What’s in Labor’s ‘Secure Australian Jobs Plan’ for casuals?

Dr Terri MacDonald, Director (Policy & Research)

In February, Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese launched the ALP’s industrial relations policy, called Labor’s Secure Australian Jobs Plan, that many expect will be taken to the next Federal Election.

The plan pledges that Labor will:

• Make job security an object of the Fair Work Act 2009 so that it becomes a core focus for the Fair Work Commission.

• Extend the powers of the Fair Work Commission to include “employee-like” forms of work, allowing it to better protect people in new forms of work, like app-based gig work, from exploitation and dangerous working conditions.

• Legislate a fair, objective test to determine when a worker can be classified as a casual so people have a clearer pathway to permanent work.

• Limit the number of consecutive fixed term contracts an employer can offer for the same role, with an overall cap of 24 months.

• Ensure a Labor Government is a model employer by creating more secure employment in the Australian Public Service where temporary forms of work are being used inappropriately.

• Use government procurement powers to ensure taxpayers’ money is used to support secure employment.

NTEU has long fought to curb the growing proliferation of insecure employment in higher education. We are pleased to see that Labor has identified insecure work as a major policy area and have responded directly to the ALP regarding their jobs plan.

Background

Insecure employment is now the primary form of employment in the higher education sector. With around 65% of university employees employed on an insecure basis (43% as casual and 22% on fixed-term contracts), only one in three university employees has a secure job.

The growth in insecure employment has occurred at the same time as the Federal Government has reduced its proportion of public funding in higher education; in 2012, Commonwealth Grant Scheme funds contributed 25.6% of university funding, but by 2019 that had fallen to 20.6%. The growth in funding has been in international student fees and in domestic student tuition contributions (via HECS-HELP).

However, the situation is set to become far worse. The Government’s most recent changes, via the Job Ready Graduates (JRG) policy, force universities to teach more students with less government funding (on average) per student. The JRG also confines this funding to teaching only, when previously it could also support the research that underpins university teaching. Combined with the effects of mass job losses in the sector resulting from the COVID-19 collapse of the international student education market, these changes will see universities expand even further on casual forms of employment.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the inequalities in higher education employment that existed prior to the crisis. However, instead of addressing the problems and working with the sector to resolve them, the Government has further exacerbated the crisis in Australia’s higher education sector.

Secure jobs in higher education are needed for quality teachers and researchers. Secure jobs are also needed to ensure we have safe workplaces for both staff and students. In short, secure jobs are vital to ensure the future of Australia’s public universities and TAFEs.

Casual employment

NTEU agrees with the ALP that casual employment should be defined. That said, casual and short-term contract work is commonplace in higher education, but is unlike other forms of insecure employment in other sectors.

While casual work in the higher education sector is often relatively predictable, required for an indefinite period of time and more or less ongoing, it can be described as ‘intermittent’ because work is arranged by semesters, with each semester’s work being a separate engagement.This is similar to primary and secondary teachers who have the same issue – they are engaged regularly, on a pattern for the period of the term, but not during school holidays.

Because of this, attempts at defining casual employment often overlook, or are not broad enough to include, the circumstances of employment found in universities.

We would like to see how insecure employment as it exists in the higher education sector could be addressed as part of Labor’s Secure Australian Jobs policy.

While often described as ‘intermittent’, the Union’s research has shown that there are clear patterns of employment for casual and short-term contract staff; 90% of casual (academic) university employees report being employed more than one year and 62% being employed for over three years. The statistics are similar for professional staff; 72% had been employed for more than one year, 28% for more than three years.

Casual Conversion proposal

The ALP has also flagged in this policy that it is looking at options for casual conversion. While we support measures to address insecure employment through casual conversion, the current approach would not be a clear-cut solution for the higher education sector.

This is because most casual conversion clauses in awards (or as is proposed in the IR Omnibus Bill) do not extend to university employees as they do not qualify for ’12 months service’, primarily as a result of the nature of their employment being semester-by-semester – despite many employees having worked at a single institution on rolling contracts for years. We are therefore looking to discuss alternative ways to address this issue and improve the pathway to secure employment.

Portable leave & limiting consecutive contracts

NTEU welcomes Labor’s proposal for portable leave entitlements for casual employees, noting that this would have been of benefit during the COVID-19 crisis.

We are also generally supportive of Labor’s proposed measure to limit the number of consecutive contracts an employer can offer for the same role, although we note that universities are adept at gaming systems, and there may need to be mechanisms in place to prevent employer misuse.

Government as model employer

While public universities are not the public sector, NTEU would be supportive if Labor included agreements and arrangements between government and universities: in particular, research and project work.

Superannuation

While the NTEU has successfully negotiated in university enterprise agreements the payment of 17% superannuation for permanent and fixed-term staff, so far universities have refused to extend the same superannuation entitlement to casual employees, who are paid the Superannuation Guarantee of 9%.

Labor’s announcement to defend the increase of the Superannuation Guarantee will assist in our ongoing campaign – which will carry into the upcoming bargaining rounds – of gaining superannuation equity for casual staff.

While the Union will be stepping up its focus on insecure work in both the upcoming bargaining rounds as well as in our campaigning efforts, NTEU has welcomed Labor’s focus on this important issue.

NTEU’s lobbying focus remains on both improving industrial rights and protections around insecure employment as well as turning the tide on the flood of casual employment in higher education.