A sub-committee to consider how to run the campaign in schools is established. In business for over 20 years, Poppets of Wollongong is a clothing manufacturer that has maintained its factory workforce in the face of tariff reductions and other pressures that have driven many clothing businesses to offshore production. A big reason for Poppets' success is that its main business is producing school uniform items under the long-established Beare and Ley label for sale in Lowes retail outlets. The Beare and Ley label has a reputation for quality and proudly boasts that it is Australian made. But equally important are the values of the company.
Poppets pays everyone a weekly award wage, based on the hours worked.
This includes three outworker employees, who are treated as part of the organisation as much as possible. Bonuses, piece rates and other productivity based payment methods are rejected as not reflecting accurately the contribution that every worker makes, in their own way, to the success of the business as a whole. And Poppets is expanding too. In brief Asian Women at Work hosted a series of training workshops with a group of Chinese outworkers to increase their media and presentation skills. Communicating effectively with the media, outworkers and the broader community is essential in raising awareness about the exploitative working conditions of outworkers and what can be done about it.