National Jobs Protection Framework - Casuals Fact Sheet by NTEU

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jobs protection framework

It takes soidaity to save 12,000 jobs

CASUALS FACT SHEET Impact of COVID-19 on jobs in tertiary education

Frequently Asked Questions

Australia’s higher education sector has been severely impacted by the loss of full fee paying international students due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Why don’t we campaign the Government for more funding to solve this problem?

Universities Australia (UA) has calculated that Australian universities will lose $4.6 billion of expected revenue this year alone, with losses continuing into 2021 and 2022, and this claim has been supported by financial data provided by individual universities. Both the NTEU and UA have projected job losses stemming from this be around 30,000 actual positions in the absence of a National Jobs Protection Framework.

Risks for casuals with no union action Without a national framework to manage and control universities’ cost-cutting programs on our terms, we know from experience that casual staff will be heavily targeted and the first to go.

NTEU is continuing to campaign for more university funding and more secure jobs in the sector, demanding fair treatment by the Government. A National Day of Action is happening on 21 May. Government funding already announced in relation to the COVID-19 shortfall was minimal and has not covered losses associated with the reduction in international students. Given the absence of leadership from the Morrison Government on this crisis, it has been left to the NTEU to step forward and ensure a free-for-all of cost cutting does not occur. In fact, the Government’s statements around the relief package have revealed a subtle shift towards more privatisation and a slimmed down sector. By keeping continuing positions alive in the sector, we are fighting the Government’s agenda for a teaching focussed, high volume, low cost, privately funded sector. By fighting for this Framework we are ensuring that work and positions are kept in the sector through the crisis.

In first semester we have already seen universities move to quickly reduce casual employment as a knee-jerk response to the crisis. Without a national framework this will likely accelerate in June, as there will be a heavily reduced semester two international student intake, and the bulk of work moving courses online will have been completed.

Casuals in other sectors received JobKeeper payments. What about us?

Under this free-for-all scenario, without a framework, opportunities for casuals to re-engage in casual or continuing work will be extremely rare as all universities will be cutting staff at the same time.

How do we know this framework will be implemented fairly?

Without the Framework, we could see hardworking casuals rapidly and permanently forced out of the sector.

Overpage: How the Framework Protect Casuals

Under current Government regulations, it is almost impossible for universities to qualify for JobKeeper. Regulations have been changed four times to stop universities from qualifying. See our fact sheet at www.nteu.org.au/covid-19/policy.

The Framework gives oversight to a special local joint unionmanagement committee at each university that will oversee all aspects of the Framework implementation. Any complaints or disputes regarding the implementation of the Framework will go to this committee. If it is not resolved it will go to an independent arbitrator to ensure issues are resolved. Further, the Framework establishes a National Expert Panel to ensure that university losses are proportional to any measures they wish to implement under the Framework.

THIS FACT SHEET AVAILABLE ONLINE AT WWW.NTEU.ORG.AU/COVID-19/FRAMEWORK

NATIONAL JOBS PROTECTION FRAMEWORK Life-ring CASUALS FACT SHEET

How the Framework Protects Casuals The NTEU’s National Jobs Protections Framework was built with casuals in mind to make sure employment opportunities, pay, and conditions of casuals are protected during this crisis.

It protects casual employment by: • Mandating that if work done by a casual continues to be performed and the casual had a reasonable expectation of performing that work, then it needs to be performed by the casual currently performing it – this gives job security to casuals that is even greater than before. • Spreading savings measures more fairly and evenly across the entire university, including non-staff savings, management salaries, and employee costs the full burden of savings will not be taken from casuals – as is often the case in the sector.

Quote-left Alex is a casual tutor. In second semester they usually

teach three lectures and take two tutorials for 12 weeks in POLS3201 – American Political Orthodoxies. Alex is the only tutor. Due to lower enrolments in second semester this year there is only one tute, but Alex must still be assigned the three lectures and the one tutorial as this work cannot be assigned to other staff, unless continuing staff are substantially under employed or under threat of redundancy or stand down.

It maximises new work opportunities for casuals by: • Banning new external appointments– maximising work for existing casuals and casuals will have access to the internal jobs pool. • Protecting the workloads of continuing staff, stopping universities trying to shift casual work onto those staff. • Prioritising any staff member who has already lost work due to Covid for any new work as it becomes available.

Quote-left Sam is a Senior Lecturer who is told that there is no budget for casuals and that they must perform the 320 hours of marking done last year by casual staff. This puts Sam above the workload limit in the Enterprise Agreement. The Union will lodge a dispute to ensure that Sam has a fair workload and casuals retain their work. It protects casual pay by: • Excluding casuals from all pay reduction measures, acknowledging that they are the most vulnerable members of the Union. • Ensuring universities will pay for all out-of-pocket expenses due to working from home.

It protects casual entitlements by: • Protecting casuals superannuation contributions at current levels. • Protecting Enterprise Agreements – including those containing conversion clauses for casuals, and casuals continuity of service. • Granting two weeks special paid leave for casuals infected by COVID-19, caring for someone with COVID-19, or require to selfisolate.