As casuals, we are vulnerable to wage theft exploitation

Dr Andrew Broertjes, University of Western Australia

Since the submission of my thesis in late 2006, I have been working as a casual lecturer and tutor in history at the University of Western Australia (UWA). Despite high student evaluations and a number of teaching awards, I have not been provided with a permanent position. Friends who work in non-tertiary institutions often ask me why this is the case, as surely after a decade of consistent work and exemplary feedback, any work place would make me permanent? Something surely must be deeply wrong? I simply reply that for the tertiary sector in the 21st century my casual role is a feature, not a bug. Dr Andrew Broertjes

I became an NTEU activist around 2015, when the Faculty of Arts began cutting major sequences such as Medieval and Early Modern Studies, European Studies, and Gender Studies. My involvement deepened the following year as senior management embarked on the Orwellian named ‘Renewal Project’, stripping over 350 staff of their jobs, and restructuring the nine pre-existing faculties into four ‘superfaculties’, against the strong objections of staff and students. I finally became a formal member of the UWA NTEU Branch Committee in 2018 as the Casual representative. The major campaign I’ve been involved with this past year has been around wage theft. The campaign at UWA began in 2013, then gained momentum last year as we discovered that casual underpayment was not only rife in certain parts of the University, but that administrative and human resources staff had been directed to underpay casuals. Senior management agreed to bring in an outside auditor to review all casual payments going back to 2013.

The process has been slowed considerably by COVID-19, but will hopefully pick up again as these cases enter mainstream news outlets. Around 70% of teaching work at Australian universities is done by casual staff members. Like casuals in other industries, we are vulnerable to exploitation. The precariousness of our positions, a precariousness that lasts years, has a devastating toll mentally and socially. Many of us struggle to start families, buy homes, and take out loans because of our positions. To add stolen wages on top of our already vulnerable position is both a legal and a moral failing on the part of our universities. Finally getting senior management to admit that there was a problem with wage theft/underpayment of casuals has been an important breakthrough. Trying to create a broader awareness among the campus community in general (particularly students) was a genuine challenge, and one that will be ongoing.

"...we discovered that casual underpayment was not only rife in certain parts of the University, but that administrative and human resources staff had been directed to underpay casuals.

Most students are under the belief that the lecturer standing in front of them has tenure and job security for life. Creating awareness that this image is a myth, whilst at the same time not undermining the authority of those teaching staff, is particularly difficult. Engaging with the wider UWA community beyond my discipline group/school has brought me greater insight into the challenges we face as a cohort, as well forming working relationships I would not have otherwise made. University of Western Australia History is made by those who show up. Genuine change is made by those who show up. We are facing the twin threats of a once-in-a-century pandemic, and a government that is not only content to subject the tertiary sector to ‘benign neglect’, but is actively seeking to undermine it. These challenges require everyone to be in the arena, not merely sitting on the sidelines.