Will the Rudd Federal Labor Government Abolish Key Legal Protections for Certain Exploited Vulnerable Workers?

Abstract

This article examines the potential loss of legal protections for certain outworkers as a result of recently enacted (or foreshadowed) federal legislative provisions. The article begins with an overview of existing legal protections under State and Territory laws for independent contractor outworkers labouring in industries outside the textile clothing and footwear sector - protections which survived the Howard government's federal takeover of labour law. The article then examines how the proposed further centralization of labour law under the Rudd federal Labor government may lead to the abolition of these existing legal protections. In particular, the article focuses upon the threats posed by provisions of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008 (Cth) and the Fair Work Bill 2008 (Cth). The article concludes by setting out the necessary steps to avoid the unjust obliteration of key legal protections for these exploited vulnerable workers.