Sentry, June 2020

SENTRY National Day of Action

You have one job, Dan! Save Higher Ed

COVID-19 job crisis

Fighting to save jobs Branch-by-Branch

Casual & Contract Researchers

Pandemic increasing problems of precarity Tutoring fine arts students

Zoom fatigue and missing out on the full uni experience Published by National Tertiary Education Union

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CONTENTS

COVID-19 jobs crisis

Research and precarity

NTEU members are fighting to save jobs and protect conditions workplace-by-workplace.

What it's like working as a researcher employed on contract during a pandemic.

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06 Cover: National Day of Action selfie sent in by NTEU member Dr Annabel Smith from UQ, for the National Day of Action (see report, p.8) Annabel notes the full quote from Wendy Brown is: 'The survival of democracy depends upon a people educated for it, which entails resisting neoliberalisation of their institutions and themselves'.

(Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution, 2015)

Sentry is a free online news magazine for NTEU members and Australian higher education staff.

Sentry will be published during the COVID-19 shutdown in between publication of the Union's regular member magazine, Advocate.

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Creative comms & COVID-19

Vale Jack Mundey

Amy Sargeant is a trans artist and a sessional academic tutoring fine arts students at QUT.

The BLF leader was a committed unionist, conservationist, and early intersectionalist.

Sentry will be published in May, June, August, September, October and December (if required). Advocate will be published as usual in July and November.

SENTRY ISSN 2652-5992

Editorial 01 In case you missed it... 02 Join the Emergency Response Team 05 National Day of Action 08 Coronavirus and your Super 15

Sentry

Published by National Tertiary Education Union PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia ABN 38 579 396 344 All text & images ŠNTEU 2020 unless stated Publisher

Matthew McGowan

Editor

Alison Barnes

Production Manager

Paul Clifton

Editorial Assistance

Anastasia Kotaidis

Sentry is available online free as a PDF and e-book at www.nteu.org.au/sentry

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EDITORIAL

Vice-Chancellors have failed to protect universities NTEU is appalled that greed and fear of scrutiny among university vice-chancellors have combined to derail the National Jobs Protection Framework, an agreement designed to save 12,000 jobs and preserve hard won conditions.

The consequences of their abandonment of the Framework is apparent, with hundreds of casual and fixed term staff already losing their jobs.

NTEU will now escalate to what will be historically high levels of industrial disputation and campaigning to fight for every job. This could have been avoided.

NTEU approached negotiations with the Australian Higher Education Industry Association (AHEIA) in good faith. At all stages we were assured that the AHEIA had the support of the majority of VCs for an industry-wide solution to the current crisis. It’s now clear the AHEIA was either not representing a broad coalition of VCs, or negotiated an agreement that gives employees more rights and protections than some VCs were willing to tolerate.

The worst crisis in the history of Australian universities demanded a collective solution to save careers and livelihoods. Too many VCs are baulking at the strong oversight provisions in the Framework that guarantee transparency and ensure that any contribution our members make will be dedicated to saving jobs. VCs appear to have abandoned their industrial association, and demonstrated they are allergic to scrutiny. They are showing reckless disregard for their workforce.

Alison Barnes, National President

The requirement that senior executives commit to salary reductions larger than could apply to staff is

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obviously also a factor for some.

University of Sydney VC, Michael Spence is paid $1.5m per year and blithely announced he would be keeping his full salary while simultaneously culling $90 million of casual employment from his university.

NTEU will now escalate to what will be historically high levels of industrial disputation and campaigning to fight for every job. This could have been avoided. We have demonstrated that we are the only body that is prepared to provide leadership to fight for the future of the sector and its 200,000 employees. At all times we have been guided by job security and fairness.

The Morrison Government has completely abandoned higher education at a time of crisis. This is unforgivable and will seriously compromise Australia’s research and teaching effort as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The huge number of NTEU delegates, activists, committee members, and the membership generally must be congratulated for the productive way they are coming together to support the jobs of their colleagues. We will continue the fight for the future of our sector, with or without the help of the VCs.

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CATCH UP

NEWS & CAMPAIGNS

In case you missed it....

National Day of Action A short video to celebrate the NTEU's first ever protest conducted under national lockdown conditions, on 21 May 2020.

With a combination of physical distancing, social media and sheer weight of member numbers, it was a huge success!

Watch the video M Read the report on p.8 a

The New Social Contract The New Social Contract is a podcast that examines how the relationship between universities, the state and the public might be reshaped as we live through COVID-19.

Listen to the Podcasts D

Higher education funding, JobKeeper & the Higher Education Rescue Package

Campus Crisis – What is the Future of our Universities?

A summary of the financial crisis in higher education and the Federal Government’s failure to act, including via JobKeeper and the Rescue Package.

A 1 hour discussion, lead by Ben Eltham, with Alison Barnes, NTEU National President; Verity Firth, Executive Director of Social Justice at UTS; and James Doughney, Emeritus Professor of Economics at VU.

Download the PDF FILE-PDF

Watch the video M

Letter campaign to Education Minister Dan Tehan Over 2,000 members and staff sent a letter to Dan Tehan to call for a real rescue package for jobs in tertiary education. It's not to late to join them and ensure the Government hears your voice!

Sign the Letter File-Signature

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COVID-19 jobs crisis

Fighting to save every job

JOBS PROTECTION

NEWS & CAMPAIGNS

As the COVID-19 crisis becomes stark, members are fighting to save jobs and protect conditions workplace-by-workplace.

As the impact of the pandemic revenue crisis continues to ripple through our sector, individual Branches and universities are coming to terms with their own 'new normal', fighting to protect jobs and conditions based on how each workplace has been affected and how local members and managers have responded.

JOBS PROTECTION FRAMEWORK In lieu of a real rescue package from the Federal Government, and following the withdrawal of the National Jobs Protection Framework, members continue to campaign to save jobs and protect conditions at the local level. Depending how different Vice-Chancellor s, Branches and balance sheets have fared, it’s now a patchwork of negotiations, campaigns and ballots across the country.

Michael Evans National Organiser (Media & Engagement)

At Monash, La Trobe and the University of Western Australia, the Union is seeking to save as many jobs as possible by winning important protections and limits on mass sackings and stand-downs.

The Union remains hopeful of securing important job-saving measures at these campuses to limit the damage – votes and negotiations are ongoing. Most likely, staff at each of these workplaces will soon vote on their possible Enterprise Agreement variations.

AGGRESSIVE CUTS AT MELBOURNE At the University of Melbourne, Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell’s administration (which was early to walk away from the proposed National Jobs Protection Framework) is proposing a range of cuts and aggressive reductions to existing workplace conditions which would

Image: pxhere

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JOBS PROTECTION

NEWS & CAMPAIGNS seriously undermine wages, conditions and job security. These include a pay cut of 2.2%, reductions in redundancy pay, a lack of job-saving measures by rejecting a cap on involuntary redundancies and limiting our rights to go to the independent umpire for arbitration.

The fact that Josh Frydenberg has a spare $60 billion to spend and yet has thus far refused to offer us a lifeline underscores the apparent disregard the Federal Government has for our sector.

At a Branch meeting on 28 May, NTEU members met and voted by 97% to reject management’s proposed variation to the collective agreement, resolving to actively campaign against the proposed variation. Members can review management’s proposed changes and compare them to our existing rights under the Enterprise Agreement on the Melbourne Branch website.

REDUNDANCIES & SACKINGS UNDERWAY

Members demonstrating outside Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's office, 28 May

At some workplaces, the situation is stark. Devastating news of redundancies, significant budget challenges and change management proposals were flagged at Deakin, Wollongong, Central Queensland University and ANU. At Deakin University, in particular, the announcement of more than 400 job losses was shocking news for many members. To make matters worse, many more fixed-term and casual workers at Deakin had been let go already and were not reflected in the 400 figure. The Union has been quick to condemn these cuts and job losses, reiterating our call on Minister Dan Tehan to include the higher education sector in JobKeeper.

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WE NEED A REAL RESCUE PACKAGE As the national response to the COVID-19 crisis enters a new phase, we continue our calls for a real rescue package to #SaveHigherEdJobs.

The fact that Josh Frydenberg has a spare $60 billion to spend and yet has thus far refused to offer us a lifeline underscores the apparent disregard the Federal Government has for our sector.

On 28 May, National President Alison Barnes, Victorian Division Secretary Mel Slee and Monash Branch President Ben Eltham mobilised with members at the Treasurer’s office in the leafy electorate of Kooyong to demand he use some of his spare dosh to save jobs and protect our sector.

Our legal team and local Branches are escalating the number of legal disputes and cases in the Fair Work Commission, seeking to enforce existing rights around a myriad of issues including workloads, casual staff conversion, non-payment of wages, and a range of health and safety issues under Enterprise Agreements and the law.

We currently have 53 different disputes running at 18 universities and Navitas.

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NEWS & CAMPAIGNS

The cuts announced so far CQU • $100 million + budget shortfall.

• 99 forced redundancies.

• 197 voluntary redundancies.

• Closure of teaching sites at Biloela, Noosa and Yeppoon.

Deakin University • $250 - $300 million revenue shortfall.

• 400 positions to be made redundant from 300 current staff roles and 100 vacant positions. These will be predominately professional/general staff positions.

ANU • $225 million budget shortfall.

Join the NTEU Emergency Response Team As the COVID-19 revenue crisis hits our workplaces in the weeks and months ahead, the Union is aware than some VCs may seek to use new laws which permit a 24 hour notice period to ram through aggressive changes to our Enterprise Agreements, against the wishes of members and the Union.

To stop this, it will be crucial that we unite and stay alert and hence we have established an emergency network of members to be on stand-by in the event of anti-union snap variation attempts.

We are compiling lists of members in each State and Territory who wish to volunteer to be part of our Emergency Response Teams.

Some Vice-Chancellors are already moving, without NTEU member approval, to change the terms of Enterprise Agreements that govern your pay and conditions without putting in place job protections. If the employers try to ram through changes to your Enterprise Agreement, we will need to act quickly to win any non-union ballot.

• Unknown number of voluntary redundancies.

Can you volunteer to help mobilise your colleagues if your employer seeks to change your Enterprise Agreement without the approval of union members? There is a range of organising and campaign tasks you can volunteer for, from emailing colleagues to organising local workplace meetings and more. As always, training and support will be available.

University of Melbourne

To join the team, please send an email to your Division with your details!

• Staff asked to permanently forfeit 2% pay rise due in July 2020.

• $400 million budget shortfall.

• Staff (except casual staff) asked to permanently forfeit 2.2% pay rise first paid in May 2020.

• Unfettered use of forced redundancies.

ACT: act@nteu.org.au NSW: nsw@nteu.org.au NT: nt@nteu.org.au QLD: qld@nteu.org.au SA: sa@nteu.org.au TAS: tas@nteu.org.au VIC: cgaul@nteu.org.au WA: wa@nteu.org.au

• No enforceable protections against stand downs.

• No enforceable protections against workload increases.

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CASUAL RESEARCH

MEMBER STORIES

Research with precarity in precarious times Working as a researcher who is employed on contract – whether casual or fixed-term, full-time, part-time, or patched together by multiple commitments – has always been precarious. Together, the three authors of this article have over 25 years of experience working on research contracts, some for as few as 30 hours while others have extended over several years – and we recognise that we have been incredibly lucky.

Jess Harris Associate Professor University of Newcastle

Our research into the working lives of contract researchers in higher education highlighted the knowledge and contributions of this important sector of the academic workforce. In addition to the challenges of academic work, they are also required to navigate ongoing uncertainties around their finances, family lives and career prospects, which have only increased given the impacts of COVID-19.

INCREASING PRECARITY FOR CASUAL AND CONTRACT RESEARCHERS While there has been a lot of discussion about the potential $19 billion funding loss to universities over the next few years, there has been relatively less focus on the impact for those

Dr Nerida Spina Senior Lecturer Queensland University of Technology

Kate Smithers PhD candidate University of Newcastle

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MEMBER STORIES whose jobs are at greatest risk.

NTEU estimates that around 94,500 people are currently employed on contracts at Australian universities.

Casual and contract researchers tend to be the most vulnerable during times of upheaval. Most contract research staff are employed on funding for research projects that, by its very nature, is short-term, difficult to secure, and typically outside of contract researchers’ control. Social distancing policies have meant that fieldwork and many research projects have been put on hold.

For contract researchers, these realities can have a significant financial impact. University freezes on new contracts also mean those who typically survive on short-term contracts to generate income and boost future employability could also be at risk.

While it is still unclear how the pandemic will impact research in the short and long term, it is clear that the greatest effects are likely to be felt by those working on contract.

UNIVERSITY RESPONSES An estimated 7000 research jobs are at risk in Australian universities in 2020. Pre-pandemic, over 40% of contract researchers were already reporting working unpaid hours.

Shockingly, there have been recent reports of requests for those with research experience to volunteer their time and expertise to teach students in a bid to reduce casual staffing costs.

Other universities have responded to COVID-19 with clear policies and support for all staff, including those on contracts. Positive moves by universities include providing casuals and contract researchers with access to paid leave and professional development, and honouring existing contracts, regardless of the current availability of work.

Clarity around opportunities and conditions for work are essential for everyone but are particularly important for casual staff, whose immediate and long-term work prospects are under threat despite having often spent years working in universities building expertise.

SOLIDARITY WITH COLLEAGUES ON CONTRACT Everyone in the field of higher education should consider the needs of colleagues working on contract. Our interviews with researchers across Australia and in the UK highlighted the importance of collective support for those working in precarious roles.

During the pandemic, there have been calls for academic solidarity, led by over 70 prominent academics who are refusing to work with any university that does not support contingent staff.

At the local level, we urge all academics to maintain their networks and connections with non-tenured colleagues, particularly for those who are often not invited to faculty meetings or included on university email lists.

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These connections can help ensure that non-tenured researchers are not further marginalised by social distancing requirements and are provided with as much information as possible about the impact of the pandemic on research and their institution(s).

Another option for supporting contract researchers is to provide, where possible, access to career-building opportunities like co-authorship of research publications and involvement in designing research projects.

Such support for contract researchers helps to build collective capacity within institutions and, importantly, demonstrates that the contributions of all researchers are valued.

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Clarity around opportunities and conditions for work are essential for everyone but are particularly important for casual staff...

To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou Image: mrPliskin/istockphoto

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#SAVEHIGHERED

NEWS & CAMPAIGNS

National Day of Action, 21 May On 21 May, NTEU members around Australia demanded Minister Dan Tehan does his job to save higher education. It was an unusual Day of Action, given the social distancing restrictions during COVID-19. There were no mass meetings or rallies; still, activists were really creative and came up with a range of ways to get our message across. Watch the Day of Action video here.

SELFIES FOR DAN Hundreds of people – higher education staff, retirees, students and politicians – sent in selfies with our poster of Dan Tehan, either printed out or displayed on their screen.

These were sent at regular intervals throughout the day to Dan Tehan’s Twitter and Instagram accounts.

By that afternoon, our hashtag SaveHigherEdJobs was trending at number one on Twitter.

CORONA CONVOYS NSW activists organised 70 cars, 30 bikes and 50 people on foot in a convoy to a demonstration outside Liberal Party HQ in central Sydney.

Warrnambool, making local newspaper headlines the next day.

SPELLING IT OUT Activists at four different campuses in WA organised large signs which spelt out each of the words in 'Save Higher Ed Jobs'. In an example of extreme distancing, the signs were displayed by members at each of the campuses.

National President Alison Barnes spoke to an online webinar 'Campus in Crisis', part of the Australia At Home series, on the future of higher education in a post COVID-19 world.

Over 500 people joined the webinar. #SaveHigherEdJobs, Mr Tehan!

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In Victoria, members travelled to Josh Frydenberg's office in suburban Camberwell to stage a socially distanced action.

Activists from Deakin University similarly demonstrated outside Dan Tehan’s electorate office in regional Above: The No Cuts Mobile, part of the Sydney car convoy.

Left: Spelling out our demands at four separate WA campuses.

Opposite: Some of the hundreds of selfies sent by members on 21 May.

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NEWS & CAMPAIGNS

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SESSIONAL ACADEMICS

MEMBER STORIES

Creative communication during the coronavirus My name is Amy Sargeant, I’m a trans artist and activist from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) where I work as a sessional academic (casual), tutoring fine arts students.

Through installations of sculpture, audio and video, my work responds to my disillusionment with the dysfunctions of the Australian political establishment by reframing the elements of political spectacle. I deploy the Situationist method of détournement to de-stabilise motifs from mainstream politics, activist iconography, symbols and visual cultures. I am the NTEU’s Queensland representative for the Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education, and the representative for casual employees on the QUT Branch Committee.

FLIP TO ONLINE TEACHING Across the board, the switch to online delivery has been damn hard.

I really feel for my students, who have to spend hours a day battling ‘Zoom fatigue’ and are missing out on the full uni experience right now. I also feel for the Unit Coordinators, who have had to restructure these immensely complex units so quickly.

Amy Sargeant QUT

For casual staffers like me, the current situation has been marred by lack of communication, over-stuffed classes and a lack of support with regards to the equipment needed for online delivery. Through a series of meetings, our QUT casuals have unanimously communicated that conducting online teaching requires

To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou

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MEMBER STORIES significantly more time than face-toface learning.

Despite not being paid, our members report that on average they are working and extra 10 to 15 hours per week. I think students would be shocked to learn this!

COPING WITH COVID How are we dealing with this dire situation? As soon as possible, we requested a meeting of sessional union representatives and the Vice-Chancellor. We asked for full and correct payment for all hours worked, and a commitment to a cap on the size of online tutorials that is equal to pre-COVID-19 arrangements.

Finally, we asked for the Vice-Chancellor to commit to sessional staff that they will be provided with the IT and other equipment that they need for on-line delivery while working from home. At the time of writing (a month later), we have not received a comprehensive response from the VC.

the importance of the NTEU to provide a framework we can organise around. Waiving fees for new casual members has seen a radical uptick in membership at our university, and there is new energy to organise and improve conditions in the midst of COVID-19.

Let’s get to it, comrades!

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www.amysargeant.art

'Flag 3' (2017) dimensions variable.

Pinewood, plywood, cotton, inks.

‘Slope 2 (Against)’ (2019) dimensions variable. Satin, drill cotton, chain, aluminium, adhesive bonding, sledgehammer.

QUT is the most casualised university in Australia. The beneficiaries of this arrangement are certainly not casuals, who want to organise and improve conditions. We’re often never in the same room to coordinate anything, and this condition is not unique.

Across Australia, we see very similar circumstances faced by tutors and other casually employed staff in tertiary education. This highlights

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HISTORY

UNION STORIES

Vale Jack Mundey Unionist, conservationist and early intersectionalist

The NTEU wishes to acknowledge the recent passing of union stalwart, and inspiration to many in the broader activist community, Jack Mundey. Mundey passed away on 10 May at the age of 90 years, after a life well-lived.

Jack Mundey came to prominence as the Secretary of the NSW Builders and Labourers Federation (BLF) in the late 60s. Mundey, a committed communist, was part of a leadership team which ushered in a new type of unionism which was proto-intersectional in its approach as they believed that 'In a modern society, the workers’ movement, in order to play a really meaningful role, must engage

Celeste Liddle Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Organiser

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in all industrial, political, social and moral struggles affecting the working people as a whole'.

GREEN BANS It’s because of this principled stance that many are aware of Mundey and the BLF’s world famous Green Bans movement.

The first of these bans was placed on the proposed development by

Jack Mundey being carried from a protest at The Rocks in the early 70s (Robert Pearce)

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UNION STORIES AV Jennings of Kelly’s Bush. The BLF, working together with a concerned women’s community group, placed a ban on members working on this development as well as other Jennings developments in the CBD. According to Adjunct Professor Verity Burgmann, at a time when there was a severe housing shortage and developers were erecting massive glass and metal business towers in the city (which mainly sat empty whilst they razed heritage buildings to the ground), construction workers withdrawing their labour to save a green belt had a massive impact.

What followed the successful fight for Kelly’s Bush were a series of 42 other green bans in the name of 'socially responsible and useful building' which saved some hundred buildings recognised as significant by the National Trust. This included areas of The Rocks where Mundey has since been honoured by having a street named after him. Speaking in a Sydney Morning Herald Letter to the Editor at the time of the bans, Mundey stated: Yes, we want to build. However, we prefer to build urgently-required hospitals, schools, other public utilities, high-quality flats, units and houses, provided they are designed with adequate concern for the environment, than to build ugly unimaginative architecturally-bankrupt blocks of concrete and glass offices… Though we want all our members employed, we will not just become robots directed by developer-builders who value the dollar at

the expense of the environment. More and more, we are going to determine which buildings we will build …The environmental interests of three million people are at stake and cannot be left to developers and building employers whose main concern is making profit.

Progressive unions, like ours, therefore have a very useful social role to play in the citizens' interest, and we intend to play it.

It was these sorts of stands and the worker actions that accompanied them that inspired German environmental activist Petra Kelly to found the German Green Party and saw 'Green' become part of the political landscape.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS, INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

Above: Jack Mundey protesting the demolition of the Sirius in Sydney, 2016 Below: BLF Green Ban Tree poster designed

by Margaret Grafton, 1973 (Collection Sydney Trades Hall)

Yet Mundey’s legacy is even more than that. On his passing, an old BLF family day poster (from when the BLF national leadership was moving to oust their rowdy NSW Branch leadership) started doing the rounds on social media. This poster featured a tree containing many branches – each of them dedicated to another political movement or community fight. Looking at the branches of 'women’s liberation', 'black rights' and 'homosexual rights', you get a sense of just how many groups of people Mundey’s brand of unionism inspired.

Like many other Aboriginal people, my introduction to Mundey’s work was actually via actions taken in support of Aboriginal rights which got told to me as a child. For many in the

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HISTORY

UNION STORIES Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, Mundey remains an important figure of what solidarity from the movement can look like.

This legacy of solidarity and its passing down the generations remains an important part of why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to this day see collaboration between the union and Indigenous rights movements as important...

Jack Mundey speaks to workers at a rally.

(CFFMEU)

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From the BLF’s bans on working on 'developments' in the Redfern area which would have seen a lot of Aboriginal people thrown out of their homes in preference for the establishment of expensive new town houses, to their support of key figures of the Tent Embassy movement by making them BLF members so they could address the Trades and Labour Council to request support, he is viewed as an heroic figure.

This legacy of solidarity and its passing down the generations remains an important part of why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to this day see collaboration between the union and Indigenous rights move-

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ments as important, and still join unions at higher rates.

On his passing, I saw similar sentiments expressed by LGBTIQ+ community campaigners. The BLF placed the world's first 'pink ban' on Macquarie University after student Jeremy Fisher was expelled from college for being gay. The bans held up a series of construction works across the campus that they highlighted as being a key moment of solidarity which needs to be remembered.

Mundey remained a committed activist his entire life. A true working class hero who brought the new social movements into the workers’ rights movement by recognising that an injury to one was most certainly an injury to all. He will be sorely missed.

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Coronavirus and your Super COVID-19 has impacted investment markets globally and has understandably caused concerns for UniSuper members. While the temptation might be to switch your investments into something less volatile in the short-term, it’s important to keep in mind that super is a long-term investment and our expert team is used to working with fluctuating markets.* UniSuper Chief Investment Officer, John Pearce has been providing market updates since the turmoil began.

Visit our website to get the latest investment performance news.

EARLY ACCESS TO YOUR SUPER If you’ve been affected financially by the Coronavirus and are eligible, you may be able to access up to $10,000 of your super this financial year (2019-20) and up to another $10,000 during the first part of the next financial year (2020-21) up to 24 September 2020.

Please consider this option carefully. You may wish to check if you’re eligible for other forms of support.

Taking money from your account now could leave you worse off in the long run.*

We understand the impact of COVID-19 has caused unexpected hardship for many of you. If you need help or want to discuss how early withdrawal could impact you, please speak to UniSuper Advice. Applications for your super need to be made through the ATO. To find out whether you’re eligible, please visit our COVID-19 page.

INSURANCE THROUGH YOUR SUPER Generally, insurance through your super can provide important financial protection if you become seriously ill or injured and are unable to work. Our Death and Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) cover has no exclusions for pandemics.

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