Tertiary union and ACTU hold 'virtual' 12-hour sit-in protest at University of Newcastle's high rate of casual employment

The casual conversion laws were the federal government's response to allegations of "sham casual" employment in the coal industry and other workplaces earlier this year.

Unions have consistently described the laws as a sham and now say the university's decision to convert just five employees to full-time work shows they do not work.

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The National Tertiary Education Union and the ACTU said the changes to the Fair Work Act required employers to audit their casual workforces and determine whether any casual staff were required to be converted to ongoing work because of their regular pattern of work over time.

Newcastle university wrote by email to staff in September advising of them of the results of its audit, which the NTEU described at the time as disappointing.

The university's acting human resources manager Brian Jones said at the time that most of the university's casuals did not meet the criteria.

"Under the act, casual staff must have been employed for at least 12 months and, during at least the last six months of that period, have worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis.

"Given the sessional and seasonal nature of much of our work - for example assignment marking - the majority of our casual workforce do not have a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis and therefore did not receive offers.

"Similar to other universities across the country, most of our casual staff did not meet the criteria for conversion and will continue to be employed on a casual basis with the University.

"Six casual staff who did qualify were contacted directly and offered the option to convert to full-time or part-time work."

Yesterday, one of the protesting academics, Paul Morris, a casual from the university's business school, said he had worked on regular casual contracts for more than 20 years yet had not been converted to permanent work.

Mr Morris said the "conversion rejection" email was another example of the university's failure to value its staff.

"The difference this time is that it was endorsed by legislation which ostensibly allowed management to wipe their hands of culpability and responsibility to their staff," Mr Morris said.

He said the formalised casual conversion criteria had the potential to make casual work even more secure to avoid even a hint of providing "a regular pattern of hours", one of the requirements for conversion.

"With the combination of austere management practices and legislation, casual contracts are now even more precarious than before," Mr Morris said.

"I value my work. My students value my work. I would like university management to value it just the same."

National Tertiary Education Union national president Dr Alison Barnes said the results have been abysmal across the sector.

"At the universities who have responded to our requests for information, less than two per cent of casual staff met the requirements to be converted to secure, ongoing work," Dr Barnes said.

"This is absurd and proves these laws were nothing more than a meaningless token.

"The nature of casual employment in higher education means almost all contracts run less than 20 weeks. Such contracts will almost always involve breaks over the course of the year, but the work is clearly ongoing. Yet under these laws such breaks exclude you from converting to permanency.

"Thousands of staff are being kept on casual contracts for years and forced to constantly re-apply for their jobs.

"The Morrison Government's attempt to address the gross overuse of insecure employment at Australian universities has been a complete and utter failure."

Paul Morris, a casual in the university's business school said he had worked on regular casual contracts at the university for more than 20 years.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said the Morrison government's casuals laws have given employers "almost limitless discretion in denying long term casual workers the right to convert to permanent roles".

"Thousands of casually employed tertiary education workers were eligible to be made permanent employees, only for their conversion to be rejected by their employer with no explanation."

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