Job insecurity is growing
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Successive Queensland governments have boasted of being the nation's leading job creator. But 50% of all new jobs created in Queensland since 1988 were casual or part-time, according to a report recently published in a Queensland University of Technology journal.
One in three Queensland jobs are now casual. There is a greater proportion of women than men in casual or part-time positions, and the trend is towards an increase in casual and part-time jobs. There has been a 116% increase in male part-timers since 1988.
The author of the report, University of Queensland professor John Mangan, said that while part-time and casual work is becoming the norm for both men and women, this was not out of choice.
ACTU Queensland assistant secretary Grace Grace said the union movement viewed job security as one of the most crucial issues facing workers. She said the ACTU was planning a test case in the Industrial Relations Commission to raise the 19% award pay loading for casual employment.
Queensland Council of Social Service director Shirley Watters noted that the increased casualisation of the work force correlated with the rising number of working poor. Queensland Working Women's Service manager Cath Rafferty pointed out that female casual employees are still earning lower hourly wages than males, despite working far fewer hours.
Nick Everett, a Democratic Socialist Party member and Community and Public Sector Union delegate at Centrelink, told Green Left Weekly, "Workers should have the right to choose to work part-time if it suits their needs. But most part-time and casual jobs are the result of companies and government organisations wanting to keep tight control of their work force and put pressure on permanent employees to limit demands for better wages and conditions.
"Part-time and casual work further undermines unionisation, as these workers are reluctant to join if their job is uncertain. Employers use this trend to maximise their ability to shift people around, and put them on and off, at will.
"The trade union movement must seriously confront this issue — and not just with court cases. We need to launch a major campaign around creating hundreds of thousands of new, full-time and secure jobs through a massive expansion of the public sector and a determined push for a 35-hour week with no loss in pay."