Supporting All Workers

The Te Ara Paerangi Green paper in Chapter 5 raises important questions addressing the support and development of a research workforce. The goal is to ensure dynamism, career support and ensure retention within the research, science, and innovation system while also allowing the overall establishment to best marshal the emerging workforce. Additionally, Chapter 4 of the report focuses on the design and shape of institutions to address the needed changes. While these two sections/entities are addressed separately in the document, the institutional setup and culture are deeply intertwined with the well-being and professional needs of the workforce. A change in one, must be accompanied by and supported through a change in the other. A great example of transforming one without the other is presented in the Equity, diversity and inclusion section on Page 66. The report notes that simply hiring more women, Māori or Pacific peoples cannot addresses issues of inclusion and representation within the research system, since often these individuals are "tokenised, undervalued" and asked to perform extra labour as a "cultural expert". This is clearly an institutional problem and rectifying it through changes in hiring practices will do little to address it. However, the systemic sexism and racism plaguing the research in Aotearoa requires a reflexive hiring agenda, as well, which actively works to eradicate such a culture. Therefore, these forms of collaborative policy making, with 'twin interventions' addressing opposite sides of the same problem need to be pursued by any form of future restructuring. That being said, it is also important to understand some key emerging issues within the RSI workforce which any future restructuring will need to address.

The research establishment in Aotearoa, like other places(1), is very unequal, systemically biased against women(2), indigenous peoples(3,4) and various other ethnically/religiously(5) othered and racialized minorities. These experiences of discrimination are from within the research system and support the argument that even though historically excluded individuals are allowed to enter the research space, they are subjected to various forms of othering within the establishments. More than diversity training or anti-bias training is needed to address these issues(6). To build the structures of support which will support early career researchers, racialized, gendered and ethnically othered groups, there needs to be:

An active investment in the establishment of processual accountability, with clearly stated punitive repercussions and pathways to address such issues without fear of institutional retaliation(7)
The establishment of frequent systemic assessment of institutions upholding anti-discrimination clauses built on the foundation of Te Tiriti(8) and,
The creation of worker well being focused policy and its implementation through a task force that is professionally trained in the diagnostic and mitigational tools of anti-discrimination with a diverse population(9)
Contextual accessible services for different individuals based on their life situations (This could encompass everything from adequately compensated parental leave to emotional/material support for individuals unable to connect with their families due to border restrictions)(10)
The development of various hybrid funded programs to address the livelihood precarity of junior scholars, working on fixed term contracts, irrespective of gender, age, religion, ethnicity, immigration status and other such qualifying variables.(11)

Along with these measures it is critical that worker focused restructuring of the research, science, and innovation system be matched with a corollary in the institutional make up. The Te Pae Kahurangi report on Crown Research Institutes notes that there is a culture of competition over collaboration, inefficient use of scarce funds, weak engagement with tertiary educational institutions and an undermining of Māori aspirations. All these shortcomings, along with creating a less than optimal science and research spaces, directly impact the creation of a supportive, sustainable and inclusive work culture. These critiques can be applied to tertiary educational institutions as well, who are poised to address many of these concerns in light of the recent stories of workplace discrimination(12) and the ongoing financial challenges due to COVID-19 related border closures.(13)

The aspirations of the Te ara Paerangi document’s fifth chapter need to consider the contextual and exceptional life circumstances of the diverse research workforce of Aotearoa. This means an active focus on the most vulnerable individuals which often include Māori, Pasifica, women, immigrants on temporary work visas and other minority groups. Additionally, any support for the workforce will have to be supplemented and complemented by institutional restructuring to allow such support to flourish.

References

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