The Homeworkers Code is designed to supplement the outworker provisions of the Clothing Trades Award 1982 and was negotiated by industry participants in 1997. Since that time, a number of retailers and manufacturers have signed the Homeworkers Code.
The code is a voluntary self-regulatory scheme that provides for the accreditation of parties along the garment manufacturing and retail chain. Competition issues arising from this scheme include commercial sanctions, which retailers and manufacturers may impose on contractors, who in turn, engage homeworkers, if they do not comply with the code's requirements.
The aim of the Homeworkers Code is to redress the non-award conditions of many persons employed in the garment making industry as homeworkers, that is, persons who sew products in premises other than a registered factory.
The problems experienced by homeworkers have been the subject of two previous Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry Reports, the first in 1996 and a review of that report in 1998.
Two key recommendations arising from the 1996 Report was the development of an industry Homeworkers Code of Practice, and that industry adopt an agreed label declaring that the employment conditions under which the garment was made complied with legislative requirements. In response, the Government (in 1997) supported a code of practice openly entered into by industry parties, as a way of strengthening industry standards.
The ACCC, after considering the application lodged by the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia and the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries Limited, is satisfied the health and social benefits flowing from the Homeworkers Code are likely to benefit the public in so far as the code:
- lessens the risk of exploitation of a disadvantaged group;
- facilitates compliance with statutory award requirements;
- provides information to assist homeworkers understanding of their employment conditions; and
- helps to improve the social environment of the families of homeworkers by providing more standardised working conditions.
The ACCC has the function, through the authorisation process, of adjudicating on certain anti-competitive practices that would otherwise breach the Trade Practices Act. Authorisation provides immunity from court action, and is granted where the ACCC is satisfied that the practice delivers offsetting public benefits.