respondents agreed that “Job security is important if intellectual freedom is to be protected,” while over 60 per cent said “Excessive reliance on casual and fixed-term employment by universities is affecting the quality of education.”

An empty classroom- photo via Creative Commons.

Colin Long of the NTEU says universities are behaving like businesses and “selling some sort of product.”

“Official tutors 20 years ago were probably people doing a PhD or a bit of work while doing their masters and eventually getting a real job in a university. But nowadays they don’t have much expectation of getting a better job,” says Long.

Unions continue to struggle to organise industrial action due to lawsuits and the nature of precarious workers’ rights. Tutors often lack resources and time to consult students, perform high volumes of unpaid work and are not entitled to sick or paid leave. The proportion of full-time employment in Victorian universities continues to hover between 40 to 60 percent. The same data also shows eight out of ten teaching-only staff are casual employees.

“They wanted to be anonymous for fear of losing their jobs. Their risk is that if the universities don’t like what they said then they won’t get any further work. Casuals don’t get called in or get a warning, they just don’t get called back for the next semester,” says Long.

Abusers and Enablers in Faculty Culture. Ryan Melaugh, Creative Commons

“A real casual position means you say ‘I’m available’ or ‘I’m not available.’ A large number of casuals have been working consistent hours for years and it’s more like full-time work than it is casual work, but they don’t get the benefits.”

On university staff being scared to speak out about their conditions:

“Their risk is that if the unis don’t like what they said then they won’t get any further work. Casuals don’t get called in or get a warning, they just don’t get called back for the next semester.”

Marko Beljac of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at Melbourne University says we have a choice: “Either we have public universities… dedicated to higher learning and the advancement the human condition, or we have factories.”

His take on the enduring issue of ‘factory farm’ universities is representative of career academics. And the issue is on the front line again after The Age exposed sessional tutors being ‘exploited.’

Marko says our choice has dire consequences. And if we make the wrong decision, public universities will soon need to rely on “exploitation, degradation and chicanery,” acting “much like a factory farm would.”

Written by

Book Reviewer for ArtsHub and independent journalist from Melbourne, Australia. https://rwarbuthnott.wixsite.

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