Outworkers’ plight disclosed by survey

Press, 22 June 1984, Page 12

Outworkers’ plight disclosed by survey

NZPA-AAP correspondent Adelaide

A woman works with a highly toxic adhesive that gives her blinding migraines. A retrenched man, aged 50, slogs through the suburbs letter-boxing for ?2 an hour. Many women see dresses they have been paid ?3 to $4 to make selling in shops for $4O. These are just some of the stories a South Australian Labour Department survey has uncovered. The survey, the first on outworkers in South Australia, indicates the exploitation of housebound women and the chronically unemployed that is similar to, if smaller in scale than, Sydney and Melbourne. The report, which has been sent to the State Indus-

trial Relations Advisory Council, has not been made public. A Labour Department project officer, Ms Robyn Schutte, said the survey provided evidence that outworkers were paid a pittance — some as low as $1.50 an hour — and were often under extreme pressure to meet quotas. Most were involved in sewing, knitting, and making handicrafts. Letter-box-ing was also common. Ms Schutte said most outworkers were women with small children.

However, a lot of the letter-boxing was being done by older men who were out of work and trying to eke out an existence until they fc-could get a pension.,® Ma'ny of those surveyed

complained they were forced to work under great pressure.

They were told — and had no way of checking the truth of the claim — that other people were producing twice as quickly. Ms Schutte said one of the worst cases reported was of a woman who had to work with a highly toxic adhesive that gave her bad migraines. Yet she had to pay her own medical expenses.

So as not to disturb her family, she worked outside in summer and through the night in winter. This emphasised the outworkers' total lack of normal industrial protection.

Ms Schutte said no-one knew how many outworkers were in South Australia.. More g/iies were need-*