Excerpt from Unions Tasmania submission to Select Committee on Job Security: -

Tasmania has more workers that are casual, and on lower wages than the rest of Australia. Tasmanians, like all Australians, aspire to the financial and housing security, and the dignity in retirement that secure jobs could bring, if our current policies and laws, regulations and industrial relations system didnt facilitate permanent work being turned into insecure jobs.

Insecure work in many forms is present in Tasmania, across the public and private sectors, keeping peoples lives on hold and excluding far too many Tasmanians from the benefits they should enjoy with apparent economic growth.

Insecure work contributed to the spread of COVID-19 in the north-west of Tasmania in one of the nations first major outbreaks last year. During the pandemic, Tasmanians with insecure work reported more stress than those with secure jobs, and experienced greater financial hardship. However, these risks are not exclusive to the pandemic. They begin with an unbalanced industrial relations system that keeps workers insecure.

Nationally, the union movement continues to advocate for the secure, sustainable jobs of the future. In Tasmania, we submit that economic planning such as planning for recovery from the COVID pandemic, or for the transition to net zero emissions, will only succeed when worker outcomes are specifically addressed. It is not enough for government to engage only with employers.

Unions continue to advocate for stronger worker protections, to reign in Australias internationally high rate of casualisation and to halt growing social inequality. Tasmanian workers need our state and federal governments to make a U-turn in their employment agenda and start legislating for secure jobs and leading as employers that provide job security for their workforce.

You can read our full submission here - Unions Tasmania submission to Select Committee on Job Security.pdf