I noticed you, on foot, as I drove into town and again as I headed home.

You had collected four huge bags and were carrying another two full bags. 

Jo Patman, Tura Beach 

Your story detailing the challenges attached to Dr Annie Warner’s employment should have every Australian wondering what kind of country we have become (“Feeling compelled to work”, MNW, September 12).

Rightly or wrongly, there was a time not so long ago when casual employment was the province of the unskilled and poorly educated.

The more skilled and educated could be more certain of permanent work, while those who did not want to work full-time, could usually find permanent part-time work where they still received the same benefits as full-time workers, albeit on a pro-rata basis.

While it is often said that our casual workforce has only grown from 20 per cent to 25 per cent over the past 20 years, this ignores the fact that the workforce itself has grown by almost three million (33 per cent) in the same period.

This means that the number of casual employees has grown by 1.2 million to just over 3 million, with that increase representing more than 40 per cent of the total increase in employment numbers.

The simple truth is that the numbers are often used to conceal the fact that the casualisation of our workforce has spread to the professional ranks, including highly educated and skilled people like Dr Warner involved in education, health care and teaching, and with a large number of those employees being women.

While it is often argued that many Australians appreciate the flexibility that casual employment supposedly offers, it is nevertheless a luxury that doubtless most would prefer to do without.

One only has to look at the number of casual employees who would like more work (1.3 million or 40 per cent of all casual employees in January of this year).

And while Dr Warner naturally worries about whether she will benefit from another short-term contract at the University of Wollongong next term, there are now school teachers and many other professionals across a variety of disciplines who are surviving on casual employment on a day-to-day basis.

This disempowerment of a significant percentage of our workforce is surely just more evidence of the growth of inequality in our society.

It used to be that employees were seen to be a prized asset of every enterprise: up there with customers and shareholders. These days it appears that all three are taking a bath for the benefit of management.

Perhaps the challenges of inequality would be solved if all employees, including executives and management, were exposed to the same insecure conditions of employment as our casual workforce?

We could then return to the task of trying to improve everyone’s lot.

John Richardson, Wallagoot

Scott Morrison pledges laws for religious freedom so please explain:

Is it freedom for priests to abuse children?

Freedom for church leaders to cover up pedophile crimes committed by their clergy?

Freedom for males to impose dress codes on their wives and daughters?

Freedom for state subsidised private schools to refuse non-religious children?

Freedom for public schools to impose the study of apocryphal gospels or does it simply mean freedom from religion?

Bernard Lagarenne, Merimbula