Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697631876638.pdf (Australia)
Committee Secretary Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committees PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Australia eewr.sen@aph.gov.au Submission to the Inquiry into the Fair Work Amendment (Textile, Clothing and Footwear Industry) Bill 2011 The Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association is gravely concerned about the ongoing exploitation of outworkers in the Australian clothing industry.
We congratulate the government for introducing this important legislation to further protect these vulnerable workers.

Outworkers in the clothing industry represent one of the most vulnerable sectors of the Australian workforce, subject to extremely low rates of pay, long hours in order to meet tight deadlines, and little to no job security.

Many outworkers are receiving around $8-10 per hour, but there are still many being paid as little as $4-5 per hour.
Under the relevant award, they should be earning a little over $17 an hour.

Most are migrant women with limited levels of English and a limited understanding of Australian systems, with limited employment options or who are keen to work from home.

The Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association has had focus groups with our members on the issue of employment in November 2010.

High level of concern was raised on the work conditions of women migrant workers who are working in the clothing industry.
Our membership (covering more that 2,500 individuals) are of one voice in demanding from all federal parliamentarians to vote for the Fair Work Amendment (TCF Industries) Bill 2011 that lays out a series of provisions to protect outworkers in the clothing industry.
We are heartened by the recent improvements in wages and conditions for some outworkers as a result of the combination of years of campaigning, improved legal protections at a state and federal level, funding for the monitoring activity which makes these legal protections a reality and increased commitment by some companies to address the issues for outworkers in their supply chains.
Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association of NSW PO Box 9031, HARRIS PARK NSW 2150 Ph: (02) 9635 8022  Fax: (02) 9635 8176 Email: women@speakout.org.au Web Site: www.speakout.org.au However, it is clear more needs to be done.

Recovery of unpaid wages for Outworkers The Fair Work Amendment (TCF Industries) Bill 2011 lays out a series of provisions to protect outworkers in the clothing industry, and reflects similar provisions in State legislation in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.
National laws will assist this by providing the same requirments in all jurisdictions, streamlining the requirements that companies must follow.

Many outworkers have experienced not being paid by their employers at all for orders they have completed, even at the rates of pay well below their legal entitlemetns.

Most outworkers have experienced severe underpayment of wages.
Recovering their correct payment from their direct employer is often extremely difficult, especially when the employer “disappears”, closes down or changes company identity in order to avoid their obligations.

The recovery of money provisions ensures outworkers can recover the money owed to them directly from the principal contractor in the supply chain (usually the Fashion House) who gave out the work to the first layer of sub-contractors.
The principal contractor can in turn seek to recover this money from the sub-contractor who failed to pay the outworker correctly in the first place.

We strongly support this provision to allow outworkers to recover their money.

Further amendment is required, however, as the Bill currently suggests outworkers would need to provide detailed information about their supply chain in order to make a successful claim.
It is unrealistic for an outworker to access such information, and we seek amendments that reflect the provisions in state legislation which require the principal contractor to identify the entities in their supply chain, not the outworkers.

Deeming Contract Outworkers as Employees Sham contracting has been regularly used in the clothing industry to avoid employment obligations.
But outworkers have little or no control over their working conditions and pay, so to suggest they are contractors with freedom to negotiate their contracts does not reflect the reality.

Deeming outworkers as employees ensures they are all protected by the industry Award, and can access basic entitlements to fair wages and conditions.

We strongly support this provision to deem outworkers as employees.
Further amendment is required to ensure the deeming provisions effectively cover all outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear industries, as the state laws do.

Some outworkers in contracting chains that do not involve corporations may not be covered by the provisions in the Bill.

TCF Code of Practice The Bill provides for the creation of a national mandatory code for TCF industries, modelled on the existing codes in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.
There are many layers in TCF supply chains, between the outworker who sews the garment and the consumer who purchases the garment.

Long supply chains lead to complex relationships and have contributed to the poor wages and conditions of outworkers, as well contributing to the hidden nature of their work.

State Codes, and this new national Code, provide a mechanism to engage all players in the complex supply chains in taking responsibility for outworkers wages and conditions.
The codes of practice require recording keeping and reporting throughout the supply chain.

This allows regulatory bodies to identify what volumes of work are going where, and identify where outworkers are involved in supply chains, and under what pay and conditions.

Without this important mechanism, it is near impossible to find outworkers and ensure that they are paid their legal wages.
As a result of voluntary and mandatory codes of practice in the TCF industries engaging all levels in the supply chain, thousands of outworkers have been identified and are now able to access their legal entitlements to fair wages and conditions.

Tens of thousands more outworkers stand to benefit from a national code of practice.

We strongly support the provision for creation of national TCF Code of Practice.
Special Right of Entry Provisions The legislation also improves the existing special provisions for union right of entry in the textile clothing and footwear industry.

Right of entry is often contraversial, but the ongoing exploitation of vulnerable migrant sweatshop and homebased outworkers in our own Australian clothing industry justifies these special provisions.

Without the capacity to enter sweatshops and monitor working conditions, other legislative provisions lack effectiveness.
The current special rights of entry in the TCF industries give access to the records of outworkers employed by a contractor, but not to the records of the workers who might be working in the informal factory or sweatshop at the time of the inspection of the outworker records.

These sweatshop workers are similarly vulnerable to outworkers and deserve the protection of special laws.
We strongly support the additional special rights of entry provisions to cover sweatshop workers as well as homebased outworkers.
Education and Support for Industry We believe this legislation should be coupled with postiive education and support programs for companies, especially small businesses, in the Textile Clothing and Footwear industries to ensure they have established the simple systems (already required in most jurisdictions) to comply with the requirements of the various interlocking mechanisms in Federal legislation and awards, and corresponding State provisions if any remain relevant.
Some industry groups have advocated for a watering down of obligations on retailers, Fashion Houses and contractors in the textile, clothing and footwear industries.

Such watering down would represent giving up on outworkers and regarding their poor wages and conditions as acceptable.

Instead, we advocate support for the industry to meet their obligations, and engage them seri ously in addressing this long term problem of exploitation of outworkers in our Australian community.
Ongoing education and support for outworkers is essential, so that outworkers are aware of their rights and have the confidence and support to act on them.

Further, we support the detailed submission from Fair Wear regarding this Bill.

We reiterate our concerns for vulnerable outworkers in the clothing industry, congratulate the government on the introduction of this legislation and commend the requests for futher amendments as stated.
We look forward to witnessing the results of these new efforts in the lives of outworkers.

Yours sincerely, Jane Brock Executive Officer 11 January 2012