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Equally dressed-up, unequally casual: different experiences of precarious work in designer fashion retail boutiques

Casual employment in Australia is highly precarious with minimal job security, and it is used heavily in the retail sector. With few legal entitlements, casual employment creates an unregulated space for workers and employers to negotiate work conditions. This underlies claims that casual employment increases flexibility for both employees and employers. However, with low employment security, casual workers have low workplace power to assert their preferences. At the same time, recent analysis shows that vulnerable workers are likely to get trapped in highly precarious work such as casual employment. This study explores the experience of 18 women working casually in designer fashion retail boutiques in Melbourne. Findings show that even in the same role in similar workplaces, some workers are able to broker better working conditions for themselves. Factors that improved participants’ empowerment levels to seek better conditions were general knowledge of workplace rights and having a high workplace sense of entitlement. Those who had spent less time in the role had lower empowerment levels. The social class background of participants was an important underlying factor. The research finds that due to differences in individual agency, vulnerable workers receive inferior working conditions compared to their less vulnerable co-workers in equivalent roles.