Join the working group to achieve secure work.

by Ti Lamusse, Te Tumu Whakarae–Tiriti | Co-President–Tiriti

Like many of you, I have a vision for tertiary education where secure permanent work is the norm. Where employers value us enough to ensure our roles have stability and security, which we can plan our lives around.

However, for too many people, this simply isn’t the case. At the end of last year, I caught up with a TEU member for coffee. He was absolutely gutted. He’d been on a series of fixed-term teaching contracts at a university and had missed out, yet again, on having his role made permanent. He’s been working at the same university for more than a decade, stringing together short-term contracts to get by.

I also recently caught up with a TEU member at a different university. Her fixed-term teaching contract had just ended and, despite promises from management, she still hasn’t received a new offer. She’s a young mum, who’s desperate to provide a good life for her daughter. Because she’s been stuck on fixed-term contracts for years now, it’s next to impossible to get a mortgage, when she doesn’t know if she’ll even have a job next month.

Both members are, by all accounts, excellent teachers and researchers. They go above and beyond their contracted hours. This is because, in part, they worry that if they don’t overwork, their contracts won’t be renewed.

Their stories are shared by countless other people working in tertiary education. Precarious work and insecure contracts are the dirty secret keeping our institutions afloat. They undermine everyone’s work, by making more and more of the workforce disposal and exploitable.

This needs to change.

That’s why I’m establishing a working group to help guide me as Te Tumu Whakarae–Tiriti | National Co-President–Tiriti on these issues. It is clear that there is a lot of work to be done, and it will take a collective effort.

The key role of the working group will be to:

• Build on the work already done by the TEU, including last year’s secure work conference;
• Better understand the scope and scale of precarious work in tertiary education;
• Identify solutions to make work more secure, including through our collective agreements and legislative changes; and
• Build the power of precarious workers to win these desperately needed changes.

This working group will be informal, meaning it won’t have any decision-making power. Members may wish to propose becoming a network, at a later date. For now, the working group is an opportunity for precarious workers to get together, strategise, and inform the actions they take in their branches and networks. It will contribute to existing campaigns and bargaining efforts.

If you’re interested in joining the working group, come along to our first hui at 12pm on February 26th on Teams. You can register by clicking this link. Pre-registration is essential.

Members currently employed on casual, fixed-term, or otherwise precarious agreements (contracts) are especially encouraged to join.