Four Fights: Casualisation

What is this dispute about?

Casualisation in the sector has risen sharply in recent years. This is unacceptable. UCU are asking for an end to zero hours contracts, proper contracts for Graduate Teaching Assistants, and a meaningful agreement to move towards more open-ended contracts.
Four Fights casualisation descriptor

What does this mean for our local members?

  • 37% of all academic staff employed at The University of Liverpool are on casualised contracts (HESA data 2019/20).
  • On average 45% of work done by hourly paid and part-time teachers is unpaid.
  • Casualisation disproportionally affects our women and BAME colleagues.

Read these heart-breaking testimonies of why casualisation is so damaging.

"Working at a university in the UK is like being in an abusive relationship. The HE sector is morally and ethically bankrupt. Tens of thousands of lecturers, including myself, are working flat out under such precarious conditions that we are living off universal credit to survive."

A statement from a Liverpool UCU member on the effects of casualisation

“Following a traumatic birth resulting in a postpartum hemorrhage, sepsis and a lengthy stay in hospital last year, I knew that my fixed term contract was about to end and felt pressured to go back to work after only three months of maternity leave. Within weeks of returning, I was overlooked for a suitable, lesser paid redeployment post and subsequently made redundant. The sector is wholly extractive, exploitative and destructive. It's at breaking point. We're at breaking point. This has to stop.”

A statement from another Liverpool UCU member on the effects of casualisation