Attention: Prof. Anthony Forsyth

26th November 2015

Attention: Prof. Anthony Forsyth

Industrial Relations Victoria

Department of Economic Development

Jobs, Transport and Resources

1 Spring St

Melbourne, 3000

Dear Prof. Forsyth,

Re: The Victorian Inquiry Into The Labour Hire Industry And Insecure Work.

Please find attached a submission to be included in the Victorian Inquiry Into The Labour Hire Industry And Insecure Work that we hope will provide some assistance in informing the inquiry.

This submission has been prepared to provide information about Victorian workers employed in the labour hire sector and to highlight the occupational health and safety injury profile of labour hire workers (questions 3.3 and 4.5 of the background paper).

We look forward to hearing the outcome of the Inquiry.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if we can be of any further assistance.

Best wishes

Dr Amanda Sampson

Lead, Evidence Review Hub

ISCRR

Level 11, 499 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria

Australia, 3004

P: +61 3 9903 8626 F: 03 9903 8699

E:

Submission to Labour Hire Sector and Precarious Employment Parliamentary Enquiry.

Brief: this submission has been prepared to provide information about Victorian workers employed in the labour hire sector and to highlight the occupational health and safety injury profile of labour hire workers (questions 3.3 and 4.5 of the background paper).

In Australia, the number of labour hire workers is estimated to comprise between 2-4% of the total workforce; or between 235,300 and 470,600 workers1,2.Unfortunately, the exact number and profile of labour hire workers is difficult to predict due to rapid increase in the number labour hire companies, the expansion or growth of existing labour hire companies and the poor independent representation and regulation of labour hire workers.

In the 2006 WorkSafe Victoria report submitted to the parliamentary inquiry3, one of the issues highlighted was the lack of visibility of labour hire workers at a state-wide level. In the context of injury rates of labour hire workers this is particularly evident.

Using the Compensation Research Database (CRD) established by the Institute for Safety Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR - which contains detailed records of all accepted work-related injury compensation claims in Victoria, we examined the total number of compensable work-related injuries reported from workers in the labour hire sector as a percentage of all work-related claims (Figure 1). One of the most striking features is the sharp increase in injury claims between 2005-2006. This increase reflects the introduction of a labour-hire specific industry code during the claims management and data recording period. In other words, the sharp increase in the number of injury claims between 2005-2006 represents improvements in classification rather than increased injury rates, and illustrates the underrepresentation of injury rates in labour hire workers before 2006. This highlights the importance of appropriate data collection in terms of addressing population health and safety. In the current era of evidence-based decision making by government and policy-makers, it is crucial that the collection and analysis of population based health and safety data is representative of the entire population. In the occupational health and safety context, identification of the rates of work-related injuries and the causes of injuries are essential for identifying workers exposed to the highest risk of injury. Furthermore, this data can be used in the design, development and implementation of interventions specifically tailored to target the identified high risk areas to prevent or reduce the risk of injury.

Despite the improved visibility of injured labour hire workers from 2006 onwards, our data analysis suggests that labour hire workers remain underrepresented in the Victorian compensation system. This is best demonstrated by the work-related injury rate in the labour hire sector which comprises between 1.3-1.4% of all work-related injuries in Victoria (Figure 1) despite comprising 2-4% of the Victorian workforce1,2. This suggests that either a) labour hire workers are at a lower risk of injury than the average Victorian worker and thus have fewer claims or b) that labour hire workers are underrepresented in the data. Given the substantial academic research evidence of increased risk of injury in labour hire workers, it is most likely that the Victorian claims data under-represents the true extent of injury.

Figure 1: The number (red) and percentage (green; labour hire sector injuries as a percentage of all work-related injuries from all sectors) of work-related injury claims in the labour hire sector in Victoria.

The ISCRR recently hosted a day long forum on occupational health and safety in vulnerable working populations, including labour hire workers. The output from the forum included a summary of research evidence in the field4. This can be found at

One of the themes emerging from this forum is that a challenge facing labour hire workers is their lack of representation within the labour market. Under-representation of labour hire workers within the Victorian compensation system claims demonstrates this lack of visibility. There is limited information about injured labour-hire workers available to the occupational health and safety regulator. This may mean, in turn, that groups with a mandate to consider the interests of labour hire workers (such as regulators or trade unions or labour hire employers) do not have the information necessary to accurately assess the OH&S risk of labour hire.

In addition to under-representation of labour hire workers on workers’ compensation datasets, it is known that only a proportion of injured workers make workers’ compensation claims. In Victoria this figure is estimated to be as low as 19% 5. While the most seriously injured workers are likely to claim compensation, there are a subset who choose not to, despite potentially being eligible for compensation. Among the most common reasons stated for failing to claim compensation include the impact on the employment relationship. Although there is no specific data on reasons for failing to claim compensation in labour hire workers, this may be a contributing factor to the under-representation of labour hire workers on compensation system databases.

The data available in compensation databases does provide some ability to profile the demographic, employment, occupation and injury characteristics of injured labour hire workers in Victoria, relative to the ‘average’ injured Victorian worker. Some summary information is provided below. However this should be interpreted with caution and not taken as representative of the totality of injured labour hire workers, due to the data limitations noted above.

An accurate picture of OH&S risk factors in the labour hire sector, and of injured labour hire workers in Victoria, requires the establishment of an occupational injury and illness surveillance system that extends beyond injury compensation claims data. With such data available it would be possible to identify OHS risks for labour hire workers, and develop interventions to minimise or remove those risks.

Characteristics of injured labour hire workers making compensation claims in Victoria

Demographics: Our analysis revealed that injured labour-hire workers are younger than the average injured Victorian worker with 65% of injured labour hire workers under 30 years of aged compared to 21% for total injured Victorian data. In addition, the injured labour-hire workers comprised a greater percentage of males compared to the overall injured Victorian data (82.5% vs 65.6%, respectively).

Contract status: Compared to an average injured worker in Victoria, injured labour hire workers are less likely to be employed in a full time (71% for Vic and 22% for injured labour hire workers) or part time (13.7% for Vic to 3.3% for injured labour hire workers) capacity, but more likely to be reported as a full time first year or other apprentice (1.4% to 24.8%).

Occupation: Compared to the average Victorian injured worker, injured labour hire workers are more likely to be employed as technicians and trades workers, community and personal service workers and machinery operators and drivers and less likely to be managers, professionals and community and personal service workers. Further analysis revealed that within trade workers, the occupations which were identified to be the most represented in the injured labour hire worker data were construction workers, automotive engineering and trade workers, electricians and factory process workers such as food process workers, packers and product assemblers. Furthermore, we observed that 32.6% of labour hire worker injuries were caused by materials and substances compared to 21.30% of all other Victorian injuries.

Work-related injury type: Analysis of the 2006-2014 claims datarevealed that compared to the total work-related injury rates in Victoria, injuries sustained in labour hire workers are more likely to result in wounds and burns and less likely to result in musculoskeletal, mental and chronic conditions. That is, while on average 20% of all work-related injuries in Victoria are classified as wounds, 38% of the labour hire work-related injuries are classified as wounds.

Authors:

Dr Amanda Sampson, Dr Behrooz Hassani-Mahmooei, Prof Alex Collie on behalf of the Institute for Safety Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR). ISCRR is a collaboration between Monash University, WorkSafe Victoria and the Transport Accident Commission. The institute has major research programs in occupational health and safety and injury compensation and has established and maintains the Victorian Compensation Research Database, from which data presented above was drawn.

References:

1. Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work in Australia, Lives on Hold: Unlocking the potential of Australia’s Workforce (2012), 16.

1. The current number of employed persons nationally is approximately 11.765 million: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Labour Force (Cat 6202.0).

1. Labour Hire Agencies: Managing the Safety of On-Hired Workers; 1st edition, June 2006,

1. The Institute of Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research, Vulnerable Worker Forum summary; 17th August 2015,

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 6324.0 Work-related Injuries 2013-2014,

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