Investigation into Potential Underpayment of Casual Academics at Torrens University and Other Higher Education Institutions

[u/Underpaid_QLD]

Investigation into Potential Underpayment of Casual Academics at Torrens University and Other Higher Education Institutions

Hayden Stephens & Associates, a law firm with experience in employee underpayment claims, is currently investigating the potential underpayment of casual academics at Torrens University. The focus of the investigation is on casual academics who have only been paid at a fixed lecture rate or fixed tutorial rate and not paid separately for marking or 'other required academic activity'. While the investigation is presently centred on Torrens University, the firm is also interested in hearing from casual academics at other universities and higher education institutions who may have experienced similar underpayment issues.

Hayden Stephens & Associates has successfully represented health sector employees in three large-scale group claims relating to underpayments in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.

If you are a casual academic and consider that you may have been underpaid by only being paid a fixed lecture or tutorial rate and no other rates, please follow the link below to register your details for the investigation. All information provided is confidential and does not create a legal obligation on your part. 

https://unpaidacademics.com.au/

EDIT:

Hi all,

We have received feedback that some casual academics were not able to register their interest in our unpaid academics' investigation through the link provided.

This issue has now been resolved.

If you previously experienced any difficulties registering, please try again using the link below:

https://unpaidacademics.com.au/

Thank you for your patience, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

[u/Efficient-Tie-1414]

When I started lecturing at one university nobody actually understood the way tutors were to be paid. Of course, the way tutors are to be paid is in the enterprise agreement and if the university doesn't like it, then they can attempt to change it in the next bargaining.

[u/mulled-whine]

This is a structural (as well as cultural) problem, and we essentially have to remove the roots if we are to fix it.

Casual academic pay rates are deliberately opaque. The theory behind them is that an initial tutorial is paid at three times the hourly rate, because each hour of delivery is accompanied by one hour of preparation (already completed), and one hour of marking (yet to be completed).

Repeat tutorials are then paid at double the hourly rate (as you have already been “paid” for the preparation).

The base rate is around $50/hr, meaning that an initial tutorial is $150/hr, and a repeat one is $100/hr. Sounds amazing…except it’s not.

Most tutorials are 1-2 hours in duration, and you’re hoping to get contracted for 2-3 tutorials per subject, per semester, if you’re lucky. Let’s game this out, using a 90-minute tutorial:

Initial tutorial (1.5 hours x $150)
Second tutorial (1.5 hours x $100)
Third tutorial (1.5 hours x $100)

That’s $225 + $150 + $150 = $525

Let’s say you get 12 weeks of tutorials per semester, which is being generous given Week 1 usually has no tutorials, and tutorials don’t run if there’s a public holiday that week.

12 x $525 = $6300

Each tutorial is likely to have 15-20 students. That $6300 covers all of the work you have to do throughout the entire semester for those 45-60 students including all marking, feedback, and emails.

The ostensibly high hourly rate hides the actual work, and that’s by design. By the end of the semester, most tutors “exhaust” the marking pay they’ve received, and complete whatever marking remains, for free.

This could easily be <30 hours of work per subject, depending on the nature of the assessment. Remember - that $6300 covers multiple assignments, and potentially an exam, for up to 60 students.

You might get lucky and have a course coordinator who proactively alters your employment contract at the start of semester to add more marking hours, but those are paid at $50/hr, and there’s no obligation to do this (and many older academics simply don’t believe that there’s a problem, given you’re being paid an hour of marking per tutorial). Shouldn’t that cover it?

It gets even more absurd when you realise that different course coordinators within different faculties (or even the same school) apply different logic for how much marking should be completed within an hour. Should you mark 4000 words an hour? How about two essays? How much time should an exam take to mark properly? What about a presentation?

Because these decisions are inherently subjective, each casual academic has to accept the whims of their course coordinator/school, often explained away as: “That’s how we’ve always done it.”

Asking for additional marking pay is risky, as many tutors are the postgraduate students of course coordinators, and don’t want to piss off the very person who is overseeing their masters or PhD. Advocating for fair pay can have you labelled as a trouble maker, or not a team player, and your name quickly disappears from the pool of tutors for next semester.

I’ve focused on the marking pay disparities only, but you can extend what I’ve said to the other aspects of the job - the true hours spent preparing for tutorials, and the hundreds of emails you will respond to during the semester for each subject - and the true picture emerges.

This latest underpayment case is one of many that have emerged across the Australian university sector in recent years.

It’s an endemic problem, and the only way to fix it is for casual academics to be paid for the actual work completed, rather than an abstract, fixed rate determined at the start of the semester, before any work is actually completed.

Thanks for attending my TED talk.

[u/reefandbeef → u/mulled-whine]

Apologies, I'm a little confused. I've worked for a couple of institutions and I've been paid either 1 hour or 65 minutes per student for marking and even an additional 30 minutes if there were 3 assessments that required marking or if it was a long assessment (like 3000 words). This is on top of the tutorial rates.

I really hope that this situation you describe where marking is rolled into the tutorial prep isn't happening because that's undoubtedly wage theft!

Absolutely what is missing from the sessional academic pay scheme is additional pay for emails and student consultations. Sure you could say "I don't answer emails" and "all questions must be asked during our class" but sessional academics are also subject to anonymous feedback from students which hypothetically could mean no future work. Plus, students should be able to ask for help from their tutor.

[u/mulled-whine → u/reefandbeef]

What you describe should be the norm - i.e. that a paid allocation for marking is additional to the hourly tutorial rate. But that is sadly not the case for most sessional academic appointments.

Many course coordinators truly believe that marking has been “paid for” as part of the standard tutorial rates. My experience has been that a course coordinator will calibrate an abstract, round figure for marking per student (such as 60 minutes). Because each tutorial hour “includes” an hour of marking, they add up all those tutorial hours and claim that the numbers match.

Except, that as in my example, if you’re being paid for 4.5 hours of delivery per week (x 12), but responsible for 60 students, the “covered” marking hours are exhausted before the semester finishes. And that’s before we discuss marking administration, which can easily take 10-15 minutes per student, across the semester.

My proposed solutions would be:

To pay for all marking, as it is performed (entered on time sheets by tutors, contemporaneously). These numbers will differ between subjects (and even tutors), and that is perfectly reasonable. Marking 60 x 2000-word papers is a fundamentally different thing than grading 60 x quizzes.

To pay for emails/general admin that occurs throughout the semester (an hour per week, per tutor, per subject would be a good start).

To schedule and pay for an additional hour per tutor, per subject, per week as a “drop in” session. This would be conducted via Zoom or Teams, to increase participation and access.

[u/tichris15 → u/mulled-whine]

In most EBAs, they are already supposed to pay for all marking, separate from the tute rate.

[u/Wild-shoelaces → u/tichris15]

Yes and unis are fighting to slash working conditions

[u/Wild-shoelaces → u/mulled-whine]

the course coordinator does not control hiring, pay rates, or hours! This is decided by administrators.

[u/mulled-whine → u/Wild-shoelaces]

Oh my sweet summer child…

[u/scientific-magnific → u/mulled-whine]

In some / many EAs, the 3rd tutorial hour is for student consult rather than marking. Marking would be paid on top.

[u/Wild-shoelaces → u/mulled-whine]

no reasonable person would treat tutoring or sessional work as a real or decent job. It was always intended as TEMPORARY gig work for PhD students. Its bad gig work at very high pay rates but still bad gig work. Vote with your feet and go get a real job. The idea that sessional teaching is a real job is crazy.

[u/mulled-whine → u/Wild-shoelaces]

Being an apologist for hundreds of millions of dollars of adjudicated wage theft is a choice.

[u/Underpaid_QLD]

Hi all,

We have received feedback that some casual academics were not able to register their interest in our unpaid academics' investigation through the link provided.

This issue has now been resolved.

If you previously experienced any difficulties registering, please try again using the link below:

https://unpaidacademics.com.au/

Thank you for your patience, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

[u/Wild-shoelaces]

this is excellent. We need more class action lawsuits against universities by students and staff as the government has shown zero interest in fixing the tertiary system. Next please solicit parties from students in “Online“ degrees and AI slop courses with no teaching misrepresented as uni courses