The Guardian • casual employment
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.
Read moreDINGO
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...
Read moreCasuals Con
The centrepiece of the Coalition government’s industrial relations Omnibus bill is the schedule on casual employees.
Read moreThe 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.
Read moreWorkers’ 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...
Read moreLETTER – 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.
Read moreIgnoring 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.
Read moreUnions 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...
Read morePro-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.
Read moreWhy 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...
Read moreDOBSEEKER: 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).
Read moreFair 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.
Read moreRAFFWU 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.”
Read moreRespect @ 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...
Read moreJobs 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...
Read moreThe 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...
Read moreMcCormick’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.
Read moreOmnibus 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.
Read moreIndustrial 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...
Read moreTHE 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...
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