Transference of Risk: The Increase in Casualization in the Workforce

by Priscilla Shorne

It is interesting in these days of corporate collapses and rising insurance premiums to consider the role of risk in our lives. We live in a country with a government which tries to make life safer through regulation of risks. For example, we are expected to vaccinate our chil- dren to avoid the risk of disease and sanctions are applied if we do not; we must wear our seat belts when driving or face a potential fine; we must wear bike helmets when cycling, public health campaigns are carried out to encourage safe sexual practice and yet at the same time, risk is becoming a greater part of our lives. Stories in the media suggest that we have become an increasingly litigious society, expecting the right to sue someone for any mishap; we have an expectation that we can and should be protected from all possible dangers.

Yet there is evidence that the protection of the welfare state in Australia is breaking down due to a number of factors such as globalization, and changes in political and economic ideology.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in the world of work, where not only has the right to a job for life in Australia disappeared but so have many of the traditional jobs. Over the past few decades the Australian workforce has been subject to many changes not the least being the transfer of permanent work to contract positions, outsourcing and an increasing reliance on casual workers. Iain Campbell cited in The Bulletin on February 2, 1999 claims that the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ figures show that casual employees now account for 26 percent of all employment, and this is an increase of 100 percent from 1982. The growth in part-time employment has also been significant. Between 1966 and 1994 part time employment grew by 5.5 percent per annum compared with 1.5 percent for full-time work. Correspondingly between 1986 and 1996, the numbers of part-time workers wanting more hours of work than they have increased from 17 percent to 26 percent.

One of the reasons given for the restructuring of the workforce is the need for flexibility. Many employers see it as the answer to increased profitability and to diminishing the problems of having to lay off staff when demand is low. This need for flexibility seems to have been interpreted as a reluctance to employ permanent staff coupled with an increasing trend to employ people as long-term casuals. Anecdotal evidence suggests that among reasons given for this are that by this means you can avoid wrongful dismissal cases and avoid on costs. This increased insecurity in employment is justified by many writers on the economy as providing opportunities for women with family responsibilities, older workers and also for providing choice and opportunities to workers. In an article in the Sunday Times in 1999 on the world of casual work, the Chief Economist for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, claimed that having a series of casual jobs created greater learning opportunities for employees and gave them the opportunity to pursue different interests. In the same article, the Chamber Director of Operations denied that there was any less security in the workforce, and said that it was employees who were seeking the change as they wanted diversity in their employment rather than remaining loyal to the one employer.

This makes it sound as if the employee bearing the risk of employment is a satisfying and life enhancing experience. For the casual lecturers employed in Perth, nothing could be further from the truth. I obtained qualitative data from a group of forty people working as casual Technical and Further Education (TAFE) lecturers who were interviewed over a two-year period as part of my research for a Ph.D. I interviewed them using a semi-structured interview which permitted us to explore particular issues which were of interest to them or me. The group was a convenience sample as I started with people I knew who then put me in touch with others they knew as well some responded to fliers which I distributed. The group snowballed as people heard about the project and provided assistance.

In addition, I have been working as a casual TAFE lecturer myself since 1994 and this employment not only provides the bulk of my income, but my experiences have also illuminated my research. The majority of casual TAFE lecturers who have participated in this study were over 40 (69 percent) and many had been employed in other occupations before they worked at TAFE. In fact, only one participant was under 30 and at least one was in her late sixties.

There were roughly equal numbers of males and females, both groups showing roughly the same sorts of age distribution. There were two main categories of people working as casual lecturers at TAFE, those who had other sources of income or other priorities and those who were making their living from this work. The first category included people who had basically retired but who wanted some work to supplement their income or to keep their hand in, those both male and female who had family commitments and so only wanted part time work at this stage of their lives and a few who just taught a subject as an industry specialist while they maintained their full-time career. The second category were people who would have in the past had some sort of permanency with TAFE whether part-time or full-time, and even some in the first category would have preferred to be employed on a more definite basis.

Another category of employee is those on contracts; they can be interchangeable with the casual group since when contracts expire, they are not necessarily renewed and people may then revert to casual employment. Obviously, the group most desperate about their situations was those who depended for their living either solely or partly on their TAFE work. Fifty per cent of those interviewed were the main or only breadwinner in their households and 47 percent relied on TAFE for their income. As well another 34 percent included their TAFE lecturing in a portfolio of jobs which ranged from consultancy, tutoring, private investigations to being a visual artist while only 19 percent taught at TAFE merely as an extra. So TAFE income still played an important role for 81 percent of casual lecturers.

These are the people who are the flexible employees, those for whom certainty has become a thing of the past, as people have not been appointed as permanent TAFE employees since 1991. Lecturers have been employed on contracts of varying lengths or on a casual basis though a group of lecturers, after a union campaign and who were able to prove that they had been continuously employed on contracts for five years were able to gain permanency last year. The risk of employment has been transferred from the employer, in this case the Department of Training to the employee, the casual lecturer. The Department has been able to operate flexibly putting people on and off as they need and sometimes in quite upsetting circumstances. Employment is thus based on insecure provisions as even the contracts have get out clauses which may be as little as two weeks. The advantage of a contract over casual employment, however, is that the incumbent does get sick leave, holiday provisions and incremental pay increases whereas the casual employee gets no leave and rather than being paid for experience or qualifications, is paid at the rate set for the level of the class taught. This does include a component for sick leave and holidays, as well as for preparation and grading.

A disadvantage for a casual in taking a contract is that their pay may decrease, since some colleges will only make appointments at the lowest possible level and fail to take into account any time spent in casual employment for the college. Casual employees have very little real power unless they can offer special skills that are in short supply. While most are employed for a set period, which depends on the length of the particular modules they are teaching, it is not unknown for people to be suddenly replaced if numbers drop or a permanent or contract lecturer needs more hours. In my interviews with casual lecturers, one of the things that rankled most was the frequently ungracious termination of work without any acknowledgement that it might cause hardship or inconvenience.

One program manager for whom I worked delayed processing casuals’ paychecks for some weeks, meaning that we did not get paid, because she was not certain whether she wished to cut faculty. The fact that this might cause financial hardship did not seem to occur to her either in that people were not being paid for work that they had already done or that in accepting work with that department which might be then cancelled, they had in all likelihood rejected other opportunities. Another issue which faces casual lecturers is the amount of unpaid work which they are expected to undertake.

Recently, the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) requirements [Editor: The AQTF is a set of nationally agreed upon standards that ensure the quality of vocational education and training services in Australia] have seen all those wishing to work in TAFE having to undertake the Workplace Assessor Certificate 4. As well, the paperwork associated with delivery and assessment has increased exponentially. But even more than that, with the constant changing of courses, and the introduction and revision of training packages without appropriate support materials means that casual lecturers are expected to develop course material in their own time. This might not be so bad if they could see an opportunity to amortize the time spent on preparation by teaching the subject again, but there is not guarantee that this will happen and in a worst case scenario, casual lecturers who have spent hours working on materials without recompense and taught the subject only once, are asked to hand them over to other lecturers when they take over the subject.

The enjoyment of risk taking did not seem to be a great motivating factor in those lecturers who are employed precariously, rather they were worried about insecurity and lack of involvement in what was going on at TAFE. One lecturer when asked what were his concerns about working at TAFE replied, “Lack of continuity of employment, lack of consultation, not being involved at all, the big pictures at work. You can’t get involved, because you only count in as a tiny part of what’s going on.”

And another “Most important, the work fluctuates so much that, well, it is at the moment my single source of income, so it is a bit difficult to survive on two or three hours of work. Especially because I have limitations as to how many TAFE colleges I can get to reasonably per week. Yeah, so I say that most important issue at this time is the fact that, you know, I could survive on eight hours work per week. I know how to live economically, but I just cannot survive on two, three or four hours of work per week, Yeah, I think that would be the single most urgent issue. I need work, I need part-time work, I need more work, whatever. I definitely need more than what I’ve got at the moment”.

One lecturer described his work with TAFE as being like a tourist, because even though he had been working at one campus for four years, he did not feel that he was accepted as part of the staff and nor were his views ever sought about anything relevant to his teaching. He also felt isolated from other staff as did this woman who when asked about issues which were important to her cited the problem of no income over the holidays and the lack of contact with other staff.

“The key issue is the breaks, the holiday breaks where you just don’t get any pay. So the pay has been reasonable while you are actually employed but there’s school holidays, without any money. That has always been the main issue. Some of it has been working and feeling like working in isolation, because you are only there and unless you actually make time to go there, to catch up with people, you don’t actually catch up with people at all.”

In this brief discussion, we see that rather than the transfer of risk from employer to employee being an unmitigated blessing for all concerned, casual employees have serious concerns about insecurity, lack of involvement, unpaid work, exploitation, the possibility of not getting enough work. While the Australian Education Union has recently started to focus on the issue of casual employees, management so far have been resistant to converting casual employment to even contract work. Yet my research shows that the same campuses have employed many casual lecturers for up to 10 years. While many of these people have adapted to living on the edge, many of them expressed concern about their ability to provide sufficiently for their future. They do not receive raises, get sick pay, long service leave and can be sacked at a moment’s notice.

The financial savings through flexibility for the colleges has meant that many people feel they are unable to provide effectively for their future and are even at times recipients of social security to make ends meet. These are not young people who want casual work while they study, or people with family responsibilities or even those who just want a bit of pin money. They are well-qualified, experienced lecturers who are needed by the TAFE system, but yet who are treated with a lack of respect and consideration. They want certainty, involvement and recognition of the valuable services they perform.