Creates dynamic and thought-provoking lessons.
Always approachable and easy to talk to.
Encourages students to think outside the box.
Inspires students to love their studies.
Encourages deep understanding and curiosity.
Dr Sandra Martain serves as a Lecturer in Employment Relations in the School of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business and Law, at Curtin University, Perth. She holds the position of Course Lead for Human Resource Management programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and leads the Human Resource Management Major and Employment Relations Specialisation. Martain commenced her role at Curtin University in March 2022. Prior to this, she completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Employment Relations at the University of Western Australia from 2011 to 2020. Her doctoral research contributed to understandings of labour processes in the aged care sector.
Martain's research specializations centre on care work, marketisation of aged care services, labour process theory, embodiment, workplace violence, and workers' health and safety rights within marketised systems. She investigates the physical and emotional impacts on aged care workers' bodies due to market-driven pressures, exploitation, and regulatory shortcomings. Her scholarship addresses attraction and retention challenges for personal care assistants in Western Australia's residential aged care, including submissions to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Martain engages publicly on contemporary labour issues, such as the Right to Disconnect legislation, through media interviews. Key publications include the editorial 'Reimagining industrial relations: work, care, climate and safety' co-authored with Caleb Goods and Scott Fitzgerald (Labour & Industry, 2025), introducing a special issue from the 2024 conference on evolving industrial relations amid economic, environmental, and social shifts. Another significant work is '‘I had to bear the brunt’ – the impact on worker bodies of the marketisation of aged care' (Labour & Industry, 2023), detailing embodied consequences of neoliberal reforms. Additional contributions encompass 'Workers' health and safety rights in the marketised aged care system' (Labour & Industry, 2025) and explorations of extreme exploitation and violence in aged care markets (2024). She serves on the committee of the Industrial Relations Society of Western Australia, enhancing discourse in the field.
Explore the ongoing Curtin University staff dispute where NTEU members push for 20% pay rises, better workloads, and job security as industrial action looms in February 2026.
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