10 things sessional staff want
Posted by Agnes Bosanquet on February 4th, 2010
Check out the findings from the LTC’s Sessional Staff Forum. Here are 10 things sessional staff want:
1. Paid training opportunities
2. Academic mentoring
3. Commensurate remuneration and superannuation (to put it simply: sessional staff want to be paid for the hours they actually work)
4. Improved payroll processes
5. Lifting of working restrictions (e.g. limit of 8 working hours per week)
6. Access to infrastructure (e.g. office space) and teaching and learning resources
7. Job security
8. Transparent and fair recruitment processes
9. Better communication and access to information
10. Improved working conditions (e.g. management practices, workplace culture, support for staff with disabilities)
Do these match your experiences as a sessional staff member? Which of these do you consider the most important? What would you like to add to the list?
Read the full summary of the findings and more about the Sessional Staff Project. If you’d like to contribute your ideas, please contact Lucy Arthur via email: sessionalstaff[at]gmail.com.
This ‘10 things’ concept is borrowed from Tammi Jonas’ manifesto 10 things postgrads want presented at the State of the Industry conference in November last year.
Gosh, what a coincidence – many of these things are exactly what the NTEU has put on the table as claims in the current round of enterprise bargaining. We’ll be talking about the specifics of this claim in this week’s meeting with the management team. I wonder whether they’ll choose (again) to ignore the evidence base, ignore the research, and continue to impose appalling conditions on casual teaching staff?
It’s hardly the way to build an academic workforce in a time when demand is increasing – but we shouldn’t find that surprising – the University doesn’t even HAVE a workforce plan.
Sydney University has just agreed to limit casual employment and take on more staff as continuing or transitional fixed term academics. Sure, they had to be persuaded by the NTEU to do this – but they’ll reap the rewards in terms of workforce productivity and loyalty. Why would Macquarie be interested in that sort of thing – fancy, trying to look after the people who actually produce the work and the outputs – how old-fashioned!! How… um … sustainable!!!!