Back in 2022, the Government passed legislation requiring employers to offer workers continuing jobs after their second fixed term contract – this created consternation among universities and medical research institutes (time-limited public funding for specific projects).
They got an exemption a year back for publicly funded work with a definite end date. But how the law should apply to university casuals working on projects that were not time-limited, eluded the National Tertiary Education Union and managements’ Higher Education Industrial Association, which have had two six-month exemptions from the law to sort out how it should apply.
Divisions appear to include managements being happy with the present five-year fixed contract maximum for research, while the union says it should be two.
They still don’t agree on how to amend the HE industrial award and so there is a third extension to sort it out, for another 12 months. And to move things along, the union asked the Fair Work Commission to get involved, which is happening, with three conferences this month and a hearing sometime from March.
