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The voiceless victims
John Howard predicted that some workers would be worse off because of Work Choices. Our research indicates that, for women in low-paid employment, he was spot on. Significant negative changes in the workplace have been experienced by such women but the "collateral damage" of Work Choices is being felt far beyond the workplace, reaching into the homes and the communities of these workers.
Yet the voices of working women have been largely absent from the debate about the Federal Government's radical recasting of our industrial relations system.
For instance, immediately before the Easter school holidays, Amber* was dismissed by her employer without being given any reason. When we interviewed her, her family was in crisis.
She did not have enough money to meet her rental payments, she had been forced to borrow a large sum of money to stop her gas and electricity being disconnected and the relationship with her partner had broken down. She described herself as "a mess".
More than anything, Amber was worried about the effect these changes were having on her two school-aged children. She was worried about the emotional effect on the children, felt ashamed that she was unable to do anything "fun" with them over the holidays, and worried about buying school shoes for the next term.
Leanne* was a full-time fast-food worker of long standing who described herself as a conscientious employee. She, too, was sacked without any warning or explanation. After struggling to find work she found a casual sales job. Her new job makes it difficult to schedule child care for her five children. She told us she can never predict when she will be working and is worried about the effect on her children, who rarely know who will collect them or what they'll be doing after school.
The unpredictability of earnings in her new job makes it difficult for Leanne and her partner to budget, and they regularly struggle to pay bills and to put enough food on the table for their large family.
We undertook in-depth interviews with 25 NSW women in low-paid jobs who had been directly affected by Work Choices. Stories such as these were commonly told by our interviewees. Low-paid women, whose wages and conditions were previously guaranteed by the award system, are among the most vulnerable to the changes introduced by Work Choices.
At work these women have suffered pay cuts, work intensification, job insecurity and frequent abuses of managerial power.
Women are struggling financially as a result of the changes at work and this is having a direct effect on their capacity for financial independence. To make ends meet, they are becoming more dependent upon family members, male partners and welfare.
As well, we found considerable evidence that women had internalised many of the changes and felt powerless and fearful as a result. This has made women less healthy and more unhappy. It is also proving corrosive to family and community life.
As employment security has declined and hours of work and earnings have become less predictable, family life has become less certain and more precarious. For the women we interviewed, there is now less money to support and provide for children.
Expenditure on clothes, holidays and outings has been cut. It is more difficult to pay for life's essentials. They are struggling to pay mortgages, rents and even to buy food for their children. Some of the women reported that unpredictable hours of work made child-care arrangements very difficult to manage and this worried them deeply.
The stresses brought home from work and the financial insecurity resulting from workplace change are adversely affecting life at home. Relationships have become strained and some marriages have broken down.
Beyond their immediate families, these women are now less able to participate in organised community activities, such as church services, as well as informal social events including simple things such as eating out or going to the movies.
Most would agree that Howard's political instincts are usually right. They were this time, too, even though this puts him at one with the critics of his Government's approach to industrial relations. Women, families and communities are the "collateral damage" of Work Choices.
Associate Professor Marian Baird and Dr Rae Cooper and are researchers at the University of Sydney. Their report will be launched by the NSW Minister for Industrial Relations in Sydney today. It will then be accessible via the Women and Work Research Group website wwrg.econ.usyd.edu.au.
* The names of interviewees have been changed in line with ethics requirements.
Article By Marion Baird and Rae Cooper
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald
31 July 2007
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