UNIVERSITY of Newcastle casual staff are "disappointed" after being advised they wouldn't be offered full-time or part-time employment.
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National Tertiary Education Union Newcastle branch secretary Dr Liam Phelan said UON sent almost all casual staff an email on Monday advising it would not be making them an offer of full-time or part-time employment because they had not worked the required regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis for six months, and/or it would have to provide them with duties it didn't need them to perform.
"It is fair to say there are a good number of staff who are extremely disappointed with the outcome," Dr Phelan said.
"Many staff have worked at the university, doing the same job, year in, year out, for over 10 years - some for more than 20.
"Our university is our staff and this email left staff feeling even more devalued than they already were, given all the structural change we've been having."
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The Fair Work Amendment Act 2021 says a casual employee must be employed for at least 12 months and have worked a regular pattern of hours for at least the past six months to be offered, or request, conversion.
Dr Phelan said the nature of casual work meant this wasn't always possible.
"The work has absolutely been there, but what management is doing is shifting the financial risk from the university onto individual staff."
The act says an employer is not required to make an offer if there are reasonable grounds not to.
UON's acting director of human resource services Brian Jones said UON has completed a "thorough review" into the eligibility of staff, and similar to other universities, the majority didn't meet the criteria and would continue to be employed on a casual basis.
He said UON contacted the six casual staff who who did qualify and offered them the option to convert to full-time or part-time work.
Mr Jones said UON's casual workforce "makes an enormous contribution to our University and is a critical part of our operations and services from providing teaching, to marking, to student support and beyond".
"We will be required to make these assessments regularly, and we will continue to work closely with our casual and sessional staff to assess individual staff circumstances and keep our people informed."
The NTEU said it would use enterprise bargaining to gain improvements for casual and fixed term staff.
Mr Jones said UON "employs more than 5800 people, with over 2600 casual and sessional employees".
The NTEU Newcastle branch said 4229 of UON's 6033 workers were "insecurely employed" on a casual basis or on contract.
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