The current strike ballot on pay, workload, and equality highlights the problems faced by casualised staff. These could be staff on fixed-term contracts (like the vast majority of our early career researchers) or those on hourly-paid or zero-hours contracts, with staff working for a relatively small number of hours per semester (such as with some of our teaching (and other) staff).
A UCU survey from earlier this year prompted 67 responses from Southampton University staff (1.8% of total respondents). The report explored financial insecurity within this group, with respondents to the survey clearly reporting real problems resulting from the precariousness of their income – see tables below copied from the report.
About 60% of respondents have experienced problems with making ends meet, 40% with paying bills, and 30% with paying their rent.
| Have you experienced any of the following issues as a result of your employment on insecure contracts? | Numbers answering yes | Percentage |
| Problems securing rented accommodation | 571 | 28% |
| Problems paying rent | 613 | 29.8% |
| Problems getting a loan | 562 | 27.4% |
| Problems paying bills | 828 | 40.3% |
| Problems making ends meet | 1228 | 59.8% |
| Problems with VISA status | 149 | 7.3% |
| Problems accessing or maintaining access to benefits | 263 | 12.8% |
Staff also reported high levels of stress – caused in part by financial insecurity but also by the nature of the work depending on the contract (such as not enough time to prepare, no dedicated workspace and so on).
| On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 = not stressful at all and 10 = extremely stressful, how stressful do you find working on an insecure contract? | ||
| Numbers of responses | Percentage of respondents | |
| 10 (extremely stressful) | 649 | 24.6% |
| 9 | 472 | 17.9% |
| 8 | 682 | 25.9% |
| 7 | 391 | 14.8% |
| 6 | 163 | 6.2% |
| 5 | 105 | 4% |
| 4 | 46 | 1.7% |
| 3 | 75 | 2.8% |
| 2 | 22 | 0.8% |
| 1 (not stressful) | 33 | 1.3% |
For the full report and all findings see Counting the costs of casualisation in higher education – Key findings of a survey June 2019.
Casualisation can mean insecurity, inability to progress and unfair disadvantage. Whilst short-term contracts are often embedded in current research funding models, the recent UCU survey showed that the large majority (97% of respondents) on a fixed-term contract would rather be on a permanent contract, while 80% of those who were hourly-paid would rather be on a contract that guaranteed them hours, even if it meant less flexibility.
The HESA figures for 2017/18 show that of the 2,995 academic staff in the University of Southampton, 1,235 are on fixed-term contracts. We do not have figures for how many are on hourly paid contracts locally. We would like to hear from members here about their experiences of casualised contracts, the impact on themselves, on colleagues and on students. Write in confidence direct to ucu@soton.ac.uk.
And in the context of the current ballot, we urge members to vote to end rising job insecurity.