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Changed employment arrangements
46. Many people who took redundancies from downsizing companies
during the late 1980s and `90s became independent contractors
and sub-contractors, contributing to the increase in the numbers of
small, especially “micro” non-employing, businesses. A massive
growth in casual and part-time employment arrangements replaced
“full-time, permanent” employment.
47. Chris Maxwell refers to the changed employment arrangements:
It has been estimated that 85% of net employment
growth is in “precarious employment” categories. Most
of the job losses in the period from 1985 to 2001 were
associated with industries which had traditionally
provided full-time, permanent employment. By 2002
employees with paid leave entitlements made up only
58% of the Australian workforce. 15
48. Among the increased numbers of people in “precarious
employment” are those employed on a casual basis. This is
employment based on working flexible hours without sickness or
holiday benefits, often on an “on call” basis (such as in the
hospitality, entertainment and other service industry sectors but
increasingly used also in the retail sector). Other employment in
this category includes fiercely contested fixed, short-term, contracts
that frequently result in narrow margins. 16 )
15 Chris Maxwell (2004), Occupational Health and Safety Act Review (State of Victoria,
Australia), para.59, p. 26. [Maxwell’s footnotes within the quotation are deleted to avoid
confusion.]
16 Australian jurisdictions passed “unfair contract” legislation throughout the 1990s and early
2000s to establish “fair”, minimum, contract conditions.
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