<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/22/lucys-job-should-be-more-secure-but-at-australian-universities-labour-laws-are-having-the-opposite-effect>
"Lucy Nicolls is used to disappointment. She has been casually employed by the
University of Sydney for eight years, despite repeatedly trying to get an
ongoing contract.
So when the federal government’s casual employment changes came into effect
last month, she wasn’t holding out hope for immediate change.
Nor did she expect that some Australian universities would respond to the
legislation by halting casual hiring, firing employees or briefing managers on
how to get around the industrial relations reforms and reducing courses.
“We’ve been made a lot of promises and none of them have come to fruition,”
Nicolls says. “At this point casuals are demoralised – we’re consistently sold
out.
“We want permanency, we want to be able to plan our lives, but instead we’re in
a situation of constant precarity. It’s exhausting.”
The closing loopholes bill, which passed earlier this year, made a number of
changes to casual employment, designed to make it easier for Australia’s 2.5
million casual workers to convert to a permanent role.
But experts are warning that the casual employment changes, which came into
effect on 26 August, are having the opposite effect at universities, where up
to 75% of academic staff are on insecure employment contracts.
Guardian Australia understands two universities – Monash and Macquarie – have
curtailed hiring or let go of casuals, while the University of New England and
the University of Sydney are advising management on how to prevent casuals from
applying for ongoing work."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
