Insecure work prevents a normal life

A national inquiry into the casualisation of work starts hearings in Brisbane today.

Commissioned by the ACTU and chaired by former Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe, the inquiry has already received more than 500 submissions including 450 plus from individuals.

Mr Howe will hold 25 days of hearings in 23 different cities and towns across every state and territory in Australia including remote locations such as the mining town of Karratha in the Pilbara region.

Writing for The Punch today ACTU president Ged Kearney said 40 per cent of Australians were some kind of insecure work including casual – “a quarter of the workforce alone” – contract and on labour hire (temps).

Unlike permanent employees, Ms Kearney says “two million workers have no paid sick leave, no annual or long service leave and no right to ongoing work.”

“This massive change in the culture of the Australian workplace has taken place in the space of a generation with little examination of its effects on families and communities,” she writes.

Employer groups have argued that casual work arrangements are good for productivity. Organisations argue that “just in time” labour supply allows them to increase workers to meet demand and then decrease headcount when the work is not there as thus remain competitive in a global marketplace.

Ms Kearney does not agree. “[Causalisation] has been driven by businesses that want the freedom to hire and fire and shift the risk of their business onto employees,” she says.

“While I recognise that it is appropriate for some jobs and for some people, I do not believe that the growth in insecure work has come about because the people of Australia demanded it.

“I do not believe we have fully calculated the costs of having so many people’s working lives surrounded by uncertainty.”

“As concerns grow about an economic slowdown caused by factors in the northern hemisphere, and local manufacturers like Alcoa or the car companies buckle under siege from a high Aussie dollar, the importance of secure, reliable jobs is only going to become more important.

“We need to protect the secure jobs of today, but just as importantly, we need to ensure that when secure jobs are lost, those workers are not left in a situation of no choice but to accept low-paying, insecure work for the rest of their lives.”

British academic Guy Standing has dubbed this class of low-paid and insecure workers as the “Precariat” – a group of people that is growing in developed countries.

“These are workers who bounce between a series of temporary jobs, just able to pay this month’s bills, but unable to save, afford a house or build a career,” says Ms Kearney. “They do okay in good economic times but work dries up in bad.”

Ms Kearney says that precariat workers struggle to pay bills and miss out on loans and home ownership as well as struggle to get out of a cycle of debt.

Other problems identified by the ACTU include:

* Not taking a holiday

* A lack of bargaining power over pay and conditions

* Fewer opportunities to develop new skills

* Lack of control over time with family due to the need to accept work whenever comes.

* Work cannot be separated from the rest of life.

“In the long-term productivity is about investment: both in people through education and training and in equipment and infrastructure that makes workers able to produce more.

“The flexibility business groups talk about is code for lack of control over when you work, longer working hours, short-cuts on safety, and worse results for customers.”

“I believe that overuse of casual or contract work can damage a company because it creates a workforce that has no long-term loyalty to the organisation and does not feel a stake in its success.

“The idea that the choice is between a casual job and no job is often a furphy. Companies like Woolworths will employ people in Australia, the question is what pay and conditions will they pay them? We will always have nurses and teachers, the question is what level of respect and security do we want to give those professions?

“Insecure work is shifting into jobs that once seen as permanent. Thousands of young teachers across Australia are beginning the school year on one-year contracts.

“Christine, a single TAFE teacher from New South Wales in her 50s, said in her submission to the inquiry that: ‘I daren’t take out a loan because I dread not being to repay it. The precarious nature of my employment means I cannot plan for the future. I dread the nine-week summer break from employment at TAFE because I have no income from TAFE over that period and no guarantee of a contract.’