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The other day I was perusing OECD’s dataset on the gender pay gap. The bar representing Australia was disconcertingly far to the right end of the graph; Australia had one of the widest disparities between women’s and men’s earnings in the OECD, at over 14 per cent. Today as I idly find the same graph,…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/02/14/were-winning-for-women/
Have you ever counted how many hours of extra work you do with no pay?
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/11/23/will-you-go-home-on-time-today/
Everyone has a bad boss story. Robyn Peeples is fictional but I could swear I’ve met him several iterations of him in various workplaces before.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/11/14/all-across-the-country-its-action-action-action/
Everyone has a bad boss story. Robyn Peeples is fictional but I could swear I’ve met him several iterations of him in various workplaces before.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/11/04/robbin-people-tales-of-a-bad-boss/
Last week, the budget offered Australians a little relief, especially for parents. This includes an injection of about $4 billion over 4 years into affordable early childhood education and care, and an expansion of Paid Parental Leave from 18 to 26 weeks. These two wins will help mums to enter or re-enter the workforce. …
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/10/31/the-power-of-campaigning-a-budget-special/
The lines snaking along the roads outside Foodbank’s warehouses in Dandenong and Epping on Melbourne’s suburban edge say more than any politician or pundit could about the cost-of-living crisis working people are facing.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/07/05/foodbank-besieged-as-cost-of-living-crisis-bites/
When you have the constant threat of an eviction notice hanging over your head, the last thing you need is to be told you’re not needed at work next week.
When you have the constant threat of an eviction notice hanging over your head, the last thing you need is to be told you’re not needed at work next week.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/06/17/affordable-housing-requires-secure-jobs/
The last six weeks has certainly been a wild ride, and the 2022 election campaign is finally coming to a close. Before we grab a snag at our local polling centres, here’s a quick revisit some of the highs and lows, the biggest issues and what we should think about when we cast our votes tomorrow.
For the first time this century, you will likely be heading to the polling booths with a real income lower than the last time you voted.
With the Federal Election fast approaching, Scott Morrison’s government is still missing in action in addressing the insecure work crisis.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/04/29/what-you-need-to-know-about-insecure-work/
The release of the 2022 first quarter inflation data has confirmed the worst real pay cut for working people this century.
Casual workers in Australia are earning on average $350 less each week than their permanent full time or part time counterparts, according to a report released by the ACTU.
We have been hearing a lot of old disproven excuses from big business and media commentators about why the minimum wage shouldn’t be increased. Here are five things you can say to set the conversation back on track.
Australian workers are grappling with the triple whammy of the soaring cost of living, flat wages growth and the prevalence of precarious work. It’s a dangerous economic equation that has seen many workers tumbling through the trapdoor into unmanageable debt.
Workers across the country have come out to display warning signs for the Morrison Government: all 15,000 of them.
We have had nine years of wage stagnation under successive Coalition Government, and we are already struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
So when ACTU Secretary Sally McManus posed this question on Twitter on Thursday, the responses were eye-opening.
Nine years of wage stagnation, rising cost of living and a gender pay gap are just as the Morrison Government intended.
“The economy is work. The economy is workers. Until we put them at the centre of this future building of our economy, we’re not going to solve this problem,” Dr Dean says.
“There’s a high level of casualisation in the workforce there, insecure work, and I think unless people have got something to connect them to their employer, many are going to think – I’m just going to go.”
Morrison’s circus routine means he isn’t talking about the issues that are really hurting Australian workers: Job security, wages growth and the cost of living.
Wage stagnation is a direct product of the Liberal Government’s economic design. They have embedded casualisation and precarious work into our national labour force.
Workers with insecure jobs have fewer rights, lower pay and limited ability to plan for the future. Read the report into insecure work in FNQ
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/11/30/spotlight-on-job-insecurity-se-nsw/
There’s a lot of noise from employers at the moment about not being able to find workers. Even with millions of workers returning to the labour force after falling out of work during the pandemic, employers – apparently – simply cannot find anyone to fill vacancies. In response, the Morrison Government has announced this week…
The end to lockdowns and restrictions is bittersweet, we can all celebrate seeing our sorely missed family and friends and newfound freedoms, but we would be lying to ourselves if we thought that we were all coming out of this equally. Our frontline workers are exhausted, with 4 in 5 teachers now considering leaving the…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/11/10/workers-battle-stagnant-wages/
Have a chat with almost any young worker and you’ll quickly find out that work/life isn’t what it used to be. Now, we have the data to prove it. The ACTU’s Work Shouldn’t Hurt report found that, of the respondents aged under 24: 3 in 10 workers have experienced sexual harassment Over a third (37%)…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/11/04/insecure-work-young-people/
Clothes can say a lot about a person, but they can also reveal a lot about who made them too.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/10/22/ethical-shopping-workers/
We know that insecure work can have several poor economic outcomes for workers. However, what is rarely talked about is the how safety issues, like sexual harassment, are often compounded by these exploitative business models. A new survey commissioned by the ACTU found that 26% of retail workers and 22% of health workers reported experiencing…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/10/21/insecure-work-sexual-harassment/
Insecure work is at crisis levels in central Queensland. Nearly 4 in 10 workers (38.7%) are in casual work. 1 in 2 workers in central Queensland no longer have a permanent job. Mining and manufacturing companies have been deliberately replacing permanent jobs with insecure ones. Insecure work is incredibly prevalent in central Queensland. The region is…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/10/21/insecure-work-central-qld/
This World Day for Decent Work, unions around the world are calling on Governments to protect secure work. Will you join them?
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/10/04/world-day-for-decent-work/
A new report has revealed a record number of Australians working more than one job to survive.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/09/28/record-multi-jobs/
Workers with insecure jobs have fewer rights, lower pay and limited ability to plan for the future. Read the report into insecure work in FNQ
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/09/23/spotlight-on-job-insecurity-fnq/
The insecure work crisis is hitting the workers of Tasmania hard. Tasmania has the highest level of casual work (26.6%) in the country – that’s 4.7% higher than the national average. Tasmanian workers earn 13% less than the Australian median weekly wage. One in three workers in Tasmania are on insecure work arrangements including casual,…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/09/02/spotlight-on-job-insecurity-and-wages-tasmania/
Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics published their employment and wage price index for the June quarter. We take a look beyond the numbers.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/08/31/unstable-work-and-wages/
Addressing the inequalities in Australia’s housing market is essential to our economic recovery, writes Lauren Piko
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/08/20/housing-must-be-considered-in-economic-recovery/
A High Court ruling rubs salt in the wounds of casual workers already vulnerable to the Morrison’s attacks on secure jobs, writes Francis Leach
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/08/05/high-court-falls-for-morrisons-insecure-work-scam/
To support workers through the latest COVID crisis, the Government must first face up to the realities of the insure work, writes Lauren Piko
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/07/23/facing-the-realities-of-insecure-work/
Recently retired mine worker Rob Foot speaks with On the Job about the damaging effect of labour hire on mining communities.
Being employed at an Australian university has become a poverty trap for thousands of workers across the country, writes Francis Leach
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/07/12/australian-universities-casualisation-must-end/
Food delivery tech operator Menulog has finally come around to what Unions have been saying for years – that its contracted riders and drivers should be considered employees and given the same rights and entitlements as other workers.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/04/14/workers-rights-finally-on-the-menu/
The Morrison government has created new laws that take rights away from casual workers and undermine job security for many others. We break down what the changes to casual work laws mean for you.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/04/13/changes-to-casual-work-laws/
Working people in unions have successfully stopped many of the worst aspects of the Morrison Government’s anti-worker “Omnibus Bill” from becoming law.
This week the Senate will be voting on the Morrison Government’s industrial relations (IR) Bill. Let’s break down what this Bill could mean for you and why it must be stopped.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/03/16/break-it-down-for-me-changes-to-my-working-rights/
An immediate and comprehensive overhaul of the system is literally a matter of life and death for tens of thousands of Australians living in aged care.
Is the jig finally up for the gig economy?
Last week’s landmark ruling in the British Supreme Court that Uber drivers in the UK were employees rather than sole contractors may have kicked a giant hole in the low pay, no responsibility business model that the tech giant and others like it have relied upon.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/02/24/uk-uber-ruling-a-huge-win-for-workers/
Ange Roper is struggling to make ends meet.
She lost her gig, one built upon insecure working hours and no job security, and suddenly things looked very bleak.
It means making heartbreaking decisions about your kids that no parent wants to make.
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.
There’s a new book, very questionable conditions for food delivery drivers, Sally’s found some low-stress jobs and we chat to Greg Jericho about changing employment thanks to Covid-19.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2020/11/30/tanya-plibersek-stressful-jobs-christmas-and-greg/
In what’s been an already devasting year, it’s fair to say Victorians have had an especially rough week.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2020/08/10/paid-pandemic-leave-what-is-it-and-why-do-we-need-it/
Every Australian can win, if discussions between the government, business, and the union movement address weaknesses in workplace law that started long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
On this day in 1856, Melbourne's Stonemasons fought for – and won – the 8-hour workday as a nationwide industry standard.
Unfair rostering disadvantages workers in insecure work: unions are calling for for roster justice.
