The Australian Unions Support Centre provides free and confidential assistance and information for all workplace issues. We’re here to provide support, regardless of your job or industry. All Support Centre enquiries are 100% confidential.
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In a historic victory for unionists and workers, the Federal Court’s ruling was upheld: Qantas are responsible for the largest case of illegal sackings in Australia’s history, and it’s time for them to take responsibility.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/09/18/qantas-high-court-ruling-in-favour-of-workers/
With two-thirds of workers in Australia having experienced wage theft, chances are it could be happening in your industry too.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/06/15/how-employers-get-away-with-stealing-wages/
“When you get on an aircraft, every crew member could be on a completely different pay scale.”
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/06/06/how-can-staff-be-paid-more-than-their-managers/
Today is an important day for workers’ rights. It’s the day that major parts of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws come into effect. These laws were passed by the Albanese Labor Government at the end of last year after tireless campaigning by workers in unions. The new laws today will help unions negotiate higher…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/06/06/today-workers-in-australia-have-brand-new-rights/
In the face of excruciating housing costs, workers need wage increases even more.
How have we reached this point? Because wage growth has looked like a bumpy footpath for the past decade while corporate profits have scaled mountains.
A change in work laws means you might well be about to get a well-deserved pay increase.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/12/08/new-work-laws-provide-three-boosts-to-workers/
It’s a shocking figure that has gained massive media attention, making headlines in the ABC and the Guardian. Even The Australian understands that one in four Australian skipping meals means we need urgent reform.
It’s been a whirlwind of a month. We’ve rounded up some of the big stories affecting workers across the country and the world.
If nothing changes, we will continue to see educators leave the sector in droves. Not for lack of love, but because it breaks our hearts to be forced to put profit above children.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/11/19/strength-and-safety-for-childcare-workforce/
Prices on everything are going up but our wages have failed to match those increases. The budget is a chance to turn the trend around. But don’t just take it from us. It’s what the experts are saying too.
Sally McManus Address to the National Press Club, Wednesday 28th September 2022 Watch the address here. I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are meeting on – the Ngunnawal people, and pay respects to their elders, past, present and emerging. The Australian union movement supports the Statement from the Heart calling…
Australia needs sustainable pay increases so that working people’s pay keeps up with the cost of living and productivity increases. For this to occur we need to modernise the collective bargaining system.
A fairer approach and simpler right to flexible work arrangements in our workplace laws that recognise the importance for all of us of balancing work and care.
Our workplace bargaining laws are overly and unnecessarily complicated. They no longer provide an even playing field for workers.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/09/01/how-we-can-get-wages-growing-again/
Keep an eye out of the next few days for the union movement’s positive plan to ensuring millions of workers can get a pay rise.
How is it possible that businesses are crying out for more workers and yet 1.8 million people in Australia say they want work?
We are staring in the face of a massive cost of living crisis where the prices everywhere have gone up but our wages have not. So what do we do to tackle such a big challenge?
Australia is the best placed country in the world to be a renewable energy superpower, generating 395,000 jobs and $89 billion in revenue by 2040. We can get there by unions, government, business, and climate organisations working together.
A new report from the Australian Council of Trade Unions calls for the reinvigoration of Australia’s TAFE by guaranteeing a minimum of 70 percent public funding, as well repairing almost a decade of damage to our apprenticeship system.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/08/17/workers-wages-and-training-need-a-massive-boost/
The interest rate rise of 0.5 percentage points, which brings the cash rate to 1.85 per cent, announced on Tuesday by the Reserve Bank of Australia will worsen the cost-of-living crisis for workers.
How would you like to live like a CEO for a day? We’re certainly putting our hands up.
The Morrison Government’s IR Bill passed the Senate yesterday, stripped of all but one of its major provisions. This was a win for unions, workers, and the community who campaigned against the changes, writes Chloe Ward.
Working people in unions have successfully stopped many of the worst aspects of the Morrison Government’s anti-worker “Omnibus Bill” from becoming law.
Imagine getting laid-off over Christmas, abandoned by your employer, left with nothing while the bills stack up.
It’s a nightmare scenario, but for Mark and 300 of his colleagues, it was all too real.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/03/17/meet-mark-an-imbalance-of-power/
One shift can make all the difference for aged care worker Sherree Clarke. But in the midst of a pandemic, she actually saw fewer of them.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/03/10/meet-sherree-one-cut-from-poverty/
Reality check for Australian Working Women International Women’s Day is a day to reflect upon and honour the work of all the women who fought for the rights and protections that working women have today. But this year, it’s also a day for a reality check – because this Government has left women behind. The…
As a registered nurse for the past 10 years, Gaby Norman is used to taking care of others. And that’s why, with the Morrison Government proposing dangerous industrial relations legislation, she fears for what’s ahead.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/03/03/meet-gaby-a-nurses-concern/
Llwyd is an electrician based in Brisbane, with nearly three decades’ worth of experience. But he’s trapped on what he calls “the labour hire roundabout”.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/03/02/meet-llwyd-the-labour-hire-roundabout/
Job security. That’s all Rylee Miller is asking for. She just wants to know her job is safe and permanent.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/03/01/meet-rylee-the-need-for-job-security/
No access to paid sick leave and insecure working conditions are putting Australians at greater risk of COVID-19 infection, according to a submission by epidemiologists from ANU in response to the Morrison Government’s proposed IR Omnibus Bill.
Part-time workers stand to lose thousands in personal income, while others may be denied secure work altogether under proposed industrial relations changes, warns independent think tank, Per Capita.
The Senate Inquiry into the Government’s dangerous and extreme industrial relations Bill has just begun.
With Federal Parliament back in session, the fight over the Morrison Government’s Industrial Relations Bill is heating up.
Australian Unions oppose the Coalition’s dangerous plans—because they’re bad for wages, bad for workers’ conditions, and bad for the economy.
Welcome to the June edition of your Member Benefits Update.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2020/06/03/member-benefits-update-june-2020/
Read the full article here
About The rules around enterprise bargaining are too restrictive and bosses have found ways to exploit them. They use tactics such as outsourcing, offshoring, labour hire, terminating agreements, no stake agreements, and more, to avoid paying fair wages and conditions. Bosses have an unfair advantage over workers. The Issue The enterprise bargaining system was intended…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2017/09/08/enterprise-bargaining-is-broken/
No worker should ever have their wages stolen, but it has become a widespread and common problem in Australia. Roughly one-third of Australian workers are victims of wage theft each year, robbing workers around the country of an estimated $1.35 billion annually. It can occur in any industry, but wage theft has become common practice…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2017/09/08/wage-theft-the-new-model-for-big-business/
About The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) is a Government body intended to bully building, transport and maritime workers. It is trying to silence workers by intimidating them. Some basic rights have been stripped away and workers are threatened with criminal offences. Wages and conditions are being taken away by administrative action. The ABCC is…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2017/07/08/the-abcc-too-much-power-over-working-people/
Leonie asks: I work for the local council and I’ve just now changed jobs within the council.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2015/04/24/should-i-be-paid-for-any-overtime-i-work/
Liam asks: I’ve been doing the same work for about 10 years.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2015/02/13/how-can-i-recognise-sham-contracting/
Leon asks: My employer says she doesn’t have to pay me the amount set down in the Award as when I started working for her the Award said I was paid at a lower rate.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2014/12/01/am-i-being-paid-correctly-under-my-award/
James asks: My boss has asked me to obtain an ABN.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2014/10/03/my-boss-wants-me-to-have-an-abn/
On Saturday 14 October, Australia will have the opportunity to vote in a once-in-a-generation referendum. The question is a simple one and proposes a modest change to our constitution – to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the practical form of a Voice to Parliament.
Yesterday the inquiry into Price Gouging and Unfair Pricing Practices commenced in Melbourne, convened by economist and former ACCC chair Professor Allan Fels and commissioned by the ACTU.
