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Video report by Julia Thiemann on the lives of casual workers, their insecurity and the injustice in comparison to permanent employees.
There are many reasons to be proud of Australia — and the economic system is definitely one of them. The Australian economy is among the most liberalised in the world and the unemployment rate is less than in most other western countries. Many industries are thriving.
But it is worth to take a look behind the facade. To take a look at those who are behind the success of the Australian economy — the workers.
Karen, a middle-aged woman from Sydney, and Bruno, a young aspiring scientist, are different in many ways, but still in the same crucial situation: Despite their excellent qualifications, they cannot find a permanent job.
By no means do they count as unemployed, however, although Karen, as a contract worker, cannot be sure to have a job next month; and Bruno, as a casual worker, sometimes cannot work for several weeks. Australian employers seem to have found a way to adjust the rules to their benefits. As a result, the casualisation of the workforce in Australia is one of the highest in the world.
These statistics are just numbers to some business people and economists — indicators about the flexibility of the Australian economy. But for the workers, like Bruno and Karen, this means instability, especially financially.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
6 Comments
I don’t know many folk not struggling with under employment.
Living rural the many whom once had full time work now only work half those hours but still have the same traveling costs. Other half and I work eight hours between us a day. Because we work at different locations but overlapping times we need two cars. Car maintenance costs are no less to travel for less hours either.
Like the many, it feels like we’re treading water and no land in sight.
and you can thank howard and rabbott for that. how many people do you know who had a “full time”, carreer and a “job for life” even Nurses could start thier training and retire some 30 to 40 years later all in the same job. you could buy a house, car, finance was not a problem because unless you were stupid and through your job away, you had a secure job, everybody happy. NO, employers could not sack someone when profits were down without a valid reason, WORK CHOICES were born. and everyone was happy, only if you signed a contract for what used to be your job,only if someone else had been already chosen to replace you dident turn up, or your position might dissapear, or the hours lowered or reclassed to a much lower wage and if you were lucky enough to retain the job you had for years could look forward to reapplying for it again next year. yes we really do look forward to the liberal way of a secure future and prosperity for all,[as long as you are one of the priviliged few
I have been prepared for this casualizing of work for decades. But that is only because I listened always to my fierce unionist grandfather who was at the forefront of the fight for better conditions.
I think my mother and I were the only ones who noted that he repeatedly said that despite these wins, the ‘bosses’ would work tirelessly to remove gains and we must always be on our guard. I see that today with a younger generation who somehow believe that every advantage they have was handed over generously without a fight.
The implications to this casualisation of jobs, lower wages and conditions are dire : problems obtaining mortgages are just a start. The fact that capitalism actually needs strong work conditions and wages is lost on many people.
i’d have sympathy for employers sculpting hours if they were struggling to keep afloat. but they’re not, they not only turning a healthy profit but increasing that profit each year. some increases were at the direct expense of workers, like casualisation.
the only way to combat it now is to tax those profits more and give it back to low income workers in more tax breaks or low income supplements. i believe the intent in the carbon compo tax changes was good, but they pulled a swifty by removing the low income offset which was more than the tax cuts. oh well.
For the first 10 years after I graduated, I was a state government employee on contracts. The few permanent jobs which came up typically went to the person who had been ‘acting’ in the position. In the first 7 years I had 49 contracts or extensions to contracts – sometimes I didn’t know until Friday whether I should turn up on Monday. I wasn’t the only one. Living with uncertainty like that gets you down. Then I got a 3-year contract and stopped counting.
In good times its fine, but in bad times it will be terrifying for many people.