Ned K.
At a recent funeral of a comrade I attended, her partner mentioned that construction industry labourers, like waterside workers, used to all be on daily hire and that the relative security of weekly hired full time work with paid annual leave and redundancy pay was unheard of for these workers and many others.
It was the collective efforts of union members in these industries that won better working conditions and some semblance of job security which enabled working class families to get a bank loan to buy a house and make a home in a working class community.
These words at the funeral hit home as so many workers now are virtually on daily hire through the industrial pimp system called labour hire.
Many of the big multinational corporation household names like Coca Cola, Tip Top, Victoria Bitter (Carlton and United Breweries) to name a few, use labour hire extensively to drive down wages and weaken workers’ organisation and strength.
Some of these corporations have work forces now where the number of labour hire workers is much higher than the number of directly employed workers. Some labour hire workers have never been employed directly by any of the corporation workplaces they are sent to by the labour hire firms. I met one such worker who had worked for a labour hire company for 9 years in the one place.
Many of these workers do not readily join a union because the model of unionism that unions are frequently sucked in to is one that centres on directly employed workers winning better pay and conditions through an enterprise agreement, but the benefits do not flow to the labour hire workers who are increasingly "invading" these work places.
During one enterprise bargaining negotiation with a major food industry multinational, the boss was asked if he thought it was fair that labour hire workers used by the company were on far less pay than the directly employed, and had far less job security and rights. The boss replied that this was necessary so that when the labour hire worker did get a directly employed position with a company he/she would more likely turn out to be loyal to the company! That pretty well sums it up. That not only is labour hire about more immediate profit through lower wages, but about decreasing the likelihood of future directly employed workers acting in their class interests whether directly employed or not.
Times They Are A-Changin’
However the times are a-changing. Directly employed workers are more and more seeing that it is in their own interests to unite with labour hire workers and win clauses in enterprise agreements that regulate the use of labour hire and force employers to pay the same "shop rate" to labour hire workers.
At Coca Cola for example , directly employed workers are encouraging labour hire workers to join the union to win better wages and job security for all. Labour hire workers are also standing up and challenging the labour hire companies who get their orders from the likes of Coca Cola to get rid of any workers who stand up, for those workers to be treated with dignity and respect. They are making use of the limited right to unfair dismissal provisions of the "un Fair Work Act" if employed by a large company for longer than 6 months.
Some other big companies have seen that many labour hire workers "vote with their feet" in protest at the low pay and being treated as second class workers. These companies are seeing that they have pushed too far and are now contemplating employment of direct casuals and agreeing to union members’ demands that regular casuals be made permanent after 6 months’ employment.
The plight and proliferation of labour hire workers is part of the reason the recent Household Income and Labour Dynamics In Australia (HILDA) report says that home ownership is on the steep decline. Workers who are labour hire casual have got no chance of getting a bank loan to buy a house, nor sufficient income to make the required monthly payments regularly if they do score a loan by chance!
If such labour hire workers have a partner and children, chances are they need to work too to provide enough income for food and other necessities. However paying child care fees creates another headache with the HILDA report saying that child care fees have doubled in 13 years. Wages of full time workers on the other hand have increased by an average of only 1.9% per year in the thirteen year period 2001 to 2014 according to the HILDA report.
Anger Combining with Action and Hope
Recently some labour hire workers were sacked by order of a large beverage company for a minor and disputed transgression of company policy. The company and the labour hire contractor who legally employed them thought that as in the past they would not hear from these workers again. However this time the workers concerned were angry like many before them, but also part of the collective family of workers. They were union members!
They did not take their sacking lying down. The times they are a changing!
No comments:
Post a Comment