by Sahar Foladi
A South East manufacturing event in International Women’s Week was a call to action for inclusive employment for women.
The event held by Sister Works in collaboration with South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) on Wednesday 12 March saw a room full of 80 representatives from 35 companies including Amazon, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, bus services provider CDC Victoria, hospitality company Accor and many more.
Sister Works chief executive officer, Ifrin Fittock said the event was held not only to celebrate International Women’s Week but to showcase the capability of women especially from refugee, migrant and asylum seeker backgrounds.
“The essence of the event is really about a call to action that we as migrant refugee women are motivated, we deliver values, we’re not just a gimmick, we’re member of the communities that can participate economically.
“We take a slightly different approach to the usual celebrations because we just don’t want to celebrate, we want to see movement, impact, progress in gender equality space.”
The room heard from a panel of two Sister Works ‘sisters’ in supported employment at L’Oreal in Dandenong, as well as L’Oreal chief operations officer Cedric Lemetter and Kimberly Manning, head of talent acquisition at Delaware North.
Banin Ishaqshamer and Oluwtosin Adebo were seemingly overwhelmed to share their intense positive, exciting and happy work journey, what the opportunity means for them and how it changed their lives.
“It’s really hard to prepare resumes but Sister Works made it easy for us and I’m really grateful,” Ms Ishaqshamer said at the event.
“When I got my first payment, I got new friends,” and the room erupted in laughter.
“When you have money, people respect you.”
Since their employment partnership in 2022, 50 ‘sisters’ had been employed at L’Oreal with 16 in current roles.
L’Oreal chief operating officer Cedric Lemetter said it has been a stepping stone into the workforce for a majority of the sisters.
“We see individuals extremely motivated, who want to basically succeed because it’s not just for their work, it’s for their life and we’re very proud to be part of the journey with the sisters.
“We will continue to support the program by offering employment but also everything we can do to help association of sister work in terms of providing training, tools, voluntary time.
“It’s been a game changer and drives a super-high engagement on site.
“We are partnering with Waverley Industries which provides employment opportunities for people with disability. So now we have about 160 people with disability working for our repackaging business and this is an area Sister Works is looking to develop.”
Representatives from Amazon were also in attendance. A few of the sisters have also secured employment at its Dandenong site.
Yang Gao, workforce staffing operations manager at Amazon said they’ve had great feedback on their performance.
“We’re proud to support the committee and be part of empowering female refugees and migrants. This will not be the end but the start.”
Sister Works hopes to be considered in a lot of different manufacturing contracts such as sewing, upholstery, repurposing projects, similar to their work with Yarra Trains.
It also seeks increased employment opportunities for the sisters it supports.
