casual employment Archives

Issue #1965

Divided we beg, together we bargain: wage strikes in US and Australia

Across the Pacific there’s a peculiar phenomenon occurring. As the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, businesses are struggling to hire workers.

Issue #2021

DINGO

All the contradictions. The official unemployment figure is 3.4 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Workers were told that once unemployment...

Issue #1947

Casuals Con

The centrepiece of the Coalition government’s industrial relations Omnibus bill is the schedule on casual employees.

Issue #1950

The rot at the heart of our fruit-picking industry

Sunraysia, in Victoria’s north known for its table grapes, vineyards, citrus fruit, and olives. It is a popular working holiday destination, with plenty of work on the fruit blocks for migrant labourers.

Issue #2033

Workers’ rights up for grabs

Ahead of the upcoming Victorian State Election on the 26th November, labour rights are on the ballot once more. The Andrews Labor government has made...

Issue #1955

LETTER – Struggle to unite all workers

Some are celebrating as a victory the removal of some of the clauses in the Omnibus bill on industrial relations. The ACTU and other union bodies are claiming victory, and certainly, some onerous provisions have been removed. The organised sector of the working class has had some benefit but the attack on all workers has continued.

Issue #1949

Ignoring workers: the government’s “recovery” is grim

The underemployed need more hours of work. Low and middle-income workers need a wage rise, job security, and affordable public housing.

Issue #1996

Unions join to give voice on job casualisation and COVID-19

It was great to see so many people joining together to listen and give voice to the major problems of casualisation and the pandemic that...

Issue #1961

Pro-business – Anti-worker

Women, aged care, and jobs were to be the focus of the 2021-22 federal budget – or so we were led to believe, prior to its release.

Issue #1997

Why the WA newspapers fight matters to all of us

In our democracy, we value the principle of one person, one vote. We would be outraged if the richer you are the more votes you...

Issue #1960

DOBSEEKER: MORRISON’S ATTACK ON WORKERS

The Morrison government has created The Employer Reporting Line allowing “employers to report jobseekers for declining or voluntarily leaving a ‘suitable’ job, demonstrating ‘misconduct’ during a job interview, or failing to attend one, and submitting an ‘inappropriate’ job application” (SBS).

Issue #1964

Fair Work Commission rules delivery riders are employees

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has ruled that a delivery rider for Deliveroo is an employee, not a contractor, for the purposes of employment law.

Issue #1968

RAFFWU protected action ballot order marks new era for retail unionism

On 22nd June 2021, the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) secured a Protected Action Ballot Order for its workers at the ironically named Sydney bookstore “Better Read Than Dead.”

Issue #1997

Respect @ Work 1 year on

The 2018 National Inquiry into Sex Harassment in Australian Workplaces, which produced the Respect @ Work Report, found that two in five women have experienced...

Issue #2023

Jobs and Skills Summit: dangerous illusions for workers

Workers and their families are looking for real change – real wage rises, secure jobs, safe working conditions, with adequately funded and staffed health and...

Issue #2022

The aged care crisis

How does a non-profit charitable organisation that is sixty-nine per cent funded by government, and claims to operate at a loss, find $1.4 billion to...

Issue #1955

McCormick’s picket

Thursday 25th March marked four weeks since workers at McCormick Foods factory went on strike late in February. Workers, with the support of the community, have been operating a 24/7 picket out the front of the factory in Clayton South in Victoria.

Issue #1955

Omnibus bill wounded but not buried

The Coalition’s omnibus industrial relations bill was torn apart in the Senate on Thursday 18th March, leaving only the section on casuals intact. On the same day Parliament passed a bill for the (pre-COVID base rate) unemployment benefit (JobSeeker) to be increased by an insulting and punitive $25 a week – just $3.57 a day extra – when the COVID supplement ceases at the end of March. JobKeeper is being withdrawn at the same time.

Issue #2056

Industrial action looms at Queensland power stations

The union representing workers at the Callide and Kogan power stations will apply to the Fair Work Commission to take industrial action after negotiations broke...

Issue #2070

THE BIG RIP-OFF

In the face of the big rip-off of Australian workers, the Albanese government’s attempted makeover of the industrial relations system continued on 4th September, when...