Claire Squires - Otago Polytechnic.

Tēnā koutou, ko Claire Squires tōku ikoa

I am a Senior Lecture and the Team Lead for Bachelors programme at Te Kura Whakaora Ngangahau | School of Occupational Therapy in Ōtepoti. The profession of occupational therapy is female dominated and this is reflective of the team I work with. Most of the team have come from clinical practice and find themselves needing to balance the demands of the workplace for specific course related teaching, obtaining teaching qualifications, becoming research active and taking extra responsibilities across the organisation. This is set against other life demands such as taking time out to have children, nearing retirement and wanting to reduce workload or others that are the primary earner for their whānau. As pay rates are increasing within the health sector there is significant pressure for us in regard to attracting people into teaching and retaining them.

My previous work experience has included workplace health and safety and injury management work. This has provided me with insights into working conditions for a wide range of industries and how systems and processes contribute to the lived experience of workers in ways that promote or challenge health and wellbeing for the worker but also broader to their whānau and communities.

I have been member of the TEU since I started here at Otago Polytechnic in 2020. It was important to join the collective and feel like there was greater potential to have an impact on our working conditions. This is the first committee that I have sought to join, mainly due to the value I place on having workplaces that support women to have stable employment, fair and equal pay, conditions that allow flexibility for any stage of their life without setting their career progression backwards. It would be an honour to be able to actively contribute and collaborate with the rest of the committee in this most important mahi.