Who would want to work in the TCF sector?
The report, released late last month by the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA's) Business Services arm, found the 52,000 employees in the Australian TCF manufacturing sector were paid at least $11,000 less per year than almost all others working in a similar field.
With an average income of $32,000 per annum, TCF workers were more than $22,000 worse off per year than those involved in the manufacture of coal and petroleum, earned $15,000 less than those in the printing and publishing industry and took home $13,000 less than food, beverage and tobacco workers.
The next poorly paid sector was those involved in the manufacturing of wood, paper and product, each of whom commanded an average annual salary of $43,000.
Compiled from information released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in December, the report examined industry financial benchmarks in the textile fibre, yarn and woven fabric manufacturing sector during the 2004/05 period.
The author of the report, TFIA economist Lachlan Caddy, said he was at a loss to determine why salaries and wages in the TCF industry were so much lower than in other sectors.
It had been noted in the past that TCF workers were generally harder to re-employ in other areas due to age and a high representation with a non-English speaking background, Caddy said.
"This in effect means TCF employers have greater bargaining power over their employees as it would be harder for the employees to get work elsewhere."
However TCFUA national secretary Tony Woolgar said the poor rates of pay were driven by a reluctance by sector's employers to enter into enterprise award agreements.
Woolgar said presently only around 15 to 20 per cent of TCF employers had signed agreements, with the remainder monopolising the situation to pay vulnerable employees rates well below minimum award entitlements.
He said pay was poorest in areas where employees had few other options.
"If anybody can go out and get another job somewhere else [for better pay] then of course they are likely to do that. However our research shows that only about a third of workers who are retrenched find another fulltime job and a third are only able to secure part time work. The remainder never find work in the sctor again. In many circumstances, employers know they have a captive audience."
The TFIA report, the first of its kind produced by the TFIA, found that by shelling out just under $800 million in salaries during the 2004/05 period, Victoria was the most generous state in terms of the total wages paid by TCF companies.
However it is also had the lion's share of the country's TCF workers with 22,000 (46 per cent) of all industry workers living in the state.
Unsurprisingly, Caddy also found that across almost all states the amount of total wages and salaries paid by TCF companies fell during the period as did the levels of employment. Again, Victoria was the hardest hit with around 7,000 less TCF manufacturing jobs in 2004/05 than during 2002/03. Similarly, the total wages bill also dropped - falling from around $870 million in 2002/03 to around $770 million in 2004/05.
Caddy said the TFIA planed to release a further four other reports, available for sale, on the economic and financial performance of the TCF sector within Australia.
Future subjects include textile product manufacturing, knitting mills, clothing manufacturing and footwear manufacturing, he said.