Crossword Genius

No good avoiding casual employment rates (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tempi

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'rates' is the definition.
(tempo is a kind of rate)

'no good avoiding casual employment' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'good' could be 'pi' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'pi' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tempi that I've seen before include "Rates" , "Beats" , "Times" , "Speed controls" , "Speeds, rhythms of musical pieces" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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