◆ NEWS Image: Oguzhan Akdogan/Stephen Radford
H3 Officer column 850 words
Senate Committee Report exposes 'deeply concerning' insecure work crisis in our sector Body text ◆
Gabe Gooding, National Assistant Secretary
NTEU casuals’ testimonies act as inspiration Having led the charge against systemic insecure employment in our sector for many years, NTEU members should feel a sense of vindication reading the Senate Select Committee on Job Security’s Second Interim Report, released on 19 October. This official Senate Committee Report outlined the impacts of the widespread systemic use of insecure employment by public universities. The report relied heavily on detailed written evidence provided by the NTEU National Office and in-person testimony from National President, Dr Alison Barnes, and several rank-and-file casual NTEU members who spoke first-hand of their experiences of insecure work in public universities. The NTEU submission also included personal stories written by NTEU members, detailing the deep personal impacts of systemic precarious employment on their lives.
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ADVOCATE VOL. 28 NO. 3 ◆ NOV 2021
As Dr Alison Barnes said: 'Only one in three jobs in our universities is permanent or ongoing. That means that the vast majority of our teaching, research and professional support services are undertaken by workers who are not permanently employed.' Paul Morris, a casual academic and NTEU member, told the Inquiry about the impact that repeated short term contracts have on his life: 'It creates anxiety, which persists as a matter of course in my everyday life and intensifies each Christmas, when
