Labour Commodification in the Employment Heartland: Union Responses to Teachers’ Temporary Work

McGrath-Champ, S; Fitzgerald, S; Gavin, M; Stacey, M; Wilson, R

Labour Commodification in the Employment Heartland: Union Responses to Teachers’ Temporary Work

McGrath-Champ, S Fitzgerald, S Gavin, M

Stacey, M Wilson, R

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Publisher:: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Work, Employment and Society, 2022
Issue Date:: 2022-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	McGrath-Champ, S
dc.contributor.author	Fitzgerald, S
dc.contributor.author	Gavin, M https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6796-5198
dc.contributor.author	Stacey, M
dc.contributor.author	Wilson, R https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2550-1253
dc.date.accessioned	2023-03-21T02:23:01Z
dc.date.available	2023-03-21T02:23:01Z
dc.date.issued	2022-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	Work, Employment and Society, 2022
dc.identifier.issn	0950-0170
dc.identifier.issn	1469-8722
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/167902
dc.description.abstract	This article analyses the commodification of professional labour and union responses to these processes within the employment heartland. It explores the category of fixed-contract or ‘temporary’ employment using Australian public school teaching as the empirical lens. Established to address intensifying conditions of labour market insecurity, the union-led creation of the temporary category was intended to partly decommodify labour by providing intermediate security between permanent and ‘casual’ employment. However, using historical case and contemporary survey data, we discern that escalation of temporary teacher numbers and intensifying work-effort demands concurrently increased insecurity within the teacher workforce, constituting recommodification. The article contributes to scant literature on unions and commodification, highlighting that within the current marketised context, labour commodification may occur through contradictory influences at multiple levels, and that union responses to combat this derogation of work must similarly be multi-level and sustained.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
dc.relation.ispartof	Work, Employment and Society
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/09500170211069854
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
dc.rights	Mihajla Gavin, Labour commodification in the employment heartland : Union responses to teachers’ temporary work, Work, Employment and society. ©2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211069854
dc.subject	1402 Applied Economics, 1503 Business and Management, 1608 Sociology
dc.subject.classification	Industrial Relations
dc.title	Labour Commodification in the Employment Heartland: Union Responses to Teachers’ Temporary Work
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.for	1402 Applied Economics
utslib.for	1503 Business and Management
utslib.for	1608 Sociology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business/Management Discipline
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
utslib.copyright.embargo	2024-01-01T00:00:00+1000Z
dc.date.updated	2023-03-21T02:23:00Z
pubs.publication-status	Published

Abstract:

This article analyses the commodification of professional labour and union responses to these processes within the employment heartland. It explores the category of fixed-contract or ‘temporary’ employment using Australian public school teaching as the empirical lens. Established to address intensifying conditions of labour market insecurity, the union-led creation of the temporary category was intended to partly decommodify labour by providing intermediate security between permanent and ‘casual’ employment. However, using historical case and contemporary survey data, we discern that escalation of temporary teacher numbers and intensifying work-effort demands concurrently increased insecurity within the teacher workforce, constituting recommodification. The article contributes to scant literature on unions and commodification, highlighting that within the current marketised context, labour commodification may occur through contradictory influences at multiple levels, and that union responses to combat this derogation of work must similarly be multi-level and sustained.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/167902