Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work
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 intensif...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
SAGE
2021
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86527 |
| _version_ | 1848764845762019328 |
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| author | McGrath-Champ, Susan Fitzgerald, Scott Gavin, Mihalja Stacey, Meghan Wilson, Rachel |
| author_facet | McGrath-Champ, Susan Fitzgerald, Scott Gavin, Mihalja Stacey, Meghan Wilson, Rachel |
| author_sort | McGrath-Champ, Susan |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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 paper 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:25:50Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-86527 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:25:50Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | SAGE |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-865272022-04-04T07:44:20Z Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work McGrath-Champ, Susan Fitzgerald, Scott Gavin, Mihalja Stacey, Meghan Wilson, Rachel 3505 - Human resources and industrial relations 4410 - Sociology Australia Commodification Decommodification Devolution School Teacher Temporary Union Recommodification Public Education 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 paper 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. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86527 10.1177/09500170211069854 SAGE fulltext |
| spellingShingle | 3505 - Human resources and industrial relations 4410 - Sociology Australia Commodification Decommodification Devolution School Teacher Temporary Union Recommodification Public Education McGrath-Champ, Susan Fitzgerald, Scott Gavin, Mihalja Stacey, Meghan Wilson, Rachel Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work |
| title | Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work |
| title_full | Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work |
| title_fullStr | Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work |
| title_full_unstemmed | Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work |
| title_short | Labour commodification in the employment heartland: Union responses to teachers' temporary work |
| title_sort | labour commodification in the employment heartland: union responses to teachers' temporary work |
| topic | 3505 - Human resources and industrial relations 4410 - Sociology Australia Commodification Decommodification Devolution School Teacher Temporary Union Recommodification Public Education |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86527 |