Exploited Labour: no accurate time sheets: no award rate of payment: no penalty rates: no union membership: not a thing to build a life on

I am listening to Kelly O'Dwyer rabbiting on at the National Press Club of Australia. She paints an economic wonderland of retirement income products, taxation incentives so that people with work.... All very well, but I wonder when I will hear an NPCA host a speaker on exploited labour in Australia. There is a wide range of labour exploitation in Australia and yet it seems to be treated as an occasional aberration. And it is happening in all sorts of ways to all sorts of people. One of the largest sectors of exploitation is based on gender. Women with low skills, women being discriminated against, women getting fewer promotions, women getting lower wages and salaries and.... And then there is the class/education divide and the multitude of people in lower-skilled jobs such as cleaners and look at what MYER has done with them ... and they are not the only employer into sham contracting. I have a friend whom I would describe as middle-class but she has been forced into sham contracting at an administrative level. She is in her middle years and because of age discrimination and age/gender discrimination, the likelihood of finding appropriately paid alternative work is unlikely. And please note that all this is before we get on to the topic of migrant labor, seasonal labor, very low-skilled labour, shonky labour hire companies and the similarly shonky labour hire companies who have a veneer of class and respectability. And so on. And this is before we get to foreign owned businesses, companies, and corporations bringing in their own labour or exploitation Australian labour. And then there are the industries where rip-offs are part of the culture. Top of that list in my experience are the service industries - tourism, hospitality, retail. Flat hourly rate payments abound. The biggest push for the abolition of penalty rates comes from this sector. There is a large sector of female employment, often at low skill levels. There is a large sector of casualisation - often teens and twenties people and again a significant cohort of females. And all this before I mention fruit-picking and horticultural and agricultural employment. I am an old union official who has worked across a wide range of industries and the employment of cheap foreign labour. I am happy to receive personal stories. I publish stuff on this topic on this blog.  

If you have first person stories you can email me at misseaglesnetwork@gmail.com. 

Exploitation of labour

Black jobs

The labour market's dark side

Part 4: 'Slaving Away' outfall and fall-out : Woolworths admits moral responsibiity at Senate Inquiry : still refusing to meet workers and the National Union of Workers

Cross-posted with Advocacy

Dear Brigid Today saw NUW members speak at the first Senate Inquiry into Australia's temporary work visas. The NUW remains firm: Coles and Woolworths have the power to fix this Labour hire agencies need to be regulated No workers should be forced to work for poverty wages in our fresh food supply chain We cannot allow a two-class system to remain in Australia. Every worker counts! Woolworths also appeared at today's Senate Inquiry, and admitted moral responsibility for underpaid farm workers. However, Woolworths are still refusing to meet with workers and the NUW to talk about a Fair Food Agreement to eradicate exploitation from our fresh food. Help put the pressure on and sign the petition here! And remember, we all have friends and family that can help. Share this petition with your community. NUW's Godfrey Moase, Winnie Lin, Caterina Cinanni, Sherry Huang and George Robertson with Senator Sue Lines and Senator Deborah O'Neill If you haven't watched the Four Corners program that exposed exploitation, you can watch it here. In unity, Tim Kennedy National Secretary National Union of Workers Email: nuwassist@nuw.org.au Call: 1300 275 689 National: 833 Bourke St, Docklands VIC 3008 Click here for office locations Website: www.nuw.org.au © Copyright National Union of Workers Unsubscribe

TWU boss calls for all migrant workers to be given the vote Workplace watchdog aims for top of retailers' supply chain on worker exploitation We need a new class of visa for low-skilled migrant workers Taskforce to target worker exploitation, visa fraud following 'slave labour' revelations Inquiries into 417 visa to be expanded Previous posts referencing this topic  can be found on this site at: Part 1 - Slavery in Australia. Is the 'Let 'er rip" attitude on visas for overseas workers going to be stopped? The Robinvale experience Part 2 - Names have been named in "Slaving Away".  Here they are recorded below and their responses. Part 3: The conscious consumer becomes the aware and ethical shopper.  Destroy the slavers from the checkouts of Australia! What are you buying? How did it get to you?  Whose hands has it passed through?

Baiada blockade and battle - #OccupyLaverton

Picture from here

Please read here  Dr David Whyte's article on the horrible people-hating
conditions at Baiada, the strike, the victory.
~~~~~~~
Please remember the name.

LILYDALE.

That's right Lilydale.

No, it's not that suburb in the Outer East of Melbourne.

It's a brand name that you might want to detour around

next time you are purchasing chicken.

I don't know how authentic the free range chicken is.

That could be a contested definition for all I know.

However, what is being contested is 

the company's industrial relations practices.

Baiada is the company behind the Lilydale free range chicken brand. This article gives an idea of the jockeying for position going on in the chicken processing industry.  With the high level of competition within the industry and Baiada's long and continuing saga of industrial problems, it might be fair to ask if what we are seeing in action is a race to the bottom with price the major - and perhaps only - determining factor.  It might also be fair to ask if that price induced competition is treating human beings unfairly, what is the status of product quality exiting Baiada and heading for the supermarket shelves.

These are questions that ethical consumers should always ask.

If money and price become the dominant factors in a company's existence,

the treatment of human beings involved in production

and 

product quality

should be examined.

Things have not been good at the Baiada workplace in Melbourne.  Last year ABC's Lateline covered the situation at that time. Issues currently placing Baiada in dispute with its workers at Laverton in Victoria are outlined here. The workers are represented by the National Union of Workers.  

Workers have been blockading the factory at Laverton.  The current level of action co-incides with #Occupy Melbourne and occupiers have been supporting the Baiada workers.  Yesterday, the company got a court order to halt the blockade.

By now, though, the blockade has a distinct community flavour reminiscent of the activities of Union Solidarity. The indefatigible Mike Stuchbery - blogger, activist, commentator and Occupier - has been tweeting this afternoon from the Baiada Blockade and has sent a photograph from the site as well.  You will notice the criminality and volatility of the pictured blockaders.

Over to Mike:

IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE BAIADA WORKERS

AND THEIR FELLOW BLOCKADERS.

BTW, have some Union Solidarity colours

gathering dust in the wardrobe

if they'd come in handy!

:-)