A number of different terms, homeworker, outworker or home based worker have been used to mean a person, usually a woman, who does paid work in her own home, or in the home of a neighbour or friend, or in fields, yards or even the street adjoining a home.

One group said they were paid $2.50 for a detailed shirt which took one hour to sew. Another group said they were paid between $2 and $3 an hour. When asked about hours worked, most indicated that they often went weeks without a job but when the work was available they worked long hours.
 – Ethical Threads, report by Brotherhood of St Laurence (2007) on Australian Homeworkers

This kind of work is distinct from unpaid household work, done by women usually for their own families, such as cleaning, preparing food, fetching water, childcare or caring for elderly family members.  It is also different from domestic work, meaning doing this kind of household work, for payment, usually in other people’s houses.

In principle, there are two distinct types of home based workers:

• dependent workers producing goods or sometimes carrying out a service for an intermediary, agent or employer, according to their specifications; and,
• contractor workers, sometimes known as self-employed, producing goods which they market themselves.

The reality is more blurred since many women take on whatever kind of work is available, whether dependent or on a contract basis.  In some cases, although inappropriately called an ‘independent contractor’, a worker may be economically dependent with no access to markets or working only for orders.  The range of employment relationships and dependency is more accurately visualised as a continuum with the dependent worker at one extreme and the contractor worker at the other.  In-between, there are many overlapping types of relationships.

We use the term homeworker (or outworker) to mean a dependent worker. Research and inquiries have revealed that the idea of an independent contractor in the clothing industry (at least in Australia) is essentially a myth.

The above information draws from Homeworkers Worldwide (2004).

For stories from Australian Homeworkers go here

For international information and links go here

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