His father was a war veteran and a postal worker who died when Ron was 13. To keep the family afloat, his mother worked as a cleaner and an outworker, making up garment quotas in a small house in working-class Hampton. As the first blind person appointed to a full professorship in Australia, McCallum knows many Victorian employees are vulnerable. This is because former premier Jeff Kennett cut state industrial rights in 1992 and then ceded all industrial powers to Canberra in 1996. Those who could not organise federal awards were cut adrift in a largely unregulated work environment.
Thousands now work in shops, on farms and in small businesses.
Since 1996 their working conditions have been ruled by five broad principles embodied in section 1A of the Workplace Relations Act. That gives basic wage rights and conditions without real enforcement and few safeguards. Accordingly, many are paid far less and work much longer hours than their counterparts in other states. Most do not have bereavement leave, emergency time off to care for family or for jury duty. All have basic hourly rates prescribed for a 38-hour week, but no regulation of overtime.