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 Australia, your rights as a worker can differ when it comes to your type of employment, especially when it comes to your health and safety, job security, wages and entitlements on the job.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/11/13/permanent-vs-casual-workers-rights-in-australia/
Thanks to new laws which union members won this year, gig economy workers are entitled to the pay, rights and benefits that other workers enjoy.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/11/04/new-rights-and-protections-for-gig-economy-workers/
Casual workers across Australia now have stronger rights and protections, thanks to new laws won by union members.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/10/23/casual-workers-are-no-longer-just-a-situationship/
Labour hire loopholes were exploited by employers – but that’s finally changing thanks to union-won Same Job Same Pay laws, which unions have already used to win substantial pay rises!
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/10/15/how-these-workers-are-getting-a-30k-pay-rise/
Happy 26 August! Today, new work rights come into force across Australia. Here’s what they are, why they are so important and how to make the most of them.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/08/26/new-work-rights-from-today/
In the last two years, the union movement has won the biggest changes to workers’ rights in this country in generations. Here’s what changes are coming into effect on 26 August 2024.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/08/20/new-work-rights-whats-changing-on-26-august/
Union members are using new union-won laws to secure better pay and conditions for thousands of workers across workplaces and industries.
In the last two years, the union movement has won the biggest changes to workers’ rights in this country in generations. These changes deliver new and improved rights that empower millions of workers.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/07/30/new-union-won-rights-at-work-what-you-need-to-know/
There are thousands of casual workers who work regular, ongoing hours – often for years – but are are stuck in insecure work. These are some of their stories.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/02/13/bringing-together-the-stories-of-casual-workers/
The first part of the Closing Loopholes Bill was a monumental achievement that won vital changes for working people. Part two is just as important.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/02/12/closing-gig-economy-and-casual-loopholes-in-2024/
The 2023 Work Shouldn’t Hurt survey reveals that over half of insecure workers have reported continuing to work while ill or injured specifically, due to the absence of paid leave.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/01/30/half-of-workers-are-working-while-sick-or-injured/
Less than 5% of casual workers who want permanent jobs can secure one. The second part of the Closing Loopholes Bill includes much-needed changes that will re-balance the relationship between casual workers and employers.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2024/01/22/casualties-of-a-broken-system/
Part one of the Closing Loopholes Bill has passed the Senate, delivering a much-needed win for Australian workers heading into the holiday season.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/12/20/new-laws-passed/
The Closing Loopholes bill was introduced by the Albanese Government in the face of massive price gouging and profiteering by big business that caused a massive inflation spike. The new laws will increase job security, help stop wage theft, make workplaces safer, and help get wages moving again.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/10/17/lets-get-wages-moving-again-close-the-loopholes/
New laws, designed to make workplaces fairer and safer for workers, have been introduced by the Albanese Government in Parliament this week.
‘Labour hire’ may sound unassuming but behind the label hides terrible wages, unreliable jobs, and poor conditions.
Any illusions anyone might have still had about the gig work promise of ‘flexibility’ have been well and truly shattered, thanks to two big pieces of research released last week.
For anyone on an ABN, there’s been a harrowing development: you are more likely to be on a sham contract than a genuine independent contract.
New research is in. And it’s not good.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/05/24/fancy-earning-11-59-less-than-your-workmates/
If you or someone you know is thinking about going to university, here’s something you should know. Universities are not run for the benefit of students. And guess what? They haven’t for years.
When the pandemic hit and many workers shifted to working from home, a new avenue opened. We had a taste of what flexibility on our own terms could look like.
Corporate executives and conservative politicians like to pretend that everyday people shouldn’t interfere in economics, but the truth is that our top economic goal as a nation should be to give everyone the chance to get a secure and fairly paid job.
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.
There’s a union for everyone, especially if your work is flexible.
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.
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/
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/
As big companies move towards automation for profit, we must ensure essential workers are not treated as expendable, writes Lauren Piko
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/09/24/cruel-risks-of-automation-in-a-pandemic/
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/
Working Australians are facing a job security crisis. Let’s break down what that means and why it’s so important to your working future.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/05/07/job-security-and-your-working-future/
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/
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.
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/
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/
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.
End the uncertainty and anxiety about the future of JobKeeper.
That was the message from ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus, to Scott Morrison on ABC TV’s “Insiders” yesterday.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/02/15/end-jobkeeper-uncertainty/
Last week’s ABS employment data raised the usual discussion about unemployment trends across the country.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2016/09/21/underemployment-a-growing-conver/
The gender pay gap now at its lowest point ever at 11.5%. If we continue to progress as we are, the gender pay gap in Australia could close completely within nine years.
In Australia, your rights as a worker can differ when it comes to your type of employment, especially when it comes to your health and safety, job security, wages and entitlements on the job.
