◆ WAGE THEFT
Shining a spotlight on unlawful underpayment cont... One witness chose to present their evidence anonymously, fearing retributions would jeopardise future employment opportunities. However, they were able to describe how their university had not only repeatedly underpaid them but, after action was taken and the University admitted underpayment, only partly repaid what was owed.
Another witness, Hayley Singer, told how she was even ‘paid’ for her work on a postgraduate advisory panel as a casual academic with a gift voucher. As she told the Inquiry, gift vouchers don’t pay rent, medical bills or transport costs, nor attract superannuation. It certainly isn’t appropriate payment for work the University wants and expects.
Even worse, the witness detailed how management also took steps to prevent their conversion to permanent employment, despite our witness having met the work tests that otherwise would trigger conversion.
While being able to tell our political representatives about these and other similar experiences is vital in fighting the rhetoric of university managements who maintain there are no problems with their employment practices, there is more at stake. It is also an opportunity for NTEU
members to have a direct and unfiltered voice to power, and to shine a light on the reality of what their lived experiences. We have made important gains and had meaningful wins in the fight on wage theft and insecure employment, and the focus now is on employers – that we have come this far is due to the tireless work of our activists, our elected officials and staff and, most importantly, our members who have chosen to speak out. ◆ Terri MacDonald, Director (Policy & Research)
In their own words Statements to the Inquiry into Unlawful Underpayment been doing these units for the last 5 years. The number of hours are all the same – more than 150 hours for each year, except last year. I am eligible for conversion. They dropped my hours from almost 200 hours to 62 hours in the first semester. I was contacted by the Unit Convener in the second semester in 2021 to do more than 50 hours, which would be enough for me to meet the minimum requirements for conversion. But they cancelled everything two days before the start of the semester.
Witness 2 The problem started in 2020, when the University moved to the online learning. At the end of the year, I applied for conversion. Basically, I advised them of what I had done and the hours that I was paid on that basis or at that rate. Basically, the Department Chair instructed the Unit Convener not to give me any classes in the current semester, in order to avoid my conversion. My belief is that maybe it is because I spoke up. I said: 'This is not the fair payment. I didn't get my fair payment for last year.' In my belief, mostly it is related to that. I have
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I already lodged a formal complaint in the first semester through the Union. To the Union I said, 'I will be targeted for the upcoming semester.' Unfortunately, the University failed to investigate my allegation. When they cancelled my classes, I went to them again and they said: 'We didn't cancel your classes because we targeted you in order to avoid conversion. We want to save some money in teaching this class.' That is wrong because the hours taken from me were given to the permanent staff and another sessional. So they just played around in order to avoid my employment. Senator Faruqi: So there was no money saved? There was no money saved at all. I tried to talk with the Department Chair and the Dean at the time. I said 'I've been
ADVOCATE VOL. 29 NO. 1 ◆ MARCH 2022
working for [the University] for the last 6 years.' Especially during COVID-19, we used to give more of our free time in order to support the students. We moved to online learning, but the students needed more help with online learning. It is not normal tuition we did through the pandemic, especially in 2020. But they don't care about all that. Our feedback is good. We maintain this feedback. Especially in the last two or three years I have had more than nine out of 10 in student feedback. They don't look at this at all. They don't look at my work in the previous years. They just want to avoid my application. As a casual, I have no chance to stand in front of the University. They have lawyers. I went to the Fair Work Commission (FWC). They said, 'You can't represent yourself.' At the end they said, 'You need to submit your case in court form.' I do not have the knowledge to do this. I went to a lawyer and they said, 'We will charge you $20,000.' I can't afford to risk $20,000 to support my case. So I had to go to the FWC. Then, on my payment, which they had to pay me from 2020 (and they agreed at the beginning of the year to pay after I dropped the case) they gave me only $1,500 out of $6,000 and they said, 'This is your money and we will not give you any more.' ◆
