◆ SECURE JOBS SAFE WORKLOADS
NTEU focus on casual workers Today at this National Week of Action meeting, I want to talk to you about some of the great work NTEU unionists at RMIT University have been doing with a focus on higher education casual workers. There has been a bit happening at RMIT in recent weeks. RMIT has been on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s speed dial. Dr Ziggy Switkowski has confirmed his intention to step down from the position of RMIT Chancellor by the end of October. RMIT has failed in their one legal responsibility to pay workers the wages they are due for the work they have performed because they have introduced a ‘Workday’ system without first assessing if it is fit for purpose. The NTEU was not letting the issue of #wagetheft disappear, so it took some negotiating for RMIT to agree to a meeting. So, in August this year, we had 10 NTEU casual members talk to RMIT senior management about the impact of RMIT's behaviour on their working lives. The members, present at this meeting, are course coordinators, casual teachers, researchers. They are experts in their fields. They have demonstrated their commitment to developing the critical minds of students and have dedicated
Karen Douglas RMIT University
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ADVOCATE VOL. 28 NO. 3 ◆ NOV 2021
hours of work to marking, course development and student engagement. They are people who have for years turned out successful RMIT graduates. At this meeting the members spoke passionately about their work and asked why they were not receiving correct wages for work performed. What is this work performed? Well, this work includes exercising academic judgement for marking academic work and developing and overseeing student assignments and examinations. In short, this work is the bread and butter of academics in tertiary institutions The fight for the right to have this meeting started some time ago. Academic staff started asking questions about why they were not getting paid academic judgement rates for academic work. Many were rebuffed and were told they had to present the evidence they were doing academic work. When that evidence was produced they were told
