Part-timers' lament

Hourly paid staff will soon have the right to claim their treatment is unfair. Amanda Hart urges lecturers to use the law

"After 19 years' part-time service I am still not allowed to have a desk of my own" - a part-time university lecturer.

The legal rights of thousands of higher education lecturers will soon be given a boost with the implementation of the Part-Time Work Directive. Consultations begin this month in preparation for full enactment by April 2000.

For the first time, part-time workers will be able to claim that their rights are not as good as equivalent full-timers' without having to prove sex discrimination too.

Until I started working in higher education I had always assumed that part time work meant being employed to work a fraction of a full-time contract and being paid a proportion of a full-time salary. The main issue was to get equal access to progression and promotion opportunities, and to ensure that part-timers were not expected to work full-time hours for part-time pay.

In higher education, fractional part-time staff suffer from this form of discrimination, but for 85 per cent of higher education part-time staff - some 20,000 lecturers fundamental to the delivery of the service - the position is far worse. They are paid and employed by the hour, hired and fired by heads of department with little redress.

Change cannot come soon enough for many of the respondents to a recent Natfhe survey of part-time teaching staff. Nearly 130 lecturers used this opportunity to comment - painting a vivid picture of how demoralising the experience of discrimination can be. The length and number of these comments are clear indicators of the frustrations felt by part-time staff over their treatment in higher education.

A third of survey respondents voiced concerns about job security, conditions of service and lack of facilities.

For hourly paid staff the main issue was low pay. Superficially, the part-time rate of Pounds 26 per hour looked good, but part-time staff were paid only for class contact time. One respondent, a lecturer paid to teach 40 hours to 84 students, spent a further 42 unpaid hours marking the assignments.

In addition, this respondent calculated that if hours involved in preparation and teaching-related administration were taken into account their actual rate of pay per hour dropped to Pounds 5.

Linked to this lack of recognition for unpaid work was the fact that the flat hourly rate paid to many part-timers failed to recognise experience or level of responsibility. Natfhe believes that the part-time rate is not justifiable now under equal pay laws.

For fractional staff the main issue was pressure to work over and above the hours for which they were employed, lack of facilities, administrative support and failure to involve them fully in the work of the department.

The Part-Time Work Directive will require employers to address all these issues.

Part-time lecturers - whether they be on fractional or hourly contracts - frequently suffer anxiety about the temporary nature of their post. Hourly paid lecturers in particular said they usually did not know until the last minute whether their contract was likely to be renewed, and if so whether they were to face a cut in hours.

Natfhe is pushing institutions to develop better planning systems by insisting on part-timers' right to redundancy consultation, thereby limiting the uncertainty caused by fixed-term contracts.

The government's vision of a learning society will not be realised unless these issues are addressed. The way part-timers are treated affects the quality of education. Research undertaken by the Centre for Higher Education Studies, University of London, for Natfhe finds that "excellent" rated departments are more likely to include part-time staff in inductions, monitoring standards and staff development. Those that do not are showing signs of poor performance.

The development of a world-class education system requires that the people who deliver the education are able to keep up to date with the latest developments with adequate resources to do so. The current hourly rate includes no concept of the need for professional development, while fractional part-time staff development needs are often ignored.

Natfhe accepts that part-time staff are not a homogeneous group and that different solutions may be required. However, we believe that all "regular" part-time staff should be employed on permanent fractional contracts.

The higher education sector is one of the most casualised in the country: the vast majority of part-time lecturers - and 40 per cent of full-timers - are employed on fixed-term contracts. Natfhe has secured a commitment from national employers to enter into discussion over the use of hourly paid contracts.

These discussions could - we hope - result in a major overhaul of the employment and treatment of part-time hourly paid staff in higher education. Next month, Natfhe steps up its campaign with the launch of a comprehensive part-timers' resource pack for its local officers.

The pack explains how the law can be used and the educational justifications for addressing this neglected issue.

CASE STUDY: THE ENGINEER

"While studying for a postgraduate masters degree I was approached by one of my tutors to deputise for a full-time lecturer taken ill.

Following this, and despite the fact that I had never received any teacher training, I was gradually offered a number of part-time teaching hours throughout the whole of the next term.

In one of the faculties I work in there has never been any admin support at all. I am expected to produce all my own teaching and handout material, but have never been allowed personal access to photo-

copying facilities.

Although I start teaching in September, I never receive my contract until well into October, which means that I may not receive any pay until December. I am not paid for holidays, but I have received sick pay. The complexity of payment systems means that every year I end up in arrears - this year to the tune of Pounds 300. If we are to improve part-time teaching morale and standards, a new contractual system must be developed that provides a sense of fairness and equity in their rewards and treatment."

Amanda Hart works at Natfhe universities department.