Growing casual strength
In this time of unprecedented social, cultural and economic upheaval arising from the outbreak of COVID-19, as old certainties are being upended, it seems we are entering hitherto uncharted waters. Values, relationships, and forms of work that informed the way of life we’ve long taken for granted in western democracies and in Australian higher education, as being fixed and immutable, have suddenly been pulled out from under our feet, and revealed within a short space of time, to have been wholly fragile and impermanent.
in the Union
Ensuring that our union and members are included in the conversation about the future of higher education and society more broadly will depend to a great degree on the extent to which the NTEU can demonstrate to university managements our strength and solidarity at all levels. If ever there was an urgent need to build grassroots union power it is now, which means that we need to prioritise as a whole of union effort – NTEU leadership, delegates and members together – the channelling of our energies, resources and funding towards organising activism on the ground A silver lining in the otherwise ominous COVID-19 cloud has been the recent influx to the NTEU of new casual members following the decision to offer a 3 month fee suspension to new and existing casual members (at the time of writing, around 600 new casual members had joined). In light of this, and taking into account the need to build our union’s power and the unprecedented shift underway in Australian universities from face-to-face to online teaching, we, the NTEU National Tertiary Casuals Committee (NTCC), argue that it is now imperative for the organising and resourcing of the activism of casual members to be placed high on the list of NTEU’s priorities.
RTIARY
ALS MITTEE
From the National Tertiary Casuals Committee (NTCC)
Coordinated by Dr Audrey Statham
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We feel it is timely, therefore, to offer the following brief review of the existing structures and funding that support and promote the activism of casual members, which have been progressively established by National Council motions over the past four years of National Councils.
Connect ® Volume 13, no. 1 ® Semester 1, 2020
This provides a context for the NTCC’s reflections on what we see - based on our own experiences of being casual NTEU member activists - as gaps in the existing structures and funding for supporting casually-employed members’ activism.
A review of structures and funding supports for casual members’ activism Regarding NTEU structures, at 2016 National Council a resolution was passed that established the structure of the Designated Casual Position within the Branch Committee structure. Later, 2018 National Council established the structure of the NTCC the membership of which is drawn from casual members occupying the Branch Committee Member (Casual Staff) position. The NTCC functions as a national delegate committee, and members are permitted to attend National Council, however, members do not exercise voting rights. Motions for funding the activism of casually-employed members were passed at 2017, 2018 and 2019 National Councils. A resolution from 2017 National Council enabled casual NTEU member activists to access reimbursement for loss of wages, at the appropriate rate of pay in their Branch’s Enterprise Agreement, when conducting a union activity that would normally be paid for if the member were not a casual (for example, trade union training, leave or time release). An amendment to the latter resolution was passed at 2019 National Council, which
