Fee relief for casuals

The COVID-19 crisis is affecting everyone, but casual staff are worse off than most. That is why your Union has made the following decisions to try to assist our casual members.

All casual members will be given a 3 month waiver on their fees. Your next payment due date will be pushed back by 3 months whether you pay monthly, quarterly, half yearly or annually.

You do not have to do anything, we will apply the waiver on the understanding that all casual members are facing hardship in the current circumstances.

Any casual members who join NTEU in the next 8 weeks will also receive an immediate 3 month waiver on their fees, reducing the amount they will be billed.

Please note that new members will be required to enter their payment details (direct debit or credit card), but they will not be charged any fees until after the 3 month grace period.

By Matthew McGowan NTEU General Secretary

NTEU had a small fee increase scheduled for March this year. This fee increase has been deferred until July 2020.

NTEU casual fees are reviewed every year. Last year we decided not to increase fees and to catch up in 2020. This decision delays that by a further four months.

We are all in this together and your union is very aware that you are doing it tough. We are always stronger together.

The COVID-19 pandemic declaration on 11 March caught many universities by surprise. Less than a week before, many university leaderships were deep in ‘business as usual’ mode and in meetings with the Union, dismissing questions around university shutdowns and banning mass gathering as unnecessary panic-mongering.

By Sarah Roberts Assistant Secretary, Victorian Division

Skip forward 8 days and the landscape dramatically changed. Universities, TAFE and private providers were struggling to cope with the additional demands placed on cleaning, moving all teaching to online, banning domestic and international travel, coping with quarantined staff, planning for closures and most importantly working towards guaranteeing staff safety and pay.

This transformation didn’t happen by accident On 12 February, NTEU wrote to all ViceChancellors seeking guarantees around alleviating staff workload pressures due the need to move courses online, maintenance of work and pay for casual staff and urging a strong position against bigotry and racism in the sector’s response to the crisis.

In the coming weeks, reports of staff needing to self-isolate started to emerge, and the panic level amongst staff quickly escalated. On 13 March the ANU, no stranger to complete shutdowns during the summer bushfire crisis, announced via a simple tweet that ‘if you are due to work but cannot attend because you are required to self-isolate, you will not be financially penalised.’ This spurred the Union on to release the first of its scorecards rating universities on their commitments around:

• Paid extra leave for staff required to stay at home, including if campuses closed. • Explicitly extending this commitment to all casual staff. On 16 March, the Victorian scorecard was released through social media, showing only the ACU as having fully committed to our demands, and three more with partial commitments. The scorecard was shared enthusiastically by members and by 17 March four more universities had crumbled under pressure and made further commitments in full or complete satisfaction of our demands.

This pattern was repeated in each State, resulting in enormous wins for casual staff. At the time of writing, many universities had committed to paying casuals during any period of COVID-19 related isolation, and more have extended this commitment to pay if and when the university might be required to shut down.

The Union’s simultaneous decision to offer 3 month free membership to casuals, and give a membership fee waiver for casuals, further bolstered pressure on managements around the country, with casuals clamouring for their employer to take care of them and listen to them in the same way the NTEU was.

On 19 March, NTEU launched an online petition putting explicit pressure on VCs to guarantee paid leave. Within less than 24 hours it had received over 7000 signatures and #covidunis was trending on Twitter. The campaign so far shows that thousands of university staff have been prepared to step up and take action online in circumstances where physical action is impossible. This member pressure has delivered real outcomes for casuals and ensured thousands of people can weather this storm with guaranteed pay and leave instead of frightening insecurity. People power delivered this win!

This is what unions are for – looking after each other. As unionists we must look after our most vulnerable and our most isolated comrades because we know if we do that, we all rise together.