Casual and sessional academic work is both tough and precarious. The expectations can be enormous and the support insufficient. When you are sick you can't take leave; during the holiday periods you are not paid; and if you fall pregnant--well, you are simply on your own. Without security of employment it is almost impossible to plan for the future--ever tried to get a loan while employed casually? We have had enough of casual academic staff being systematically denied access to secure work at Deakin University. All staff deserve job security. Casually employed staff are holding universities together – without us, Deakin would stop running. It is time for secure work. In response, we are demanding that a genuine conversion to secure clause be included in the new Deakin Collective Agreement. But we can't do it alone, we need your support. If job security is important to you then get along to one of our campaign launch meetings at Waurn Ponds on the 22nd of February or Burwood on the 23rd of February. To RSVP visit this link. For all other inquiries contact Lachlan at supercasuals@nteu.org.au. If enough casuals get involved in this campaign we can win secure work rights this bargaining round. 

Murdoch University management has applied to the Fair Work Commission to terminate the enterprise agreement covering academic and general staff in a move the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) claims shows a complete lack of respect to dedicated employees. If successful, this application would mean that the only industrial instrument regulating the employment conditions of Murdoch staff would be the terms of the safety-net modern Award which are way below the enterprise agreement conditions. “This application is expressly about removing hard-won conditions that management don’t want,” explained NTEU WA Secretary Gabe Gooding. “The NTEU has been negotiating a new enterprise agreement since April, but the University has taken an aggressive stance, demanding wide and deep cuts to staff working conditions while pursuing costly and time-consuming legal avenues. “Staff of the university, whether union members or not, cannot see this as anything other than a co-ordinated attack on employment conditions by a management team that has completely abandoned all principles of fairness and decency toward staff,” said Gooding. NTEU General Secretary, Grahame McCulloch today sent an email to NTEU members across the country describing the “unprecedented act never seen before in the university sector.”   McCulloch wrote that a successful application: “would give the management, if it chooses, the capacity to demolish working conditions". Ms Gooding added that the actions of Murdoch management are like those taken by rogue employers in the mining and construction industries, such as Griffin Coal, that resulted in a reduction in the pay of those workers by up to 43 percent. Supercasuals encourages all casual university staff tp show their support for Murdoch University staff using #ThinkMurdochThinkShame and #DefendOurUnis on social media. For all inquieries contact Dustin Halse at dhalse@nteu.org.au.