Case Study - Mai

Mai has been working as an outworker for 5 years. When she began working for this company she was told by this company "this is the rate of pay and you will be paid in cash". In 1995 she was promised $3.50 per garment and completed 1757 pieces of work over two months. She worked from 9am to 2am daily seven days a week with a total of one hour break, averaging 16 working hours a day. Her husband assisted her after work for 4 hours on week nights and 20 hours over the weekend. Mai estimated the shirts took 2 hours each to make given they required extra care being vinyl. She estimates she worked for an hourly rate of $1.75. It was calculated that she had worked approximately 112 hours per week over 8 weeks.

She was given a hand written document by the company which gave her work. It contained the deductions the company made for zips, washing, cutting threads, size labels, hangers and swing tickets. These are all items usually supplied by the contractor and not charged to outworkers.

For a second batch of shirts she was promised $1.00 per shirt which she estimated took her one hour to complete. Mai went to the factory many times to get the money she was owed for these garments. She was paid with two cheques that both bounced.

The company was closed and/or relocated, and the manager has not been contactable. The company who contracted the work to the sub-contractor who gave Mai the work, Westco, was approached by the union on behalf of Mai. The company offered to pay $1.20 per shirt to the outworker in order to get the shirts back, as Mai had refused to return the shirts to the contractor in the hope of getting her money. Mai has still not received any money for this work she completed.