- The Guardian
- Issue #2186
The Health Services Union (HSU) is calling on governments and employers to deliver immediate, targeted relief for health, aged care and disability workers during Australia’s worsening fuel crisis.
HSU National Secretary Lloyd Williams said the union’s members were bearing a disproportionate share of the crisis, with no option to work from home.
“These workers kept this country going through a pandemic, and they are doing it again now. They will turn up regardless. That’s the nature of the work,” Williams said.
“But turning up is getting harder and more expensive by the day, and the people who depend on them can’t afford for that to become a reason workers don’t show up at all.”
“We need governments and employers to recognise that a generic response to this crisis is not enough for workers in this sector,” Williams emphasised.
“The federal government’s decision to halve the fuel excise was a welcome step, now it’s time for employers to act to relieve pressure on an essential workforce.
“When you’ve got casual workers weighing up whether it’s worth taking a shift, there’s a serious problem that could have terrible ramifications for some of the most vulnerable people in society.”
The HSU represents more than 110,000 workers across health, aged care, disability and community services.
PARASITE OF THE WEEK: is Bendigo Bank. The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has strongly condemned Bendigo Bank’s partnership with global tech companies Infosys and Genpact, which represents a dramatic and dangerous escalation in the fight to protect Australian jobs from being wiped out by AI.
The bank refuses to outline the number of staff that would be impacted, but the FSU anticipates it could be in the hundreds – with some reports indicating up to 1,000.
The union says it is unlikely that any area of the bank will be spared in this next phase of the bank’s so-called ‘productivity program,’ with the first wave of cuts expected over the coming months in the technology division.
The FSU is aware other areas impacted include business and agribusiness, lending assessment and fulfillment, third party banking fulfillment, lending operations – consumer, customer processing and wealth operations, customer remediation, mortgage help, operational excellence, finance, financial crime operations, and contact centres.
The FSU is concerned that business operations impacts will have devastating direct and flow on effects on customers and communities who rely on Bendigo Bank for their banking needs.
The union also warns this leaves many questions unanswered about how sensitive information will be managed by the bank, with risks that customer data could be housed offshore.
The union says an AI plan on paper won’t stop AI-related job cuts; Australians urgently need regulation that will genuinely protect workers.
FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said, “The race to the bottom has well and truly started in Australia when it comes to AI adoption and offshoring, and Australians should be outraged by the failures of both business and government.
“We are now seeing in real time the disastrous consequences of a complete lack of AI regulation, and Australian workers are paying the ultimate price. The idea of Bendigo Bank being a community bank is now dead. It has completely abandoned any pretence of being Australia’s most trusted bank.
“The fact that Bendigo Bank cannot say how many jobs will be impacted inspires zero confidence that management understands the full ramifications of what they are doing.
“We therefore demand that CEO Richard Fennell and the board immediately reverse their decision before it’s too late. Australian workers have long understood that banks and big business were never going to act ethically. Unfortunately, the federal government has been asleep at the wheel, but it’s not too late for them to step up and protect local jobs.”
