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Casual concerns
USyd lecturer Dr Robert Boncardo . Photo : Jonathan Ng
USyd denies accusations of wage theft by casual staff .
By Conor Burke
Wage theft accusations are following the University of Sydney again , as 80 casual staff allege that they have been underpaid by millions over a six-year period .
Over the last two years more than 12 Australian universities have been , or are in the process of being , audited for systemic underpayment .
In the last few months , the University of Melbourne was found to have underpaid staff by $ 9.5 million , while the University of Sydney is said to have underpaid staff by $ 13 million .
The latest accusation comes after the University of Sydney Casuals Network conducted their own research which found that , over a six-year period , 80 casual staff in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences ( FASS ) were underpaid for marking and administration duties by $ 2,033,496 .
The casuals claim that if extrapolated to the whole cohort of casual staff currently on payroll in the FASS ( 2455 people ), USyd would be guilty of underpayment to the tune of almost $ 62 million .
USyd casuals submitted a formal grievance letter and 80 claims demanding remuneration for unpaid academic work to management .
Dr Robert Boncardo , NTEU representative and member of the Casuals Network , told Campus Review that this is the latest
episode in an ongoing saga . The casuals have had conversations with management about chronic underpayment over the last year , which led the university to undertake its own investigation .
The university told Campus Review that they found no evidence to support the allegations .
Boncardo says that the USyd investigation only involved looking at the time the casuals submit on time sheets , and then checking whether all of those hours had been claimed .
He says the problem is that the timesheet system only allows academics to claim for hours that are given on their contracts , which the casuals say are not sufficient to carry out their roles .
“ The second thing is that we ’ re being paid a piece rate , which is illegal under our enterprise agreement ,” he said .
“ Our enterprise agreement is clear , we have to be given an hourly rate . So the time it takes us to mark is the time that we get paid for .
“ The piece rate is not adequate to cover the amount of work that goes into reading , reflecting on , commenting on a student ’ s work in a way that in any way is educationally beneficial for them .”
Earlier this year the casuals conducted an audit of the workload of 29 casual staff , mostly in the FASS , and they found the effective hourly rate for lecture preparation was just $ 27.11 , while the average effective hourly rate for administration work was just $ 13.15 across the sample .
Boncardo says casuals working in the sector are often emotionally blackmailed
The only way that universities have managed to stay afloat is by the super exploitation of their staff members .
into self-exploitation with the promise of full-time academic positions .
“ I would say that , personally , and the majority of casuals that I would talk to , are intending to become full-time academics . A lot of the work that is exploited through casual labour is work that is done by people who want to get a foot in the door . And that can also be a kind of perverse incentive to self-exploit as well .”
The formal letter of grievance came two weeks after USyd gave the findings of its investigation .
The university told Campus Review that they are committed to ensuring all our staff receive their full entitlements .
“ We have recently concluded an investigation into work practices around the engagement and payment of casual academic staff in our Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences , in response to previously made allegations ,” a University of Sydney spokesperson said .
“ The allegations were based on a very small number of anonymous responses to general questions in a survey .
“ Our investigation looked for any evidence of practices or arrangements that could have resulted in recurrent underpayments of entitlements to our casual academic staff through a comprehensive review of relevant documents , such as policies and procedures and interviews with managers across all Schools in the Faculty .
“ We found no evidence to support the allegations , and rejected them accordingly .
“ We ’ ll now consider the details of the claim carefully in order to determine our next steps .”
Boncardo believes that what we are seeing at USyd , and the other universities accused of wage theft , is a planned and systematic effort to underpay staff .
“ I think that ’ s what we have to conclude : that this is a university sector that is chronically underfunded by the federal government , and the only way that universities have managed to stay afloat is by the super exploitation of their staff members .” ■
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