Senate Inquiry into
Wage theft "
The Senate Economic References Committee recently called for submissions on the matter of wage theft and of course NTEU was keen to contribute as we see more and more members being paid less than their legal entitlements.
Employees in tertiary education are subject to large-scale wage theft, at both private ‘for-profit’ providers and at public institutions such as universities. The vast majority of those who do experience wage theft are insecurely employed. As we said in our submission (in our sector) casual employment is almost an essential precondition for wage theft.
The The level of casualisation in the private sector of higher education contracts assigned to is extraordinary with the Tertiary us at the beginning of the Education Quality Standards semester have ‘anticipated Authority (TEQSA) reporting that the rate is almost twice as high as hours’ in them rather than in universities (44% to 23%). And unlike casual staff in universities, the actual hours that will almost all of those who work in this be worked. sector do not have the protection of an enterprise agreement and are Casual Academic, working under the base level award. Design
We believe that there are three main modes of wage theft within the private providers; underpayment of the required rate of pay (including under-classifying the work), excessive unpaid hours, and sham contracting. In universities the principal modes of wage theft are; failure to pay for the work required, either by simple refusal to pay for some tasks or by failing to pay for the actual time that the work takes, and the arbitrary under-classification of work (e.g. calling a tutorial a demonstration or some other title that attracts a lower rate of pay). Both of these forms of wage theft are common across the sector despite casual workers in universities having the relative protection of an enterprise agreement. One of the terms of reference of the enquiry was to address the most effective ways of identifying wage theft and the best mechanisms to both recover stolen wages and provide a deterrent to employers.
This high level of precarious employment underscores the experience of NTEU in dealing with numerous wage theft claims, NTEU believes that there are two and has led the Union to conclude that substantial barriers to the detection and there is widespread wage theft, such that remedy of wage theft in higher education; it may be characterised as a business the limitation on the power of unions to model. In addition, it is apparent that conduct time and wages inspections, some employers in this sector and the weakness of laws use sham contracting designed to protect employees as a key part of their from adverse action should business model to they make a complaint or suppress wage seek restitution. costs and During the semester I to drive up ended up so busy that I ate profits.
"
By Gabe Gooding NTEU National Assistant Secretary
10
Connect ® Volume 13, no. 1 ® Semester 1, 2020
meals in my car while driving to and from work. I love what I do, and I love the people I work with but I am having to face the reality that I cannot keep working in the higher education sector and survive financially. Casual Academic, STEM