were across cleaning, hair & beauty AND call centres these are alarming statistics from a fairly small sample of employers. The ASU believes that this report represents the tip of the ice-berg in respect to sham contracting in the sector. Home based call centre workers are isolated and out of sight. Regulation and compliance for home based workers in a range of industries is an area that requires different resources and approaches from regulators if exploitation is to be uncovered and remedied. Of the home based call centre workers the ASU has had contact from all of them reported fear about making a complaint. Overwhelmingly they felt that they would lose the income and ability to work from home if they sought to pursue any action. We must not let the attraction of the flexibility associated with home based work mask exploitation of vulnerable and isolated workers. One of the barriers to effectively stopping instances of sham contracting is the factors used to determine the difference between an employee and an independent contractor are not always clear cut. Even if the common indicators point to a person being an employee the cost of legal action can be beyond the reach of many vulnerable workers. A strengthening of the laws prohibiting sham contracting is required at the federal level, as well as ensuring that remedies to sham contracting are affordable and accessible to workers and their unions. ASU Case Study Aviation Services – The ASU has significant membership and a long history of campaigning for the rights and industrial interests of ground staff across the aviation sector. In 2013 a new entrant in the aviation services sector, providing ‘special needs’ passengers with assistance on a contractual basis with certain ground handling companies in the sector, set up on the eastern seaboard. The ASU has chosen not to name this company, the host company or any of the impacted employees in this submission for privacy considerations, however on a confidential basis we provide relevant documents supporting this case study at Appendix 1 of this submission. In Melbourne the ASU Victorian Private Sector Branch became involved when workers employed by the new entrant became aware that they were being paid significantly lower rates of pay and conditions compared with those workers directly employed by the host company. The ASU had significant concerns about the wages and conditions that employees of the new entrant had been engaged under. The ASU also had concerns regarding the impact that lower industry terms and conditions would have across the sector. These workers joined the ASU and the union started work on pursuing their rights.
were across cleaning, hair & beauty AND call centres these are alarming statistics from a fairly small sample of employers. The ASU believes that this report represents the tip of the ice-berg in respect to sham contracting in the sector. Home based call centre workers are isolated and out of sight. Regulation and compliance for home based workers in a range of industries is an area that requires different resources and approaches from regulators if exploitation is to be uncovered and remedied. Of the home based call centre workers the ASU has had contact from all of them reported fear about making a complaint. Overwhelmingly they felt that they would lose the income and ability to work from home if they sought to pursue any action. We must not let the attraction of the flexibility associated with home based work mask exploitation of vulnerable and isolated workers. One of the barriers to effectively stopping instances of sham contracting is the factors used to determine the difference between an employee and an independent contractor are not always clear cut. Even if the common indicators point to a person being an employee the cost of legal action can be beyond the reach of many vulnerable workers. A strengthening of the laws prohibiting sham contracting is required at the federal level, as well as ensuring that remedies to sham contracting are affordable and accessible to workers and their unions. ASU Case Study – Aviation Services The ASU has significant membership and a long history of campaigning for the rights and industrial interests of ground staff across the aviation sector. In 2013 a new entrant in the aviation services sector, providing ‘special needs’ passengers with assistance on a contractual basis with certain ground handling companies in the sector, set up on the eastern seaboard. The ASU has chosen not to name this company, the host company or any of the impacted employees in this submission for privacy considerations, however on a confidential basis we provide relevant documents supporting this case study at Appendix 1 of this submission. In Melbourne the ASU Victorian Private Sector Branch became involved when workers employed by the new entrant became aware that they were being paid significantly lower rates of pay and conditions compared with those workers directly employed by the host company. The ASU had significant concerns about the wages and conditions that employees of the new entrant had been engaged under. The ASU also had concerns regarding the impact that lower industry terms and conditions would have across the sector. These workers joined the ASU and the union started work on pursuing their rights.
Submission-ASU-Private-Sector.docx