Adding up wage theft in Maths & Stats

In July 2019, NTEU casual delegates in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at Melbourne University initiated a discussion with the casual tutor cohort in the School about the pay classification of their teaching duties. From an old School email, it had been discovered that teaching in Maths and Stats had been relabelled from ‘tutorial’ to ‘practice class’ in 2008. By the email’s own admission, however, the teaching in the classes themselves did not change. Sadly, the change of title had been used simply to justify paying tutors in Maths and Stats a lower rate of pay to other Schools and Faculties in the University. As awareness of this misclassification of tutoring work spread, more and more tutors felt disappointed at the devaluation of their teaching contribution. They knew that their efforts in teaching was equal to that of their peers in other Schools and Faculties. Many tutors who worked both in the School and elsewhere were puzzled as to why the same duties were being paid significantly more for the same work in other Faculties. After raising awareness of the misclassification issue through conversations with their co-workers, the NTEU delegates, with the support of a casual NTEU organiser, arranged an NTEU workplace meeting for casual staff in Maths and Stats. The meeting’s purpose was to decide democratically: how would casuals respond? Those present discussed and debated, finally voting unanimously to pursue proper classification of their teaching work: payment of the same tutorial rate as other tutors at the University. In this, they had the full support of their casual colleagues in other Schools and Faculties, organised through the NTEU Casuals Network. Following the meeting, the Head of School for Maths and Stats sent an email to casual tutors via a tutor manager in an attempt to justify the pay rate and placate the concerns circulating amongst staff in the School. The email clearly showed that the Head of School’s concept of how tutoring work is performed was a far cry from the actual work done.

Linear Algebra (summer) Linear Algebra S1 S2 Stats (summer) Stats S2 Engineering (summer) Engineering S1 S2 Calculus 1 S1 S2 Calculus 2 S1 S2 Accelerated S1 S2 Intro to Maths S1 Foundation Maths S1 S2 Experimental Design S1 S2 Data Analysis S1 Biomedicine S1 S2 Probability S1 S2 Real Analysis S1 S2 Vector Calculus S1 S2

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 Dierence in Hours 401 836 1474 110 600 156 276 228 924 396 936 744 312 120 96 24 24 192 432 432 240 192 672 360 432 288 228 120 Hours payable: Practice Class Tutorial

Underpayment $19,849.50 $41,382 $72,963 $5,445 $29,700 $7,722 $13,662 $11,286 $45,738 $19,602 $46,332 $36,828 $15,444 $5,940 $4,752 $1,188 $1,188 $9,504 $21,384 $21,384 $11,880 $9,504 $33,264 $17,820 $21,384 $14,256 $11,286 $5,940

Fig. 1: Difference in hours – and subsequent underpayments –for Maths & Stats tutorials relabelled as practice classes (for academic year 2019)

Tutors were not passive presences in the room, as suggested, who merely waited to be asked questions by students, but active members of staff who planned lessons, solved problems with students, rendered lecture content accessible, and fielded further questions from students who were still confused – in other words, tutoring work. Tutors expressed considerable frustration at the content of this email. Yet, the Head of School refused to meet the local Maths and Stats representative delegates to discuss the issue with a supportive NTEU organiser present. NTEU subsequently lodged a dispute with the University about the School’s practices. Meanwhile, at the CasualS Network, members had voted to pursue a ‘Big Bargaining’ strategy with the University’s HR negotiators. This meant a rejection of opaque negotiations behind closed doors between union staff and HR, but a large group of casuals’ representatives at the table, those with real experience of what the work is like. If the Head of School would not hear casual voices, the NTEU Casuals Network would make sure University HR would! Mathematics and Statistics casuals present at the HR meetings gave persuasive first hand accounts of working as casual tutors. For the first time, casual tutors were able to talk directly to University management about their work and the issues related to the way their work had been misclassified and underpaid by the School since 2008. Following this meeting, University HR conceded: the work casual tutors had been performing since 2008 was not sufficiently different from a tutorial as to warrant a lower level of pay – a great victory for the organising in the School of Mathematics and Statistics! Consequently the University has expressed its commitment to pay the tutors the full rolled-up tutorial rate from 2020 and will be in discussions with NTEU members about back pay arrangements for those who have been historically underpaid. ◆

Ben Kunkler, Campaigns & Communications Officer, Victorian Division