The vagaries of casual employment

Mick Piotto is a casual professional staff member and on the NTEU UniSA Bargaining Team

I have been a unionist all my working life and the last twelve years have been with the NTEU. I remember the days when almost everyone was in full time permanent employment, a privilege now, it seems, and one I enjoyed for decades until being made redundant at the beginning of 2020 (but that is a story for another day).

Since then, I have been employed casually at the University of South Australia (UniSA) in a combination of academic and professional roles. After almost two years of teaching the same courses in the same semester periods in a program that will be ongoing, there appears to be no likelihood of any offers of semi-permanency (fixed term contracts) or ongoing employment. I will again have to go through the twice yearly casual staff registration process, expressions of interest, and then waiting for confirmation of a contract offer, always received the week before semester begins, if you’re lucky.

There is no induction or orientation beyond an email advising where to find HR policies and procedures. There is no payment for the hours spent reading and trying to understand how university systems work.

Support service contacts provided are merely email addresses or phone numbers to generic staff services with no names provided. Am I part of a team and who is in my team? There is a one hour Zoom session to meet the Course coordinator and other Course teachers, instructions are provided and then one is left to themselves for weeks with no further meaningful engagement. Just go and teach. You’ll be fine.

There is no job description attached to contracts, so beyond running a tutorial and marking assignment, what is actually my job?

There is no payment for the hours of administration spent logging on, downloading assignments, uploading assignments, answering student emails, submitting pay claims, making phone calls to gain assistance and advice on how systems work, and trying to find answers to questions so that one can do one's job.

National Week of Action selfie from Stef Rozitis, Flinders

There is no concern for quality of education. Students no longer have access to their tutors, and are directed to Learnonline sites with their questions, their attempts to understand and their struggles with concepts and ideas. No individually tailored education going on here. There is no time to provide meaningful feedback on work assessed.

When I complained that it was taking me way longer to assess assignments then the time paid for, I was directed to stop giving so much feedback to students and simply tick the boxes in the assessment matrix.

There is no payment to set up one’s home office – computers, printers, desks, chairs, etc. all have to be paid for ourselves. There are invites to the program staff meetings, unit staff meetings, all of staff town halls, etc. etc. One’s attendance is never paid for, unlike all the other permanent staff present, so in the end one remains isolated and at risk of being labelled 'not a team player'.

National Week of Action selfie from Tania Long, UTAS

It is rare to be approached by anyone and asked how’s the teaching going? How is your workload? I could agree to 50 contracts and no-one would care that I was overloaded or under stress.

There is never any formal feedback on one’s performance. Being offered the opportunity to teach the same course again is the only affirmation that one gets that you may have done a good job. I don’t even know if my employer thinks I’m doing a good job or not. Do they actually know if I am a crap teacher or anything about my pedagogy, engagement with students, or the quality of my teaching? Do they even care?

Such are the vagaries of casual employment, as I have discovered. And it's been an eye opener for someone used to being employed in ongoing positions.

But I sense there is hope that things might change. Casual employees have had enough of being treated as second class staff, had enough of being used and exploited. Now is our time to speak up and speak out for:

• Fair wages which provide payment for the time it actually takes to complete work tasks.

• Conversion of positions from casual to permanent. After all, the same courses are being taught in the same programs semester after semester, so why not

employ people on a permanent basis to teach them.

• Inclusive practices which would see casual staff paid to be a part of staff teams, and provided with paid professional development to maintain their expertise and currency.

National Week of Action selfie from Ben Habib, La Trobe

These are amongst the demands being made by casual staff at UniSA and I need to acknowledge the hard work of Victoria Fielding, until recently the casual representative on our local Branch. Meetings were organised, issues identified and concerns have been raised with management, all thanks to her passion and energy.

I hope to be able to continue her efforts and convince other casual staff of the importance of solidarity and collective action through the Union. This is the only way that we can achieve the changes and improvements we seek, i.e. to be paid a fair and just wage and be treated as people, not things.

My long history of union activism tells me that this is how it’s always been. We are powerless without unions. It is collective action that leads to real change.

I encourage and invite you to consider joining the NTEU if you are not a member. I can guarantee you won’t regret it. ◆

Mick Piotto is a casual professional staff member and on the NTEU UniSA Bargaining Team

Speech given by Mick Piotto as part of the NTEU National Week of Action event, Secure Jobs Now!

National Week of Action selfie from Jacqueline D'warte, WSU