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Beth Macpherson

Beth Macpherson

Australian union organiser and former garment worker; National Compliance Officer for the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union with Ethical Clothing Australia.

Sep 25, 2026

6:28
You are the TCF, Textile Clothing and Footwear Union's National Compliance Officer.
6:34
What is that? So my role is I manage the team of eight people that do the compliance audits for Ethical Clothing Australia.
6:43
What we do is when a company applies for accreditation, we go out and we speak to the company and they provide us with records to show that they're paying the right rate of pay.
6:57
that all the accruals are being accrued correctly for annual leave and personal carer's leave, that annual leave loading is paid, that superannuation is up to date and has been over the last 12 months.
7:10
We actually scrutinise quite deeply to ensure that what they're showing us is correct and then one of the really key parts of that is that we meet with the workers.
7:21
We talk to the workers about some of the things that we've identified that may be issues, sometimes occupational health and safety risks within the workplace so we talk to the workers about that.
7:31
We talk to them if we found an underpayment or something needs to be rectified and we follow up with the workers after that to ensure that that is being corrected.
8:07
But when a big brand sends in an external auditor, they're looking at compliance.

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