Union News

Unions NSW will today join with academics and business in Sydney to hold a seminar on the growth of labour hire for ‘World Day for Decent Work’.

Unions have identified the growing levels of precarious employment as one of the biggest challenges facing working people in today’s economy and a large component of this is the increase in the use of labour hire.

“As part of today’s ‘World Day for Decent Work’ unions are investigating the future of labour hire in Australia and how this will affect working families and business” said Mr Mark Lennon, Secretary of Unions NSW.

With the growth of labour hire and casual employment many employees are left not knowing from week to week how much they will earn or whether they will be employed at all.

“Many working families find the tasks of paying off a mortgage and making ends meet hard enough as it is, for those with precarious employment those tasks can become incredibly difficult” said Mr Lennon.

The seminar comes two days after a new report released by the ACTU and Sydney University’s Workplace Research Centre indentified that the dramatic increase of casual, part time and contract work in Australia is exposing working families to greater financial risk.

Unions NSW seminar will be one of several events across the country in recognition of ‘World Day for Decent Work’, a day that has been set aside to acknowledge that decent, secure jobs are essential to working people in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Addressing the seminar will be:

• Elsa Underhill - Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University

• Luis Izzo - Senior Associate, Workplace Relations, Employment & Safety Group at Clayton Utz

•    John Buchannan - Director, Workplace Research Centre based at Sydney University
The seminar will be held between 9:30am and 12pm at the Trades Hall Auditorium, 4 Goulburn St, Sydney.