By Melanie Sjoberg
MELBOURNE — Who would work up to 50 hours a week, without meal breaks, sick leave or holiday entitlements, for around $2 per hour? On top of that, your only communication during the working day is with a group of preschoolers.
Women working as home-based care givers meet these draconian criteria. In addition, they receive little if any reimbursement for use of their own equipment, are expected to obtain training in their own hours, usually at night, and are subject to haphazard changes to their conditions at the whim of a bureaucratic pen stroke.
Home-based care givers have been insulted by a decision handed down in the Arbitration Commission last month that refuses to recognise that they are workers and therefore denies them coverage under the industrial award system.
The patience of workers in this industry has been well and truly eroded after more than five years of campaigning, lobbying and meeting with "relevant governmental representatives." A rally of more than 100 family day care (FDC) workers and supporting parents took their anger to Peter Staples, minister for aged, family and health services, on May 2.
Employee status and award conditions were granted to outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear industry in the mid 1980s. The clothing industry claim was supported by the federal government, but in this case the government intervened to oppose the claim.
The government argued that it is not in the "public interest" for home-based care givers to be recognised as employees. Glenda Scalese, Brunswick Council FDC coordinator, reports that during the case the government was never required to spell out just what it defined as the public interest.
In an earlier attempt at recognition, in 1989, the commission agreed that care givers were workers, but the Municipal Association of Victoria (the local council body representing employers) appealed to the full bench, which then overturned the decision.
Scalese told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that the decision is ludicrous. "It identified 14 local councils which clearly operated in an employer-employee relationship, but the federal government wanted a generalised decision applicable to all situations."
She went on to describe the practice in FDC as "messy". "Some councils pay FDC workers directly, receiving parental fees and government subsidies themselves, others simply provide a top-up to fees paid by parents to the workers."
Eileen Fairservice, president of the Victorian Home-based Care Givers Association, told the rally that there was enormous anger at the response of "this supposed Labor government" actively opposing the claim and thereby encouraging exploitation of FDC workers. "There are no regulations, no minimum standards, no awards. The area is government-funded, but they are not responsible!" The rally forced Staples to confront the crowd, then receive a delegation to hear their concerns. He stated that the issue needed to be resolved through the proper processes. "The result was based on a situation where this [award claim] was only an issue in Victoria. We need to work within the industrial relations or program area." This was met with jeering.
Di Cummins, Fitzroy FDC coordinator, told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that in terms of the award, nothing concrete came out of the delegation. "Staples has agreed to spend half a day visiting care givers working. This is only useful if it moves things forward", she said. The delegation argued successfully that the existing consultation process was unrepresentative and biased, and received a guarantee that a new arrangement would be developed.
Cummins said, "This is the only industry left without normal entitlements. We want to send the message loud and clear to this Labor government that home-based workers are sick of being used."
This situation brings into question the government commitment to child-care, social services and women. At a time when its economic policies are failing, it becomes convenient to use women to save money. Rather than opening up opportunities and choices for women, this position is discriminatory and seeks to undermine the value of work that women are performing.
To get involved in the campaign, contact Di Cummins on (03) 419 5366 or (03) 417 1097 for more information.