Rosaria Burchielli

Organizing Homeworkers: The Use of Mapping as an Organizing Tool

In this article we document and discuss homeworker ‘mapping’ as an emerging approach to organizing. Mapping was used by homeworker organizations to organize unprotected workers in the unregulated informal sector where there has been an exponential growth over the last two decades.

‘Like an Iceberg Floating Alone’: A Case Study of Teacher Stress at a Victorian Primary School

This paper presents the case study of a culturally diverse, inner suburban, primary school located on a government housing estate. We report on high levels of stress amongst the teachers at the school and find evidence of professional bureaucratic conflict. Two main findings are reported. First, that teacher stress is attributed to a combination of factors: the unique school characteristics which are not fully acknowledged by the governing bureaucracy; the ensuing professional-bureaucratic conflict resulting from a lack of acknowledgment and inadequate resourcing; and importantly, tensions relating to professional values and standards. Second, that stress can be somewhat ameliorated by the use of proactive teacher and whole-school responses, and that further reduction of stress requires a systemic response.

'It's Not Just Numbers': Union Employees' Perceptions of Union Effectiveness

This paper presents a new approach to the measurement of union effectiveness: using a framework derived from existing theory, this is applied in an Australian setting, capturing the views of ninety-eight union officials, administrative and industrial staff, through a qualitative empirical study.

Garment homework in Argentina: Drawing together the threads of informal and precarious work

This article explores and applies Kalleberg’s concept and dimensions of precarious work in relation to garment homework in Argentina. Although precarious work exists across formal and informal employment, its nature and dimensions are most commonly researched in relation to formal work in developed economies where the loss of standard conditions can be documented. Similarly, homework is most usually discussed as a category of informal work, in the context of developing countries, within which precariousness is one among numerous aspects of adverse job quality. Applying the concept of precariousness enables homework to be assessed systematically against specific labour standards, yielding a more powerful analysis than reference to a general deficit. This may increase our understanding of homework especially with regard to addressing labour standards.

Campaign strategies to develop regulatory mechanisms: Protecting Australian garment homeworkers

Despite key universal characteristics of homework that render it complex and challenging to protect, Australia has a comprehensive suite of regulatory (legislative and non-legislative) mechanisms protecting garment homeworkers. This article proposes that it was the intense and sustained campaigning and mobilisation efforts of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, undertaken together with the FairWear Campaign and Asian Women at Work, which enabled the emergence and development of these mechanisms. We examine these homework initiatives, applying the lens of responsive regulation theory, to derive implications for global homeworker organisations, shaping their regulatory environments. The article concludes that legislative outcomes alone are insufficient and a combined strategy that encompasses campaigning, legislative reform and social movement strategies that involve the participation of homeworkers are more likely to ensure effective and ongoing homeworker protection.

What Helps Organizing Work? The Indicators and the Facilitators of Organizing

This article examines the adoption of the organizing model at three Australian union branches. It disentangles key conceptual dimensions of organizing, in particular the indicators and facilitators of organizing. Subsequently, these dimensions are explored through the views of Australian union officials actively engaged in the struggle of organizing. Findings suggest the critical supporting role of four facilitators: use of crisis, visionary and distributed leadership, branch cohesiveness and financial resources. However, in the process of union change, constraining factors such as internal conflict and industry restructure may prevent the adoption of the organizing strategy. Our findings may help to explain unions’ current limited adoption of the organizing model of revitalization.

Regulatory challenges in the Australian garment industry: human rights in a post-Ruggie environment

As corporations increasingly operate beyond national boundaries, the regulatory frameworks that monitor their conduct have not kept pace with the dynamic global playing field. Governance gaps are endemic to this environment, where corporate human rights abuses potentially transpire without sanction or reparation. This article investigates the human rights and business nexus in Australia, applying a labour rights lens. We examine two cases within the Australian garment industry: the Home Workers Code of Practice and Coles. We analyse the UN Guiding Principles as the baseline corporate responsibility to respect human rights in relation to two of our cases. The Regulation Theory is applied to explore the roles of three distinct actors: states, corporations and non-state actors. We also examine governance gaps as direct consequences of inadequate regulatory frameworks provided by government. We conclude that in Australia, the human rights and business agenda is functioning at the superficial level with corporate responsibilities failing to be fully met and with little evidence of states complying with their duty to protect human rights abuses resulting from corporate misconduct.

Positioning women homeworkers in a global footwear production network: How can homeworkers improve agency, influence and claim rights?

This article analyses the position of women footwear homeworkers, using global production networks as a conceptual lens. Using qualitative data collected in India during 2011 to 2014, it illustrates the asymmetry of power between network actors and attests to the poverty, invisibility and lack of acknowledgement and representation characterising leather footwear homework. It represents leather footwear homeworkers as working from the margins of these networks, with weak links to most other actors in the networks. The paper interrogates how marginalised and informal workers might increase their agency and participation capacity in global production networks, and proposes that this can occur through support and organising undertaken by appropriate non-governmental organisations.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire? Persistent gender barriers in Australian fire‐fighting and challenges for HRM

By directly accessing womens accounts of their active and ex-volunteer fire-fighting at the Australian Country Fire Authority (CFA), this paper seeks to understand womens experiences in fire-fighting. The study documents the voices of women in work where they are mostly conspicuous by their absence, thus contributing to the small body of empirical studies of women in fire-fighting. Findings confirm the underrepresentation of women and provide evidence of horizontal and vertical gender segregation. Women fire-fighters are significantly challenged and discriminated against by individual and organisational behaviours. Other findings of this study are the co-existence of hostile and positive job factors for women fire-fighters; and womens tolerance for complexity and paradox. These are scarcely documented in the literature on non-traditional occupations for women, and the paper suggests explanations based on concepts such as agency and coping strategies. Although women fire-fighters at the CFA had only a partial understanding of factors contributing to gender segregation, they voiced a desire and directions for organisational improvement to address gender issues.

Homeworkers organizing for recognition and rights: Can international standards assist them?

Homework is a very old form of work that is an ongoing work arrangement under current global production network/systems.1 Homeworkers can be found in most countries, often producing traditional handicrafts, such as embroidery and weavings. To survive, and due to limited work opportunities, homeworkers are forced to constantly shift between income activities and have become increasingly dependent on national or global production networks.2 Homeworkers are predominantly women who work from home either for a direct employer or intermediary, or who make and sell products directly or on an order basis. The decentralization of the production process provides companies with the opportunity to reduce costs and risk by eliminating production sites and, more importantly, by subcontracting work to small workshops they are able to outsource the work to homeworkers as “informal” labour. Women’s overrepresentation in informal work is arguably the principal factor explaining the labelling of informal workers as “unorganizable.”