Challenges of work, family and care for Australia’s retail, online retail, warehousing and fast food workers

Abstract

This report provides information about the work, family and care arrangements of employees in Australia’s retail, fast food and warehousing industries. Information comes from a national survey of SDA members, conducted in early 2021, which explored: workers’ responsibilities to care for children and vulnerable adults; how workers arrange their care responsibilities while they are working; and the challenges arising from employers’ working time practices and Australia’s system of childcare provision.

Findings show that as well as making important economic and social contributions through their paid work, SDA members make valuable contributions through the unpaid labour they provide as parents, and as carers to children and adults in their families and communities. Yet these social and economic contributions are poorly recognised and accommodated in their working lives.