Thread by @unionsaustralia

It's day 2 of the Senate Job Security Inquiry in Newcastle. Today we're hearing more from workers on Australia's insecure work crisis and how it impacts us all.

#SecureJobs

.@DamienCahill8 from the @NTEUNational: Insecure work is a deliberate strategy to shift costs and risks to staff. This is even though much of the work is ongoing is nature. Wage theft is also widespread in the university sector, made worse by insecure work.

Now we hear from Sharon, @NTEUNational member and casual academic at university of Newcastle.

She details how casual academics are scared to speak up.

She wants work at a uni where her expertise is recognised by not by a thank you but by actual recognition of my skills.

Now we hear from Chloe, @NTEUNational member and casual academic at university of Newcastle.

She has been a casual for 14 years. She is constantly stretched, with having to save for the university breaks, worrying whether she has work or whether she can provide for her family.

Chloe details how casual academics are marginalised and excluded.

Casual academics are not invited to professional developments, they're also not invited to the staff Christmas drinks when the majority of the work in universities are done by casual staff.

Morrison's casual conversion laws are completely useless.

From the data of 19 universities, of all the casual academics who were assessed for conversion to permanency, only 2% were offered permanency.

When the borders closed and international students couldn't come to Australia, the first people who lost their jobs were casual staff.

There is clearly an impact on the quality of education for students at universities. Often students will only be taught by 1 or 2 full-time permanent academics throughout their entire academic life.

.@DamienCahill8: There is a corporatisation of university boards. They are now dominated by directors from Australia’s major corporations with little to no university experience.

Vice Chancellor salaries are out of control, often over 1 million a year.

With casual academics there is severe career theft that occurs. Casuals are unable to apply for grants for research which allows to develop and grow in their profession.

At the university of Newcastle, out of 2300+ casuals assessed for conversion to permanency, only 5 were offered conversion.

University of Newcastle claims a significant part of their casual staff like being casual.

However out of 2300+ casuals assessed for conversion to permanency, only 5/6 were offered conversion.

Seems like a large number of casuals want to be converted to permanency.

At the University of Newcastle, there has been $7.5 million in wage theft for academic staff due to underpaid wages.

Shawn, @theamwu delegate at Progress Rail has seen a significant increase of casualisation in the workplace.

Daniel, @theamwu member who is a labour hire worker for MacLab services - a labour hire company established by Downer Rail.

He details many of the casual workers have been working full time for many years. Every year they're told there is no permanent work.

Morrison's casual conversion laws continue to be useless. After they came into effect, all the eligible casuals at Downer rail were told they were not going to be converted to permanent, even though they were still working full time.

What does it feel like to work for Downer Rail but working through their labour company?

"It makes you feel free pretty worthless. There was a fear factor there, they were too intimidated because if they said anything they would get a tap on the shoulder and walked to the gate."

"Workers are afraid to raise safety issues because of the insecurity of their work."

"We’ve seen consecutive fixed term contracts being utilised, often up to periods of 5 years.

It’s done to reduce costs, redundancy entitlements, undermines the workforce for properly bargaining for improved conditions and it perpetrates insecure work."

“BHP, Qantas & other companies are paying less to outside hire workers. These companies have set up their own labour hire companies – it seems like a false arrangement. Why wouldn’t these people be directly employed as casuals/permanents?”

Why are casual employees not getting casual loading, getting the paid the same as permanent even though their work is insecure, through a labour hire company owned by the same company?

Downer rail: I have no responses to the question.

Another example of how labour hire companies are used to cut wages:

If you're a casual directly employed by Downer Rail you get the 25% casual loading.

If you're a casual employed by a labour hire company that is owned by Downer Rail, you don't get the 25% casual loading.

Hunter Jobs Alliance:

Issues of job security & precarious work is coming up as the top of the list of concerns for people worried about their economic future.

Older workers are worried about those under 40 with no secure jobs.

Hunter Jobs Alliance: “Precarious and insecure work is starting to break down people’s feelings of having equal access to opportunity in the Hunter.”

Question: Some companies and labour hire companies say workers choose to work in these arrangements. Is that your experience and observation?

Hunter Jobs Alliance: The experience and feedback is that it’s not done by choice by most people.

Check out our media release on today's Senate inquiry

https://twitter.com/unionsaustralia/status/1468073229789007872?s=20