Manufacturing: Clothing suppliers

Investigations of 26 contractors operating under NSW Government contract 381 Clothing suppliers were conducted by the Office of Industrial Relations between May 2007 and April 2009.

Investigations of three contractors were terminated after the businesses concerned indicated that work was no longer performed under the contract. Four other businesses had no employees, while two have ceased trading.

The investigations of the remaining 14 contractors identified that six businesses were fully compliant at the time of the inspection. One business achieved full compliance during the course of the investigations. Inspectors issued the remaining seven businesses with formal cautions regarding identified non-compliance with industrial relations legislation. At the conclusion of the compliance activities, no businesses had been fined or prosecuted.

The businesses investigated fully engaged 1,116 workers at the time of the inspections. An assessment of the workers identified that 96 per cent were engaged on a full-time basis, three females were engaged as apprentices, the remaining employees were engaged on a part-time or casual basis (four per cent). The majority of workers were male (70 per cent).

Inspectors identified 14 breaches of industrial relations legislation across 9 workplaces, as detailed in the following table.

One business was identified as underpaying staff and this has resulted in $4,374 being paid to employees.

The Office has recommended that three businesses be inspected at a later stage.  Pending other commitments, it is anticipated that these follow-up inspections will occur during 2009/10.