In the past 20 years many businesses have closed due to globalisation, tariff reductions, imported goods and open markets. This has meant many businesses had to rethink the way they conduct business by altering their marketing and production strategies keeping costs to a minimum.

With Australia having many immigrants, who are of non English speaking background and have very limited knowledge and skills textile manufacturers have exploited the services of their outworking employees.

In 2001, Premier Bob Carr announced Behind the Label: the NSW Clothing Outwork Strategy, a $4 million, three year campaign, backed by legislation - the Industrial Relations (Ethical Clothing Trades) Act 2001.

Its aim is to stop the exploitation of outworkers in the textile industry and also create a clothing industry that operates and competes based on productivity, innovation and design while providing a fair, healthy and safe environment for all its workers.

They hope to achieve these aims by compliance and self-regulation within the clothing industry, through community education and outworker training.

The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is funding the Textile, Clothing and Footwear (TCF) Industry Training Strategy, which was detailed in the ‘Measuring Up’ Report. It is designed to create an understanding of the situation of outworkers and the benefits of training, identify training priorities, match needs of trainees to available training opportunities and to promote and urge outworkers to participate in training provided.

§ vocational training within the TCF sector such as skills recognition, gap training and clothing production qualifications

§ the funding of community development workers to work with outworkers in the Chinese, Vietnamese, Khmer and possibly Korean communities;

Some topics in this essay:
Coles Myer, DET DIR, Up’ Report, Outwork Strategy’, Industrial Relations, DIR DET, , Trades Act, Sweat Shop’, Vietnamese Khmer, clothing industry, industrial relations, textile industry, based learning, department industrial relations, ethically clothing, education training, department industrial, knowledge skills, skills outworkers, exploitation outworkers, formal based learning, 5 ‘labour adjustment, adjustment establishment education, ‘labour adjustment establishment,