Western Sydney Uni gives casuals a pathway to a permanent job
Western Sydney University will give a quarter of its casual workforce a pathway to a permanent job.
Western Sydney University is on the verge of signing a “historic” union agreement to move 25 per cent of its casual workforce into permanent jobs.
The new enterprise agreement, expected to be signed off in coming days, will give the university’s casual academic staff first preference in applying for about 150 full-time equivalent teaching and research positions over the next two and a half years.
NSW secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union Damien Cahill said he believed the coming enterprise deal with WSU will be the biggest one-off reduction in casualisation ever seen in an enterprise agreement in the higher education sector.
“It’s an historic agreement,” he said. “I think other NTEU branches will be looking to campaign for similar improvements at their own universities.”
Dr Cahill said the coming agreement showed “there’s scope for real change on casualisation”.
“It shows that a lot of the labour performed by casuals is ongoing in nature,” he said.
The union says that 160,000 workers in higher education – over two-thirds of the total – are currently employed as casuals or on short-term contracts.
NTEU national president Alison Barnes said their employment status “robs them of the ability to pay bills, get a mortgage, take holidays and plan for their future”.
“Some of their stories are harrowing. Having to make unimaginable decisions between caring for terminally ill parents and facing homelessness,” Dr Barnes said.
“Meanwhile, universities record budget surpluses and vice-chancellors take home million dollar plus salaries.”
Casual and short-term university employees bore the brunt of job losses during Covid and were hit by the university underpayments scandal.
In the past two years it has been revealed that over a dozen universities have significant problems with underpayment of wages to casual staff and, after major audits, many have repaid millions of dollars in lost wages.
On Wednesday 30 casual or short-term university employees are due to meet Jason Clare, the new Education Minister, in Canberra to relate their experiences of insecure employment.
Dr Cahill said the new enterprise agreement with WSU would deliver staff a total pay rise of 4.6 per cent this year, and additional increases to lower paid staff which would take their pay rise up to 6.4 per cent. This will be followed by a 3.35 per cent increase in October 2023, a 2.9 per cent increase in October 2024 and a 2.6 per cent increase in October 2025.
Dr Cahill said the agreement also included working from home rights for professional staff, the right not to deal with work issues out of hours and 20 days gender affirmation leave.
In a statement, WSU confirmed it was close to signing a heads of agreement with two unions representing its staff. It said the agreement included “a significant academic decasualisation program”.
“The university thanks both unions for their constructive engagement in the bargaining process to date and believe the outcome provides good, well-deserved and fair improvements in conditions for staff,” it said.
Once signed, the agreement will have to be ratified by a staff vote before being implemented.
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