News Service from House Harris

Qld: Australian made doesn't mean ethically made

BRISBANE, Dec 19 AAP - Your new T-shirt may be labelled "Made in Australia" but it could still be the product of work conditions akin to a sweatshop.

In homes across Australia, thousands of outworkers are toiling - most 12 hours a day, and the majority seven days a week - making garments sold across the country.

Queensland University of Technology workplace law researcher Paul Harpur has undertaken a doctoral study into the legal protection each state affords home-based manufacturers.

And he warns that buying Australian-made is no guarantee that the purchased item is the result of ethical work conditions.

"The garments are 'Made in Australia'. They just happen to be made under devious circumstances in Australia," Mr Harpur says.

Australia's outworkers are part of a shadowy employment sector - the most detailed recent research could only estimate the number of such workers nationally as somewhere between 50,000 and 329,000.

Mr Harpur says most outworkers reported working 12 hours a day, and 62 per cent said they worked seven days a week.

"Outworkers work long hours in backyard sheds or at dining tables making things like shoes, clothes and school uniforms," he says.

"Outworkers are vulnerable. They are usually non English-speaking female migrants, sometimes assisted by their children, who are paid low wages for long hours."

Mr Harpur says a cornerstone of the law - that investigators had no right to enter private residences - means probing home sweatshops is difficult.

"If people say there's no outworking going on in here, they can't lawfully enter," he says.

"They've got prove there's work going on there."

The Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFU) says it is not uncommon for outworkers to receive about one-third of the award pay rate.

"This can mean a pay rate of $3 per hour," TCFU Queensland secretary Jack Morel says.

"As well, due to poor working conditions and inferior machinery, homeworkers are three times as likely to have work-related injuries.

"Homeworkers face irregular work and an insecure income and very rarely receive industrial entitlements such as paid annual leave, superannuation, or sick leave."

Mr Morel says a voluntary code of conduct in Queensland has not worked.

"Some employers have signed stat decs (statutory declarations) to get government contracts and have been exploiting these workers," he says.

The union prosecuted 40 employers in the Federal Court in 2006, and wants a mandatory code to ensure more compliance with award standards.

Some industry groups have signed up to a Homeworkers Code of Practice and the No Sweat Shop label.

The homeworkers code encourages manufacturers to take an ethical approach and be responsible for staying informed of all the steps involved in the production of their garments.

To receive accreditation for the No Sweat Shop label on Australian-made garments, a company's supply chain is mapped and workers legal entitlements are verified.

"When consumers see the No Sweat Shop label, they can be confident that the garment was produced in Australia and everyone involved in its production received at least the minimum legal standards," Mr Morel says.

However, Mr Harpur says that while some large retailers have signed up for the label, it's rarely used.

"If Coles Myer and Big W and David Jones started the ball rolling then everyone else would probably follow suit, but it's not the image most places want to paint," he said.

Mr Harpur says NSW and South Australia have taken steps to protect outworkers by legislating for increased transparency on outworkers' conditions and designating liability to retailers.

"In these states, if a worker is injured or not paid the retailer is held responsible," he says.

"Outworkers can still be exploited in NSW or South Australia, but the laws increase transparency so that inspectors can investigate workers' conditions and retailers are held responsible for the working conditions their products are made in."

Mr Harpur says until other states and territories adopt laws similar to the NSW and South Australian mandatory retail codes, outworkers will continue to be exploited and authorities will be hindered in investigating workers' conditions.

"They work from their homes, and their workplaces are often not notified to any regulatory authority, so as far as regulation goes, they are largely invisible," he says.

Queensland's Employment and Industrial Relations Minister John Mickel says the government is close to finalising its position on a mandatory code of practice for outworkers, consistent with Victoria and NSW.

"This proposed code has been developed to assist outworkers to receive their proper entitlements by ensuring transparency in the production chain," Mr Mickel says.

He says the code will impose reporting obligations as a way of identifying the employers of outworkers.

However, the proposed mandatory code will not apply to parties involved in the supply of garments for public-sector contracts.

"Neither will it apply to retailers that are signatories to, or manufacturers that are accredited and compliant with, the national Homeworkers' Code of Practice," Mr Mickel says.

Mr Harpur says there's a downside to increased scrutiny of the sector.

If authorities crack down too hard, raising wages and improving conditions, employers could outsource manufacturing overseas, meaning there'd be no jobs for local outworkers.

"Then these people who aren't paid great will be paid nothing. It's a tricky balance."