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Over the past 25 years, the Australian workforce has become more casualised, with approximately one-quarter of the workforce in casual employment today. One of the highest users of casual employees is the higher education sector, where casual academics (referred to as sessionals in the Australian context) are estimated to account for 50% of the overall teaching load. The purpose of this article is to investigate the processes associated with the management of sessional academic staff. The study focuses on a single university, utilising a survey questionnaire and interviews with the sessional academics and their managers. The results depict a bifurcated system of maximum labour regulation for full-time academics alongside minimum regulation for sessional staff. The findings stress the urgency for improvement in both the employment conditions and management of sessional academic staff, both for their own benefit and the universities that employ them. (Contains 4 tables.)

Purpose: The aim of this article is to explore the influence of precarious (temporary) employment on employability and career development. Design/methodology/approach: The article draws together primary and secondary research material. Findings: Findings indicate that there are both positive and negative perspectives with regard to temporary employment and career development for both the workers themselves and the user firms. Research limitations/implications: Implications arising are that policy development/research is required to investigate potential interventions that could be introduced. Practical implications: These are in line with the article's suggestion of adopting transitional labour market strategies. These major transitions are between education and employment; (unpaid) caring and employment; unemployment and employment; retirement and employment; "precarious" and permanent employment. Originality/value: The article outlines two facets of precariousness associated with temporary work in relation to the worker and the user firm. It also presents a newly devised three-stage typology of skill and skill acquisition that is relevant to the topic. (Contains 2 tables.)

Comparatively new forms of work, such as temporary agency work, have led to changes in employment relations systems resulting in various consequences for temporary agency workers. To date, analysis of such changes and their effects have been quite limited, especially with regard to comparative, international perspectives. Consequently, the intention of this article is to partially address that gap by considering temporary agency work and workers in Germany and Singapore. These countries were selected as both have experienced significant growth in agency work while possessing different features in their employment relations systems. The paper provides insights relevant to the contradictions and tensions inherent in the position of agency workers in the German and Singaporean system of employment relations, making suggestions for a new regulatory approach of the temporary agency industry., INTRODUCTION The past two decades have seen the rise of new forms of work such as temporary agency work (Mitlacher & Burgess 2007; Burgess & Connell 2006). This growth has [...]