By Paul Osborne in Canberra
UNIVERSITY workers are set to walk off the job over casual employment, stagnant wages and underfunding.
National Tertiary Education Union president Alison Barnes said the national week of action starting on Monday would focus on getting decasualisation provisions in the enterprise bargaining agreements of every Australian university.
About three in 20 university jobs are permanent, but the union has had some success in securing decasualisation clauses at Western Sydney University, Australian Catholic University and University of Technology Sydney in the past six months.
The University of Sydney is expected to convert 330 casual positions to permanent.
“For too long, Australian universities have allowed casualisation and its toxic twin, wage theft, to flourish,” Dr Barnes said.
“We are determined to stamp it out.”
She said people who worked regularly deserved to be able to plan for basic life events such as illness, holidays or buying a home.
Wage theft is also expected to be highlighted, with union research released earlier this year showing universities had been required to pay back more than $80 million to staff.
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