Video report by Julia Thiemann on the lives of casual workers, their insecurity and the injustice in comparison to permanent employees.

But it is worth to take a look behind the facade. To take a look at those who are behind the success of the Australian economy — the workers.
Karen, a middle-aged woman from Sydney, and Bruno, a young aspiring scientist, are different in many ways, but still in the same crucial situation: Despite their excellent qualifications, they cannot find a permanent job.
By no means do they count as unemployed, however, although Karen, as a contract worker, cannot be sure to have a job next month; and Bruno, as a casual worker, sometimes cannot work for several weeks. Australian employers seem to have found a way to adjust the rules to their benefits. As a result, the casualisation of the workforce in Australia is one of the highest in the world.
These statistics are just numbers to some business people and economists — indicators about the flexibility of the Australian economy. But for the workers, like Bruno and Karen, this means instability, especially financially.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
