Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to talk about the question of roster justice, an issue that affects so many Australian workers, one we have heard so much about in our Select Committee on Work and Care. We all use and rely on retail, hospitality and care services, and workers in these sectors are frontline workers. They are essential and they are the fastest-growing group of employees in the country yet these workers, often women, are low-paid and lack decent working conditions because of an absence of roster justice. Too many are forced to play a form of 'roster Hunger Games'. They are contracted for very few hours, 10 a week for example. Their hours and thus their pay are absolutely critical to their kids, families and themselves but their shift times fluctuate, often with very short notice. A lot of workers need a bit of extra time to top up their pay but they have to remain glued to their phones in a high-stakes competition to secure the hours.

These workers cannot plan their lives in advance or arrange the care they need for their children and families. This causes an enormous amount of daily anxiety and stress and it is driving many, particularly women, out of the labour market at a time of skills shortages because they are forced to choose between their job on the one hand and the care of those they love on the other. Women are left desperately trying to seek care for their kids at the last minute. The choice between work and providing care is a deeply unfair choice and it is a choice we can change. When workers ask for certainty about their rosters, too often they are penalised. They miss out on hours, they lose conditions or they may never work again in that workplace.

Large retailers can predict exactly how many and what kinds of apples we will buy tomorrow. They can predict that with certainty. They can certainly predict the hours of working time from their workers that they need tomorrow. Their employment is predictable; their rosters should be predictable. Workers need predictable rosters ahead of time, they need certainty about the minimum hours they work and they need the opportunity to negotiate rosters so they can plan their care and lives. Our workplace relations system should enable it.