“the first step is a recognition by unions and management that complexity of payment schedules is a feature produced by industrial agreement in which all are equally complicit”
In a long piece published by Monash U, VC Margaret Gardner considers university system pay policies in the context of public funding, research administration models, the growth of international student numbers and the industrial relations system.
“To answer concerns about insecurity of employment in Australian universities requires understanding these major changes in the nature and mix of revenue sources in Australian universities in the past two decades that have underpinned the practices that have propelled current concerns,” she writes.
In particular, Professor Gardner points to,
* for university staff in general, “while overall conditions compare favourably with international comparators and many other sectors, workload and performance expectations have increased.
* “systematic difficulties in interpretation of payment schedules, and therefore payment accuracy, that have exacerbated issues for the employment and payment of those in insecure employment”
* “a difference in insecurity of employment between those on longer contracts, compared to the circumstances of those on contracts of one year”
* “to reduce casual academic employment means separating the purely frictional and temporary employment needs of the university from the need for increased continuing or permanent staff”
* the “inherent complexity” of payment systems “increases the potential for under and overpayment” of casuals. “The complexity has been the product of many years of negotiations between unions and management supporting devolved work practices common to academia”
The take-out: “without attention to the underlying dynamics of Australian university funding, the pressure to mitigate uncertainty and potential volatility in funding for education, and particularly research, will continue to direct hiring practices away from the high levels of employment security that characterise ongoing and longer-term contract university employment, and towards flexible, insecure modes.”