Casualisation leaves workers without leave

Sick leave and time off for public holidays are just two of the rights slipping from the grasp of workers in Australia, as casualisation leaves fewer people with basic leave entitlements or job security, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Analysing the data, the Australian Council of Trade Unions noted: “Since August 2012, the number of workers without leave entitlements (i.e. casuals) and independent contractors have risen by 110,000 and 51,300 respectively.

“This has coincided with a 113,000 decrease in the number of workers with full leave entitlements.”

Young workers are more likely to be in insecure work. More than two in three workers aged between 15 and 19 have no leave entitlements. The picture improves for older workers, but more than 2 million workers get no leave at all.

Nearly half of all workers in agriculture and the arts have no entitlements, according to the ABS. The situation might be worse than it appears, given the number of flimsy unpaid internships many of us move through in the search for secure work.

The problem is most acute in the accommodation and food services industry, with only a third of its 700,000 workers receiving any entitlements.