Share Facebook

Twitter

Whatsapp

Mail

Whatsapp Is the era of full-time, secure employment over?

Nearly 90 per cent of the jobs created in Australia over the last 12 months were part-time or casual. Experts predict that this trend is only going to accelerate, but are promises of 'freedom' and 'flexibility' an illusion? Antony Funnell reports.

Kevin Wheeler is an optimist when it comes to the future of employment. It's even in the name of his organisation — The Future of Talent Institute.

It's a huge new trend and it really does make the workforce more vulnerable.

Wheeler tours the world delivering presentations on the changing nature of the workplace and how employment might look in years to come.

When he gazes into the crystal ball he sees much that's reassuring; by and large, in countries like Australia and the United States, things are going to work out pretty well. But that doesn't mean there won't be pain. The next two decades, he predicts, will be a time of significant industrial argument. And at the heart of that disputation will be the casualisation of the workforce.

'It's going to be a fascinating time to be alive. It'll be really interesting to see how this evolves and where it goes,' he says.

'I think the writing is clear: more and more people will be in this contingent space, and we're going to have to see how laws evolve to accept that and to provide at least a light level of protection around that.'

The 'contingent space' refers to workers employed on non-permanent contracts. Together they form a section of the economy know in the jargon of economics and employment as the 'contingent workforce'.

There have always been non-permanent employees, but in previous generations and in most industries they've largely been supplementary to the main body of workers. But things are changing— and changing fast.

'It's significantly large in Australia. It's quite large here in America. Probably between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the workforce is in that contingent workspace,' says Wheeler.

'If we look back 10 years ago, probably 90 per cent of the workforce was in a permanent kind of job arrangement. I think you're going to see that drop down to half of the workforce or less in the next few years.'

Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data for the month of July saw the number of full time positions in Australia decrease by around 45,000, while part-time employment numbers went up by more than 71,000.

Share Facebook

Twitter

Whatsapp

Mail

Whatsapp For better or for worse, so-called 'gig economy' companies are leading the way when it comes to casualisation and the contingent workforce

Bill Mitchell from the Centre for Full Employment and Equity at the University of Newcastle points out that in the past 12 months, 86 per cent of the total net jobs created in Australia were part-time in nature.

Mitchell sees this as a negative development, and recently commented that the figures demonstrate that we're on our way to becoming a nation of 'part-time employment growth'.

For Kevin Wheeler though, there are swings and roundabouts: 'Clearly those people in that space have less security, have less certainty around the benefits that they receive. But on the other hand, they are vastly more liberated from the constraints of the work environment.

'They can choose their place of work, their hours of work, what they actually do for work, who they choose to work with or for. It is very liberating for those people, but they trade the liberation for less security.'

However, Wheeler does acknowledge that for a significant chunk of the workforce, the move from a full-time to non-permanent employment will be problematic.

'We've got sociological and psychological things going on here that are very, very significant and not trivial. I think for certainly the next 20 years we are not going to see that secure job completely disappear, but it's certainly going to shrink and become a smaller portion of the workforce.'

Related: Carlton and United Breweries worker agreement voted on by three casuals

Economist and commentator Jason Murphy is one of those who feels 'liberated'.

'I'm a perfect example of that,' he says. 'I have informal contracting arrangements with a number of companies around Australia and I work on a fairly irregular basis for different places.

'I cobble together a full-time week out of various little scraps of work. For me that is absolutely wonderful,' he says. 'I appreciate it and I enjoy it.'

But he's cautious about how universal his personal feelings might be: 'I moved to that after a number of years of working proper full-time work and having a decent CV. For people who are just starting out in the workforce, that sort of an arrangement would be a far more intimidating and less pleasant way of living their lives.

'I think the worry that your cash flow is going to run out next week would be ever present. Certainly it would be extremely difficult to get credit for the sort of things that Australians like to do, like buying a house.'

Murphy also worries that many companies—particularly those he terms 'new economy firms' like Uber—are embracing temporary contract arrangements in order to undermine the traditional employee-employer relationship.

'People who would formerly have had real employment contracts with these big companies are instead being employed on their own terms. They have to set up an ABN and manage their own tax affairs and their own super.

'That's a massive advantage for the companies, it limits their liabilities and limits their downside risk. It's a huge new trend and it really does make the workforce more vulnerable.'

Did you know Future Tense is also a podcast? Subscribe on iTunes, the ABC Radio app or your favourite podcasting app and listen later.

And the potential financial benefits to employers from such a shift are enormous, he says.

'The administrative overheads are far lower, not to mention the legal obligations that employers have to their employees. Uber doesn't have to take nearly so much concern over occupational health and safety or making sure that these people are actually paid a decent amount per hour. Uber drivers could easily be driving a six-hour shift and coming home with $50. That wouldn't fly if they were employees of Uber.'

Monash University's Tui McKeown takes issue with the language used in dealing with the employment status of part-time or temporary workers. The term 'contingent worker', she points out, is used as a coverall description to encompass everybody from a wealthy professional consultant at one end of the spectrum to an impoverished unskilled manual labourer at the other.

McKeown believes that the legislation which governs the area in Australia—the 2008 Independent Contractors Act—incorrectly implies that contingent employees share equal bargaining power with employers.

'Independent contractors have the same rights as their clients under common law. There is a lot of complexity in that particular one but what it's saying very, very definitely is you are a business, you are not an individual human being. The idea is that … because you are a business, you have exactly the same bargaining rights and power as any other business.

'Most people who have done freelancing themselves know that you negotiate for what you think the other party is going to pay, and your ability to command large prices is so dependent on the current circumstances.'

McKeown's research suggests many in Australia's contingent workforce are finding it difficult to make ends meet.

'These are people going from one job, one gig to the next. They are working in multiple jobs at once. The worst I've come across is somebody who has got 12 different identities all registered as separate businesses.

'It does seem to be increasing. It is a huge concern for bodies like the unions, obviously for the International Labour Organisation and the rest, that we may be in the process of creating a race to the bottom.'