Australia’s Kleenex workers – used for dirty jobs then thrown away

If you had to guess the percentage of homeless people in Australia who have a job, would the number you guessed be a low one? You could have reasoned that homelessness is probably linked to not having an income. And that this is Australia – and people in Australia with a job earn enough money to pay for shelter, food and basic life necessities.

Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case. The Centre for Policy Development is about to release its latest book, Pushing our Luck, which reports that today in Australia 40% of homeless people have a job. Our working homeless are part of a rising class of insecure workers. They are suffering the consequences of work without any guaranteed hours or income, any access to paid or sick leave and fewer workplace rights than the rest of Australia’s permanent workforce. One agency casual worker wrote to us at the Union, describing his life caring for his disabled daughter while attempting to make ends meet. He told us that there are times “I have not bought food so I can pay my mortgage”. He hasn’t had a holiday in 16 years. His experiences, however, are far from unique.

Insecure work has been growing in Australia for the past 20 years, to the point that today just 60% of Australian workers have a permanent job. The rest of our workforce now consists of casual, labour hire casual or contract workers. The consequence of this growing army of insecure workers is that many will struggle to pay their bills, their rent or mortgage. They will be vulnerable to severe financial stress – and in some cases homelessness – if they become ill or suffer a hardship. Over the last few months, members and volunteers at the National Union of Workers have been surveying their family, friends and neighbours about their experiences with insecure work. They’ve collected over 1,500 surveys that have provided plenty of alarming information on insecure work in Australia. Of the casual, agency and contract workers who have taken part in our survey, 60% said they had experienced difficulty in meeting their rental or mortgage payments because of irregular hours at work. This indicates that there is a huge number of Australians who are living with high levels of financial pressure.

When you’re living constantly with this sort of stress, when each week you worry about being able to pay your rent and bills, life becomes a matter of surviving from shift-to-shift, and week-to-week. The future becomes more remote. Tomorrow’s problems can wait until you’ve received a text message telling you whether today you have a shift or not. One survey respondent described his situation vividly. “Because there is no security in this type of employment you actually end up in a state of captivity: not wanting to take holidays in case you lose your position, not wanting to take time off in case work has dried up when you return, making yourself available for every shift because shift lengths are short and there is a need to maximise hours in case of illness, lack of work, or simply the chance that you might not be rostered on for shifts that week.”

This economic reality also has social and political consequences. Fifty-six per cent of casual, agency and contract workers indicated their job had caused them difficulty in meeting a commitment to a sporting club or other voluntary association. But the effects don’t end at the doorway to the local cricket club either, especially when insecure workers consistently told us in the survey they felt like second-class citizens. One survey respondent told us casual workers at their work call themselves Kleenexes after the tissue brand because “they use us for the dirty jobs then throw us out”.

And what we are only just starting to understand is how this huge divide between permanent workers and insecure workers is affecting our politics. Our survey results show a marked contrast; 50% of permanent workers identified with a major political party compared with 45% of insecure workers. The Conservatives don’t lose from this disengagement. It’s the broad, progressive side of politics – which draws its strength from people having hope that a different world is possible – that is disadvantaged. Support for Labor was 13% lower amongst insecure workers as compared to permanent workers. This indicates that the Labor Party is not currently giving insecure workers any hope that it can help provide solutions to their problems.

It’s why the NUW has been running a campaign, called Jobs You Can Count On, for the past two years to advocate for the rights of insecure workers and demand a better deal for them. The NUW started this campaign in the workplaces of our members, but this issue is one for communities, for all of us to face because it affects us all. That’s why this morning in Melbourne NUW members and a broad coalition of other unions, community and faith groups, musicians and parliamentarians came together for the Fluro-Fightback as part of Anti-Poverty week. We believe an Australia in which every worker counts is possible – but only if we reach for it.