BY DAKOTA TAIT
A new report from the country's peak union body has found, casual workers in the Hunter and Australia are earning, on average, $350 less a week than workers in full-time or part-time positions.
The Missing in Action on Secure Jobs report, released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions earlier this week, estimates around 4.15 million workers across the country are employed in insecure work, such as casual work, labour hire, employment in the gig economy, and rolling fixed-term contracts.
Polling data included in the report found 80.9 percent of insecure workers were dissatisfied with the current state of housing affordability, and 69.4 percent were dissatisfied with the Government's failure to increase wages.
It's reignited the discussion around insecure work in the Hunter, just months after a Senate inquiry, which heard concerns from local mineworkers and staff at the University of Newcastle, among others.
The Resources Minister was in the Hunter on Monday, claiming a Labor-led government would be crippling for local jobs, especially in mining and energy.
But Hunter Workers Secretary Leigh Shears says the current government needs to step up itself.
"They don't want to talk about it," Mr Shears said. "Workers have been raising them for a long, long time.
"The Morrison Government has had plenty of opportunities to rectify to some of these problems, and identify problems in workforce employment, security, and wage increases, and they've chosen to ignore it or look the other way.
"It's all tactics, employment tactics, to drive down our wages and conditions across industries."
Hunter Workers is calling for job security to take centre stage on the campaign trail, with a focus on introducing 'Same Job, Same Pay' laws to level the playing field for labour hire workers.
There are also calls for the Government to introduce a clear definition of casual work, provide stronger rights for gig economy workers, limit the use of fixed-term contracts, and make it easier to transition to a permanent position.
Mr Shears says people shouldn't have to live with uncertainty or work more than one job just to get by.
"I suppose I'd encourage working people and people across our region to recall what's important to them, and have a look at the Government's record over the last nine years," Mr Shears said.
"And Scott Morrison's record, when he talks about jobs and when he talks about other sorts of things that sound and look good for working people in our communities, remember his record."
