A Fairer Start: Vulnerable Work in Victoria
June 2021
Macdonald, F., Marshall, S., & Coombs, G.
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing vulnerabilities of insecure workers in Australia. Insecure work has been a driver of COVID-19 transmission, revealing the prevalence of vulnerable workers and its society-wide flow-on effects. As a result various government initiatives and programs were introduced to address insecure work. But have these legal changes been making a difference to these workers? If they have not been reaching workers, then what are the blockers and barriers and how can they be overcome to foster more sustainable and inclusive work?
This report draws on the Roundtable on Sustainable and Inclusive Work for Vulnerable Workers on 3 December 2020 held by the RMIT University Fairer Start initiative and related literature. It addresses the nature of vulnerable work during the pandemic and highlights some existing services for fair and sustainable work in the Australia. It concludes by making recommendations to improve the lives of vulnerable workers and reduce insecurity.
During 2021, the Fairer Start Restart Working Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Work will build on this work to scope the broader range of issues and potential responses.
Suggested Citation
Macdonald, F., Marshall, S., & Coombs, G. (2021). Report on Vulnerable Work in Victoria. Melbourne: RMIT University.
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People
Fiona Macdonald
VC Fellow
School: Business
Dr Fiona Macdonald is a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow in the School of Management. Fiona’s research focuses on three interconnected themes: the changing nature of work and employment relationships; regulating for decent work and gender equality; and the political economy of work. The empirical focus of Fiona’s current research on the social care workforce also brings in her long-standing interest in social policy and welfare systems.
In 2016 Fiona was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award to examine the workforce challenges of Australia’s new National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Her research has strong policy relevance and she works closely with industry as well as with national and international networks of employment and care scholars. In 2017 she received the RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research impact – Early Career Researcher. Fiona is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the recently established International Journal of Care and Caring.
Gretchen Coombs
Post Doctoral Research Fellow
School: Design and Creative Practice
Gretchen Coombs is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Design & Creative Practice Enabling Capability Platform at RMIT. She researches socially engaged art practices in the US, the UK and Australia, with a particular focus on how they are practiced in urban contexts. She’s a core member of the Cultural Value and Impact Network (CVIN) and contributes to Creative Care in the School of Art. Gretchen has a PhD in social and cultural anthropology and a MA in visual criticism: her writing uses a combination of ethnographic methods and visual analysis. She is a co-author of Creative Practice Ethnographies (Rowan & Littlefield 2019) and her monograph, The Lure of the Social: Encounters with Contemporary Artists (Intellect 2021 ) is an experimental ethnography about contemporary artists working at the intersection of art, aesthetics, and politics.
Shelley Marshall
VC Fellow
School: Business and Law
Shelley is the Director of the Business and Human Rights Centre at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Shelley has undertaken empirical research on these topics in diverse countries, including Bulgaria, India, Indonesia, Australia and Cambodia, and has published widely based on her findings. Her high standing as a scholar has been recognised through the award a number of large multi-country grants, and she has undertaken collaborations with scholars from Cambridge University, Harvard University, Melbourne University and RMIT. Dr Marshall’s long term partnerships with the technical arm of the International Labour Organisation, Oxfam Australia and CORE UK have enabled her to produce research of a highly applied nature, which has had a strong policy influence and provided meaningful lessons for business and other relevant organisations. Likewise, Shelley’s leadership on the Steering Committee of the Australian Corporate Accountability Network has provided opportunities to influence Business and Human Rights policy in Australia.
Dr Marshall holds a Bachelors of Arts with a double major in Social Theory and Political Science and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Melbourne. She studied a Masters of Science in Development Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where the focus was on economic policy. In 2015, she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Regulation Justice and Diplomacy which she undertook at the RegNet School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University under the supervision of Peter Drahos, Valerie Braithwaite and John Braitwaite. Dr Marshall is a Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University and an Australian Research Council DECRA Research Fellow.
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