RMIT's Casual Rep Karen Douglas to Speak at Roundtable Discussion on Wage Theft - What Should Karen Tell Them?

Welcome to the ninth edition of Casuals Conversation, a fortnightly news-
letter written by casual staff at RMIT, connecting workers through precarity,
unemployment and work overload.

Do you have a story to share or something you’d like us to report on? Get in
touch with one of our editors, contact details are at the bottom of this email.

RMIT’s Casual Rep Karen Douglas to Speak
at Roundtable Discussion on Wage Theft
- What Should Karen Tell Them?
Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who has been heading the senate inquiry into wage
theft in the tertiary sector, will host a round table with casuals’ networks and
representatives to talk about next steps. In her words: “It’s time to connect,
strategise and organise. This Roundtable for casual staff at universities aims to
galvanise the growing campaign to protect jobs and support workers in tertiary
education.”

RMIT’s casual delegate Karen Douglas has been invited to participate. What
Karen should add to the roundtable will be an agenda item up for discussion at
our next casuals network meeting, Tuesday, November 24th at 12:30.

The inquiry has called upon VCs and university management to come and
testify, which has led to 1/3 of universities admitting to underpayment (though
of course as we know, that number is higher).

When summoned, RMIT’s Chief People Officer Allison Shevlin testified that the
university did not engage in wage theft.

Campus Round Up: Drastic Course Cuts
at Universities Challenged by Staff
Across Australia university workers are responding to recent change propos-
als that would gut courses and see even more staff redundancies.

Medical Science Staff Walking Out Over Job Cuts at Sydney Uni

This Wednesday, staff members from Physiology & Pathology will be holding
a day of action, including a walk-out, protest and a teach-in on the grounds of
Sydney University. From the organisers:

“Medical Science education at the University of Sydney not only teaches the
doctors of the future, but researches COVID transmission and cancer treat-
ment and prevention. The University of Sydney’s idea of good management
of this crucial teaching and research is to sack everyone in Physiology and
Pathology and make them reapply for half the positions. Despite intimidation
and bullying from their managers, these brave staff are standing up and fight-
ing back! Staff in Physiology and Pathology have agreed to down their lab
coats and walk-out of work in protest for a Day of Action!”

Staff are seeking support for their action and asking for colleagues and
supporters to sign their petition to save the quality of Medical Sciences. More
information about the day of action can be found here.

Latrobe University Launches Campaign to Save Arts and Educations
Courses

Latrobe has announced that it will be discontinuing a number of courses in
arts and education after deciding they will not be ‘financially viable’ in a post
Covid university. As noted in the NTEU-backed petition aimed at Professor
John Dewar, the cuts will have a disproportionate impact on regional Victoria.
Management at Latrobe has not yet addressed how these major changes will
impact staff numbers, which is significant as Latrobe staff were one of the
few who agreed to a 10% pay cut in order to offset job losses.

You can sign the petition here.

Swinburne Takes a vote of No Confidence in VC

A vote of no confidence was taken last Monday at Swinburne against Vice
Chancellor Pascale Quester after major change proposals were announced
that would devastate courses in science, engineering, economics and busi-
ness, making roughly 10% of the permanent staff redundant. The proposals
would see another 125 to 150 staff made redundant on top of the 138 who
have taken voluntary redundancies.

The vote against Quester, who was only appointed in August, didn’t seem to
phase a spokesperson for the university, who implied that the roughly 200
staff members who voted nearly unanimously for the motion don’t represent
the majority of the staff’s feelings about Swinburne’s leadership and future
prospects.

Join our Working Group Ahead of Next
Years Campaigns
A number of initiatives undertaken by volunteers in the casuals network have
placed us in a strong position to push for actions and campaigns ahead of
what will be a tumultuous 2021. These initiatives are already yielding results:

we are in the process of securing wins involving back-pay for marking rates,
and campaigning for an increased time allocation for marking in the College
of Business and Law into a collective, RMIT-wide claim for all Schools.

To fortify this position, we are setting up a working group to focus on these
initiatives, and need volunteers who can participate regularly, in different
capacities, in this group.

Tertiary #wagetheft knows no boundaries. Whether you are a professional,
VE or HE staff you have the right to be paid correctly and have a manage-
able workload. All skill-sets are welcome in the working group, and in the
casuals network in general.

If you would like contribute, please come to the next casuals network meet-
ing on Tue 24th November or get in touch via the contacts listed at the bot-
tom of this newsletter. In the meantime, please keep telling us your stories of
#wagetheft via our survey.

Casuals Meetings Have Changed Days:
Next Meeting Tuesday, Nov 24th
The casuals network will meet on Tuesday the 24th from 12:30 - 1:30. This
and the final meeting for the semester will both occur on Tuesdays, the final
meeting on the 8th of December.

Agenda

     1 Academic judgement campaign
     2 Report on the marking dispute
     3 Next steps in the wage theft campaign
     4 Casuals Conversation newsletter
     5 Topics/issues Karen Douglas can raise at the 26th November
     Roundtable with Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi

Casuals Network Meeting
Tuesday, Nov 24th 12:30 PM
Microsoft Teams meeting
Click here to join the meeting

Get in touch
For general enquiries and dispute related matters contact the branch at: rmit@
nteu.org.au

or your casuals’ organiser Marcus Banks: marcus.banks@rmit.edu.au
This newsletter has been brought to you by union members, for union members.
If you would like to help us produce this newsletter or submit an item, report or
event for inclusion in the next edition, please contact one of our editors:

baileykathleensharp@gmail.com
benjuers@gmail.com
polly.lisa.bennett@gmail.com

For more details on joining your union, please contact:
https://www.nteu.org.au/join/join/intro/membership/casual

Social Media Links:
Facebook ; Yammer

                                Sam Gibbard
                             Branch President
                     National Tertiary Education Union
                          RMIT University Branch
             Building 93, 22 Cardigan Street Carlton Vic 3053
                     ph 9993 0882 m 0466 404 347
     Not a member? Join online, www.nteu.org.au/join, or ask me how!
        Please note I work for the NTEU on Tuesdays and Fridays.
                  Our Branch email is rmit@nteu.org.au