University of Newcastle casual and contract staff are facing job losses by the end of the year because of the university's "perverse interpretation of federal legislation", according to the tertiary teachers union.
The National Tertiary Education Union says the federal government's Closing the Loopholes legislation was designed to improve job security for casual and fixed-term workers by moving them into more secure work.
"But the opposite is happening at Newcastle University," the union said in a statement.
The legislation has changed the definition of casual employment to be characterised by no firm advanced commitment to continuing and indefinite work.
A union meeting of university staff heard from casuals, who have worked for years as 'sessional academics' coordinating courses, lecturing and tutoring students, who said they will have no work next year beyond occasional marking.
Fixed-term staff, who are generally offered rolling contracts, have also been told their jobs will end in December, the union claimed.
The NTEU has called on the university to convert "as many of these staff as possible" to ongoing positions.
NTEU Newcastle branch president Associate Professor Terry Summers said the impact of the changes would be felt right across our community.
"Without the expertise of these dedicated casually employed academic and professional staff, our university will not be able to deliver the range of courses that it currently delivers and that students want and need for their careers, unless of course these roles are converted to ongoing ones," Dr Summer said.
"Without conversion, the loss of casual and fixed-term staff will mean that ongoing staff will be loaded up with more work, which impacts their capacity to deliver quality teaching and may seriously affect their health."
"We are already getting reports of staff being squeezed by the new workload model, and this only adds more pressure."
The University of Newcastle did not answer questions about how many casual and fixed-term positions won't be continued next year and how many would be converted to ongoing positions.
University of Newcastle chief operating officer David Toll said the university would continue working to ensure employment arrangements complied with the new Fair Work Act requirements.
He said the university had engaged with the federal government and unions to "draw attention to the impact of the new legislation, particularly on casual staff".
"We will continue to have a workforce that consists of ongoing, fixed term and casual employees to meet our operational needs, with staff supported to ensure appropriate management of workloads," Mr Toll said.
Dr Summers said some people chose to work as casuals, but many continued in precarious work because they had no choice.
"The legislation was meant to help these people, our university's approach will make things worse," Dr Summers said.
"We call on Newcastle University to engage in the spirit of the legislation and our enterprise agreements to secure our workforce."
Dr Summers said some fixed-term employees who had applied for ongoing roles had been knocked back, and that jobs were being advertised to replace them.
The union also claimed there had been "a complete lack of communication over the changes".
Mr Toll said applications from fixed term staff for conversion to ongoing employment would be reviewed and assessed on a case-by-case basis, "along with opportunities for casual staff".
"We are currently reviewing staffing arrangements for 2025, and we are committed to informing casual and fixed term staff of arrangements for 2025 in coming weeks," he said.
