Recognising wage theft of postgrads

Peter Watson

Board Chair, Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA)

Recognising wage theft of postgrads

Each year universities across the country recruit thousands of postgraduate students for coursework and research degrees. For those completing research degrees, these students form part of a research workforce that is the backbone of the higher education sector, contributing 56% of all research hours. However, estimates suggest that only 40% of these are scholarship recipients and many will look to other work to get by.

Entering their research training and beginning to engage in teaching, these students can find themselves a part of larger systemic policies in their work and are often exposed to uneven power dynamics. They might be an international student who is fearful that upsetting the status quo will come back to bite them. We know this kind of environment is fertile ground for wage theft practices to flourish. While the NTEU, CAPA and local student representatives are fantastic avenues for reporting, what can we as colleagues do to recognise the signs in our peers? Open communication between our colleagues is always beneficial and a great starting point when combating these issues. It can often bring to light issues of wage theft before they exact too great a toll on a student.

Compare what work each of you are doing, what your duties entail and ask yourself whether this is appropriate for someone balancing both study and work. By establishing this baseline between colleagues it can become quickly apparent when something is amiss and where a student is having too much asked of them. Something we at CAPA hear all too often is a student undertaking unpaid preparation work for a tutorial or laboratory. A student may be asked to undertake unpaid marking for a class they are responsible for, or be allocated time for marking such that no sense of constructive feedback could be given. These students are being asked to compromise their own performance as an educator to help the Department’s, and by extension the University’s, bottom line. As the first point of contact for the student’s they teach, they may also be in the firing line when an undergraduate’s experience in the unit beings to slip. Those that choose to stand their ground can be placed in the difficult position of receiving poor feedback and have their performance questioned as a result.

It is important to keep an eye out for our colleagues who appear stressed by their workload or anxious for upcoming work and help them to connect with their local NTEU Branch and student union.

Wage theft is not an issue that can be resolved overnight. It warrants a concerted and ongoing effort by our peak bodies all the way down to those at the coalface and in the classroom.

As the Government pushes the sector towards greater commercialisation of our research, CAPA is concerned this may only serve to create new opportunities for exploitation where students unfamiliar with their rights as creators of research, stand to be taken advantage of by their university.

"Compare what work each of you

are doing, what your duties entail and ask yourself whether this is appropriate for someone balancing both study and work.