The Higher Education sector has warned of a loss of both jobs and course options, because of new Federal Government industrial relations laws.
Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA) Executive Director Craig Laughton said restrictions on universities’ ability to use fixed-term contracts and the unions’ desire to eliminate casual jobs, was already changing employment practices and jobs planning.
Mr Laughton said it was estimated by AHEIA that 7000 jobs would be lost in the research/casual space.
“Casuals have been and should continue to be a critical cohort of the higher education workforce,” Mr Laughton said.
“Under new federal legislation, universities cannot commit to a regular pattern of work or any guaranteed work – they can no longer, for example, have a casual present an agreed number of lectures in a semester. These severe restrictions on casual employment will have a fundamental, adverse impact on the way the higher education sector operates. Courses and jobs will go.
“Universities now have significantly changed their casual employment contracts to make sure, amongst other things, that there is no commitment to actual work or a pattern of work. These changes have resulted in the sector’s casuals no longer having any certainty as to when and how much they will work – previous certainties now have evaporated.”
Mr Laughton said if a university were to offer certainty to its casual cohort, the financial sustainability of universities would come under threat due to significantly increased costs of converting casual roles to other forms of employment.
“The problem is exacerbated by the higher education sector’s wall-to-wall coverage by Enterprise Agreements (EAs). The vast majority of these EA’s will contain specific provisions requiring the university to give reasonable notice to its casual employees about their upcoming work. So, if the university follows its EA, it will potentially breach the Fair Work Act.”
Mr Laughton said universities really value the casual cohort as they perform an important role in our higher education system.
“The problem is the government believes the union rhetoric that all casuals want permanent roles – our survey of 11,000 casuals shows that this is simply not the case – with as few as five per cent to seven per cent wanting permanent roles.
“So, rather than having more jobs that are more secure, we have a situation of fewer jobs, with less certainty for a long-standing and respected cohort of workers in the higher education sector.”
Mr Laughton said the situation is being exacerbated by the proposed cap on full fee-paying international students, impacting the sector’s ability to generate revenue to offset the significant cost increases associated with the new employment framework.
