At an event in Sydney, the Australian Labor Party's shadow Industrial Relations minister, Jullia Gillard, meet with a group of homeworkers and recently graduated fashion designers to announce Labor's commitment to improve outworker protection provisions.
Ms O'Neil said legislation that recognises that outworkers should be entitled to the same rights as employees of a company, is an important means of ensuring proper protection.
"Australian workers, whether they be in factories or working from home, deserve fair pay and decent conditions and that's why the TCFUA welcomes Labor's pledge to improve outworker protections and to provide financial support to the joint union-industry initiative, the Homeworkers Code of Practice," Ms O'Neil said.
Labor's proposal aims to endure that all outworkers are employed under safe and fair working conditions by rendering Australian production chains transparent so exploitation can be weeded out.
The Project Officer for the Homeworkers Code of Practice, Tommy Clarke, said funding to the independent joint union-industry committee that oversees an ‘Accreditation' process for clothing garments made in Australia, will help foster and promote a new generation of local designers committed to ethical manufacturing.
"Such a funding package of several million dollars would be of substantial benefit to home-based workers, to local businesses and also to consumers who deserve to be confident that the clothes they buy have been made in an ethical fashion," Mr Clarke said.
