Home-Based Workers Campaign Guide
13 September 2004 at 1:09 pm
Home-based workers or ‘outworkers’ are some of the most vulnerable and poorest workers in the world today according to the Brotherhood of St. Laurence.
As part of an ongoing bid to protect outworkers in the garment industry and promote ethical business practices and labour rights, the Brotherhood recently supported HomeWorkers Worldwide in producing a publication called Campaigns at Work: a guide to campaigning for homeworker groups, unions, campaign groups and activists.
The HomeWorkers Worldwide publication details how to start a consumer campaign and help outworkers achieve fair conditions and pay.
Brotherhood Ethical Business manager, Serena Lillywhite says the manual is a fantastic tool in the fight against exploitative working conditions.
It’s described as a step by step guide for anyone who wants to develop their own campaign and lobby for better conditions.
Jane Tate, HomeWorkers Worldwide Coordinator says the campaign manual provides practical and useful examples to assist a range of groups to develop their own approach to campaigning and engage consumers in lobbying corporations for workers making their products.
It includes examples taken from experiences in Australia and elsewhere to advance home workers rights and will inspire workers to campaign to improve their working conditions.
Homeworkers are some of the most vulnerable and poorest workers working in informal employment and exist in every country. The majority are women with little alternative choice of employment. Homework is increasingly being linked to trends in global trade and production in industries such as garments, shoes, metal & car industry, jewellery and gems, food preparation and selling, packing and assembly of fresh and manufactured goods and a broad range of services.
“Homeworkers work in some of the most exploitative conditions – with the benefits for companies at the top of high profits that comes at the price of precarious employment for those at the bottom. The manual will contribute to the global and local work of workers to organise, improve their wages and legal protection and to become more visible ”, Tate said.
Authored by Annie Delaney, Coordinator of Fairwear and Australian based campaigner and trade unionist, has drawn on her own campaign experience and positive examples to inspire home worker organisations, unions and others to change the way they work and organise.
Delaney says the challenge is to develop campaigns that address the needs of home workers and other workers in global informal employment and make local and global corporations responsible for workers’ working conditions.
The publication includes examples of successful ethical business models in operation around the world, including the Brotherhood’s very own retail clothing outlet, Hunter Gatherer.
HomeWorkers Worldwide is an international network and produced the manual in partnership with the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Australia and the Trades Union Congress in the U.K.
If you would like a copy of the guide in PDF format just send an email with the words Campaigns At Work in the subject line to probono@probonoaustralia.com.au. Please note this is a large file (1.4mg)
