By deliberately misclassifying these workers as casuals, employers have been able to satisfy their ongoing labour needs, benefit from wage penalties, and withhold entitlements at the same time. Who should be regarded as ‘double dipping’ under such circumstances?
Many have made the case that the COVID-19 pandemic poses an existential threat to English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) and therefore to these jobs, students and institutions. Although this is nominally true, the crisis has revealed the unsustainable and unethical business practices on which ELICOS colleges have always depended.
