Casual cavalcade to Canberra

Gabe Gooding

National Assistant Secretary

NTEU’s Canberra lobbying delegation at Parliament House with the National Union of Students (NUS) and ACTU President Michele O’Neil

IN LATE July NTEU took 13 insecurely employed workers to the national capital to tell their stories to politicians in the first sitting week of the new Parliament. Our brilliant members got politicians and staffers to fully understand the consequences of the rampant casualisation of universities; for the employees themselves, for the quality of experience for students, for the country’s reputation as a quality provider of higher education, and for the future of academic capacity in teaching and research in Australia.

Members across the country were asked to nominate if they had an interest in attending and to provide a brief expression of interest explaining their story and why they wanted to go to Canberra. It was an almost impossible task to choose from the many who applied, but in the end, we decided on taking those whose stories had the greatest chance of shifting opinions of the decision makers on our key issues of casualisation and wage theft.

While it is possible for union leaders and staff to have meetings with MPs and Ministers to lobby them (and we do), giving politicians and their advisers an opportunity to interact with exploited workers, to see first had the passion that they have for their work, and to ask questions, is a far more powerful experience.

We are confident now that we are on the radar, and our wonderful casuals are ensuring we stay there by already continuing the lobbying work at home.

On more than one occasion we saw politicians and staffers moved to tears. But the aim is not to tell sad stories, it is to get those who vote on the legislation that is doing us harm and allowing the extreme casualisation of universities to understand why a solution for casual conversion that works for Coles and Woolies cannot work for university workers. Once the details were explained to them and the impact on workers illustrated, many MPs of different political persuasions were open to considering special legislative provisions to provide job security for education workers (noting that teachers also do not benefit from the current National Employment Standards).

We also needed them to understand that wage theft is rampant and that the employers need to be held to account for the exploitation of casual workers. On that almost everyone agreed, and finally, we wanted them to hear the negative impact that Job-ready Graduate package has had on our members and our institutions and to support undoing the funding cuts.

We are happy to report that not only were MPs willing to consider all of the requests we made, many have also indicated that they want to talk to us some more closer to when legislation is ready, in order to make sure that it meets what we need. Higher education has not been on the radar for many politicians in the past decade, in part because those who support the sector have not seen any opportunity to effectively do so under the previous government. We are confident now that we are on the radar, and our wonderful casuals are ensuring we stay there by already continuing the lobbying work at home.

It is a major logistical exercise to get 13 members to Canberra along with elected officers and support staff and to organise meetings and opportunities for casuals to tell their stories, but it is clearly worth the effort.

Delegations of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander membership will be making a similar trip later this year or early next, and it is likely that we will again take insecurely employed members to emphasise the point when the legislation is up.

We can, and will bargain and campaign for secure work, better working conditions and decent pay-rises but if we can also shift the legislative agenda to ensure that it supports the decasualisation of Australian universities and holds them to account for wage theft rather than facilitates it, our gains in bargaining will be underpinned by a strong foundation. If we do, it will be in no small part thanks to the members who went to Canberra and told their stories. We thank them all.

Our fantastic members (L to R): Lara McKenzie (UWA), Hamish McIntosh (Melbourne), Mick Piotto (UniSA), Errol Phua (Swinburne), Toby Priest (Flinders), Ben Graham (Sydney), Victoria Bladen (UQ), Afsenah Porzoor (RMIT), Jennie Jeppeson (Melbourne), Andrew Broertjes (UWA), Karen Douglas (RMIT). Missing: Cecile Dutreix (UniSA) and David Newheiser (ACU)

Alicia Payne (ALP, ACT) Andrew Leigh (ALP, ACT) Anthony Chisholm (ALP Senator, QLD) Barbara Pocock (Greens Senator, SA) Brendan O’Connor (ALP, Vic) Carina Garland (ALP, Vic) David Shoebridge (Greens Senator, NSW) Greens Senators 2: Penny Allman-Payne (QLD) Larissa Waters (QLD) Barbara Pocock (SA) Jason Clare (Minister for Education) Libby Coker (ALP, Vic) Louise Miller-Frost (ALP, SA) Louise Pratt (ALP, WA) Max Chandler-Mather (Greens, QLD) Stephen Bates (Greens, QLD) Tanya Plibersek (ALP, NSW and former Shadow Minister for Education) Tim Ayres (ALP Senator, NSW) Tony Sheldon (ALP, NSW)

NTEU Lobbying Trip Reflections

Dr Andrew Broertjes

Lecturer in History, UWA

Dr Andrew Broertjes

I’M SITTING in a shared office on a Sunday morning, writing this reflection while trying to avoid the mountain of student emails that await me in my inbox, a mountain of emails that piled up as I headed to Canberra with other committed casual members of the NTEU to talk to our politicians about the crisis in higher education. Anyone reading this reflection will be aware of how broken our university sector is. The recent election of an ALP government has filled us with an optimism that is cautious at best. We have been let down too many times in the past to allow ourselves to be carried away by false hope. At the same time, we all recognise the need to continue fighting, and to bring our stories to those who can make a difference. Heading to Canberra, and meeting other members of branches across the country, some of whom I had only seen in large Zoom meetings, or followed on Twitter, was exhilarating. The shared experience of working in the tertiary sector as casuals and fixed term staff members created an instant bond between all of us, despite the very different backgrounds and stories we were bringing to parliament house. Meeting with politicians across the political spectrum gave us an opportunity to put a human face to the costs of casualisation, and convey the need for greater permanency and security for us in the sector. The chopping and changing of the meeting schedule with politicians and staffers was something we had been told to prepare for, and the corridors of power were certainly a frantic place to be operating as a new government was being sworn in and set up. Everyone we spoke to gave us a sympathetic hearing, but what happened over the last week is just a first step. We need to step up the fight, and get our stories out to the wider Australian public, to make the changes that we deserve.

David Newheiser

Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University

David Newheiser

IN THE ten years since I completed my PhD, I’ve seen the importance of secure jobs from both sides. For the last year and a half, I’ve had a constant headache along with other neurological symptoms. This began after a bicycle accident, but most people recover quickly from a minor traumatic brain injury like mine. According to my doctors, I have developed a chronic health condition because I was suffering from stress accumulated through ten years of insecure employment. I knew that moving into secure employment would make a huge difference in my life, but it has mattered more than I could have imagined. Concretely, my health has improved. I have found that I have more energy to contribute to my family and my community. In addition, now that I no longer need to constantly look over my shoulder – wondering whether the career I have built is about to end – my scholarship has grown sharper, freer, and bolder. Like many of us in the academy, I do what I do because I believe it matters for the world. I worked in industry for a couple of years after my undergraduate degree, but I returned to the university because I decided that it’s the best way for me to contribute to society – above all, by thinking carefully about questions that matter. I have found that insecure work makes this much harder, but I have also seen that academics like me have a lot to offer if we are given basic support in the form of secure jobs.

Dr. Afsaneh Porzoor

RMIT

Dr. Afsaneh Porzoor

I ATTENDED the lobbying trip to Canberra to voice my frustration against current systemic casual insecure employment which has become a norm for years. I was also determined to ensure that the impact of universities’ exclusion from the Job-keeper disaster payment on people’s livelihood during the pandemic can be heard. The trip gave me the opportunity to meet and hear from casual or short-term contract employees from almost every state. It was inspiring to listen to Delegates’ speeches and learn about their experiences. Many of them are great academics who despite being renowned in their fields, their work and contributions were not recognised by their employer. During my face-to-face meeting with Senator Tony Sheldon and his Chief of staff, Mr Stephen Fitzpatrick, I tried to emphasise the need for transparency with casual conversion. This is because universities might claim or show a reduction in the number of insecure employments over a period. However, they might fail to clearly indicate whether those casuals were converted to full time employees or simply their contracts were disregarded over the time. This trip unveiled and voiced casual insecure and short-term employees from all walks of life. Therefore, the policy for the casual conversion should also be planned in such way to ensure no insecure employee in the sector is left behind.

Hamish McIntosh

PhD Student

Hamish McIntosh

MY NAME is Hamish, and I’m a dancer, researcher, and NTEU member. Between 2019 and 2021 I worked as a casual academic staff member in dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. As a now former sessional employee, I was subject to wage theft through the misclassification of my work. Ironically, I started my academic journey in 2017 believing that a university career would provide financial security relative to the infamous precarity of dance. In short, I now know the feelings of disempowerment and distress that permeate our sector well. However, through attending the recent lobbying trip to Canberra with the NTEU and sharing my experience in VCA Dance with two Members and four Senators, I recognise that my story—our story—can and will catalyse change.

Reflecting now, I believe that empowerment can be the norm for those working in tertiary education and research; the NTEU inviting me to meet with our parliamentarians is testament to our shared goal of creating better unis with casuals front and centre.

Dr Victoria Bladen

UQ Casuals Rep

Dr Victoria Bladen

“IT WAS a privilege to be part of the Secure Jobs lobbying trip to Canberra and have the opportunity to advocate for casuals in the tertiary sector. Casuals from various universities across Australia met with various Ministers and MPs of the new 2022 Parliament to tell their stories and argue for the need for reform to address the casualisation crisis. Although all our stories were unique and focused on the problems from various angles, there were many patterns and common issues arising. We particularly emphasised problems such as: • marginalisation, • wagetheft, • difficulties of casuals trying to survive on very low incomes, often below the minimum wage, • the lack of career paths; and • the emotional toll and effect on mental health and well-being.

There were many highlights of this trip. It was a unique opportunity to gain insights into the workings of Parliament for the first time; and to think about how reform can be approached at the national level. I was really pleased at the warm reception we were given by the various MPs and Ministers we met with. There was empathy and a willingness to listen. But the most important element that came out of the trip was meeting with other casuals and hearing their moving stories about how casualisation has affected them. We worked really well as a team and it made us more resolved to advocate for change to a system that is unfair and undermines the integrity of higher education.

Dr Ben Eltham

NTEU Monash Branch President

ACTU takes workers to Parliament

IN THE week after our NTEU delegation was in Parliament, the ACTU took workers to Canberra to do the same thing – to tell politicians about the serious problems in their workplaces. The delegation included NTEU Monash Branch President Ben Eltham:

“On August 2nd and 3rd I had the privilege to represent Monash NTEU members as part of an official ACTU delegation to Parliament House to lobby government MPs and Senators for reform to Australia’s broken industrial relations system.

Across two days we spoke to dozens of Labor members to remind them that the union movement helped elect them, and that now they needed to deliver for working people. This wasn’t about union bosses. It was about real workers talking to the government about why the entire system is stacked against them. I was joined by a train driver from Queensland, a shipbuilder from Port Adelaide, a midwife, and a Qantas flight attendant.

What really struck me was how similar all our stories are.

We’ve all heard about what’s going on at Qantas, but every worker I spoke to had a story about bosses using the system to suppress wages and strip away conditions. Qantas has four different labour hire companies employing casual flight crew, all wearing the Qantas uniform. The train driver

(From left) Ben Eltham (NTEU); Angela McManus (Flight Attendants Assoc); Mitchell Shippey (AMWU); Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah, new MHR for Higgins (Vic); Ben Refalo (RTBU)

told me about his employer simply refusing to honour their enterprise agreement, and then ignoring a Fair Work Commission ruling -- they had to go to federal court to get their meal allowance reinstated. Every worker had a story about employers putting health and safety at risk. And everyone wanted to know about wage theft in universities -- especially government MPs and Senators, who are shocked at the behaviour of vice-chancellors.

I tried my best to speak up on behalf of Monash NTEU members -- explaining how Monash University has admitted to $8.6 million in wage theft, and talking about how Monash HR managers verbally abuse staff in closed meetings. But the best thing about the trip was meeting fellow unionists like Grace from the UWU or Angela from the Flight Attendants Association, and hearing that their struggles in aged care or aviation are really not that different from the problems we face in higher education.

Labor’s industrial relations agenda is quite positive, but limited. As we know in universities, there is much work to be done to reform governance of public institutions. The government needs to follow through and pass legislation to reform the Fair Work Act. This trip will feed into ongoing campaigning to keep the pressure up.”

“The lobbying event in Canberra was a fantastic reminder of what collective action can do. There were people from all walks of life there; meatworkers to cabin crew and pilots, to nurses and preschool teachers. It was an incredible, powerful feeling. Union officials were outnumbered by workers from the frontline of their industries by a lot, and that was perfect. That’s exactly how it should be. Their voices are the important ones in this debate. “What we saw and heard across the two days is that these stories have similar threads: insecure work, diminished bargaining power, stagnating wages. This felt like a very positive step in changing that, and also a chance to listen to and understand each other.”

Sally McManus

ACTU Secretary