{"id":54601,"date":"2020-10-27T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T07:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=54601"},"modified":"2020-10-26T13:44:51","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T20:44:51","slug":"wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/","title":{"rendered":"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The COVID crisis has exposed the\u00a0destructive consequences<\/a>\u00a0of an\u00a0over-reliance on casual labour<\/a>\u00a0across the economy. Australian universities provide one of the clearest examples of this. For the past two decades, universities have leaned into international student fees on the revenue side and casual workers on the expense side.<\/p>\n

This approach effectively shifted the risks of the international student fee market onto insecurely employed staff with few entitlements or employment rights. Since the pandemic caused international student fee revenue to dry up, thousands of casual university staff have\u00a0lost their jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a devastating consequence of the business model of universities intersecting with the federal government\u2019s\u00a0ideological aversion to universities accessing JobKeeper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On top of this, the associated problem of wage theft is widespread. In a newly released National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0of 2,174 professional and academic staff at every university except Charles Darwin, almost four in five academic respondents claimed one or other form of underpayment.<\/p>\n

University managers have been\u00a0keen to deny the extent of casualisation<\/a>. They point to figures showing casuals comprise only a small proportion of their workforce on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis. Universities are only required to report their staffing figures to the Education Department on an FTE basis. This underestimates the actual headcount of casual staff.<\/p>\n

The NTEU\u00a0estimates<\/a>\u00a0the proportion of casual employees in Australian public universities is about 45%.<\/p>\n

This estimate closely matches the data universities provide to the\u00a0Workplace Gender Equality Agency<\/a>. It\u2019s the only government agency that requires all Australian universities to report their total staff numbers by employment category. The agency\u2019s data show the proportion of casual staff is\u00a0as high as 58%<\/a>\u00a0at some universities.<\/p>\n

Casual work and wage theft go together<\/strong><\/h4>\n

University managers typically downplay the problem of wage theft. In a recent\u00a0submission<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Senate Inquiry into Unlawful Underpayment of Employees\u2019 Remuneration<\/a>, the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA), an employer group representing universities, claimed wage theft is not a systemic issue in Australian universities.<\/p>\n

Yet we now know that in NSW alone seven of the 11 public universities have indicated they are being, or have recently been, audited for underpayment of staff \u2013 Sydney, UNSW, Western Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Charles Sturt and New England.\u00a0Other Australian universities accused of underpayment<\/a>\u00a0include Melbourne, Monash and RMIT in Victoria, the University of Queensland, and UWA and Murdoch in Western Australia.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

This is an indication of the scale of the problem. And\u00a0well-paid vice chancellors<\/a>\u00a0value casuals for more than just being able to end their employment at a moment\u2019s notice. Casuals can be paid less than they are owed. Wage theft, normally associated with the hospitality industry, has become rife within universities.<\/p>\n

How are casuals underpaid?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

There are several common forms of underpayment for casual workers.<\/p>\n

The first is a semantic sleight of hand where managers classify teaching work in a way that attracts a lower rate of pay. For example, tutorials are regularly classified as \u201cdemonstrations\u201d, meaning the casual is paid less for the same type of work.<\/p>\n

Last year at\u00a0Macquarie University<\/a>\u00a0the NTEU negotiated about A$50,000 in back payments for casual staff whose tutorials had been reclassified as \u201csmall group teaching activities\u201d with a lower rate of pay. Similarly, at the\u00a0University of Western Australia<\/a>, tutorials have been classified as \u201cinformation sessions\u201d that attract a lower rate of pay.<\/p>\n

Another frequent source of underpayment is a failure to pay casuals their full entitlements. For example, casual workers are entitled to be paid for a minimum number of hours per engagement, but university payroll systems, which only look at time sheets, might ignore this. This is why auditors have been called into Sydney University where casual workers might have been\u00a0underpaid as much as A$30 million<\/a>\u00a0over six years.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most common and insidious form of wage theft is requiring casuals to work for no pay. Typically, key tasks simply aren\u2019t part of a casual worker\u2019s contract, yet are expected to be completed. This could be consultation with students, class preparation, familiarisation with labyrinthine policies, or being required to complete marking within unrealistic timeframes.<\/p>\n

At the\u00a0University of Melbourne<\/a>, the Fair Work Ombudsman is investigating underpayments in relation to casual marking based on the improper use of piece rates, rather than payment for the hours worked. About A$1 million has already been paid out. The NTEU is also in\u00a0dispute with RMIT management<\/a>\u00a0over a similar issue.<\/p>\n

Why has the problem become so entrenched?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Because of their insecure employment and fear of losing work, casuals are often reluctant to raise underpayments with their supervisors.<\/p>\n

A recent\u00a0survey at UNSW<\/a>\u00a0found 42% of casuals reported doing unpaid work. A\u00a0survey at Sydney Uni<\/a>\u00a0reported 82% of casuals working unpaid hours.<\/p>\n

Much of the work casual staff do is not actually casual in nature. It is regular, ongoing and stable over time. Student enrolments, for example, which drive teaching work, are quite steady year on year.<\/p>\n

The solution is simple: end the over-reliance of universities on casuals. Just a few months ago, such a proposal would have sounded outlandish. But unprecedented times demand new solutions.<\/p>\n

Moving casual university work into salaried positions with greater security and employment rights would be good for staff, good for students and good for the broader community.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Damien Cahill is Associate Professor, Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The COVID crisis has exposed the\u00a0destructive consequences\u00a0of an\u00a0over-reliance on casual labour\u00a0across the economy. Australian universities provide one of the clearest examples of this. For the past two decades, universities have leaned into international student fees on the revenue side and casual workers on the expense side. This approach effectively shifted the risks of the international […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":54602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[357462],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-54601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-wage-theft"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWage theft and casual work are built into university business models - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The COVID crisis has exposed the\u00a0destructive consequences\u00a0of an\u00a0over-reliance on casual labour\u00a0across the economy. Australian universities provide one of the clearest examples of this. For the past two decades, universities have leaned into international student fees on the revenue side and casual workers on the expense side. This approach effectively shifted the risks of the international […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-27T07:00:32+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wage-theft.jpg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"254\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-27T07:00:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":909,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/wage-theft.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"wage theft\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/\",\"name\":\"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/wage-theft.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-27T07:00:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/wage-theft.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/wage-theft.jpg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":254},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"The COVID crisis has exposed the\u00a0destructive consequences\u00a0of an\u00a0over-reliance on casual labour\u00a0across the economy. Australian universities provide one of the clearest examples of this. For the past two decades, universities have leaned into international student fees on the revenue side and casual workers on the expense side. This approach effectively shifted the risks of the international […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2020-10-27T07:00:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":254,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wage-theft.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models","datePublished":"2020-10-27T07:00:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/"},"wordCount":909,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wage-theft.jpg","keywords":["wage theft"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/","name":"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wage-theft.jpg","datePublished":"2020-10-27T07:00:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wage-theft.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wage-theft.jpg","width":680,"height":254},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54605,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54601\/revisions\/54605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54601"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=54601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}