Category Archives: Australian trade unions

Uber to limit surge pricing and commuters urged to work from home amid Sydney train shut down

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Government to meet union officials again on Thursday after a Wednesday meeting didn’t resolve the industrial dispute

Sydney’s trains are set to shut down this weekend after an emergency meeting between rail unions and the New South Wales premier on Wednesday produced no solutions.

The government will meet leaders from the Rail, Tram and Bus Union again on Thursday in a final bid to avert industrial action from train staff, which would see trains stop running across the city on Friday, Saturday and into Sunday.

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Anger as CFMEU ‘sweetheart deal’ suspended in Queensland government crackdown

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Union members hit out at LNP as deputy premier announces pause on pay and conditions policy

A “sweetheart deal” for the CFMEU has been suspended in an unprecedented crackdown after the embattled union was blamed for major project cost blowouts.

Construction union “perks” were put on ice as the Queensland government stepped up a campaign to tackle the CFMEU, with some union members clearly not happy.

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Employers shortchanged Australian workers a record amount of super last year, tax office says

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The dollar figure of superannuation that went unpaid after recovery efforts rose to $5.2bn from $4.8bn in 2022-23

Australian workers missed out on a record $5.2bn of superannuation that employers failed to pay last financial year, according to the Australian Taxation Office.

The ATO has released the data on the superannuation “gap” in its annual report, which also reveals that $1.4bn is likely to go unpaid because it is owed by insolvent companies.

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Push to count ‘sleepovers’ as breaks could lead to 28-hour shifts for Australian care workers, unions warn

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Fair Work Commission to hear case brought by business group asking for change to safety net for care industries

A business push to count “sleepovers” as breaks in care industries could result in “nightmare” 28-hour shifts without penalty rates, unions have warned.

This week the Fair Work Commission will hear a case brought by the Australian Industry Group asking it to change the safety net for care industries to clarify that hours worked before or after a sleepover count as separate shifts.

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Australia news live: PwC reveals it sacked eight staff over data breaches; Perth man dies after being taken to police watch house

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Court to rule in Pauline Hanson-Mehreen Faruqi case

A federal court judge is ready to rule on whether Pauline Hanson made a racial slur when she told Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan.

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Qantas ordered to pay $170,000 to three workers illegally sacked at start of pandemic

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Judge rebukes airline for ‘vast legal costs’ expended to defend claims of illegally firing baggage handlers

A federal court judge has rebuked Qantas for the “vast legal costs” expended to defend claims it illegally sacked almost 1,700 baggage handlers in 2020, as former workers move a step closer towards a compensation payout.

Justice Michael Lee ruled on Monday that three test cases should receive $30,000, $40,000 and $100,000. They suffered varying amounts of “non-economic loss”, the court ruled.

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‘Easier to buy your 10th house than your first’: Unions NSW joins push to reform negative gearing and capital gains tax

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Exclusive: Survey finds 72% of 2,158 workers want Albanese government to rethink housing tax breaks – particularly renters and over-65s

Unions NSW has thrown its support behind reform of the negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, arguing that the housing market is “fundamentally broken”.

The Unions NSW secretary, Mark Morey, is now calling on the Albanese government to reform the tax concessions and reinvest “profound savings” in housing, such as by expanding the Housing Australia Future Fund.

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Opposition leader calls for university’s leaders to quit – as it happened

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The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has joined an international push “to hold the Taliban to account” under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Wong says:

We know the women and girls of Afghanistan are effectively being erased from public life by the various edicts the Taliban … have issued.

The steps we are taking with Germany, Canada and the Netherlands are unprecedented. We are intending to use the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, to which Afghanistan is a party, to take action.

If I can … say again to the Australian Lebanese community. This is a deeply distressing situation for so many of you. I know that there are many Australians in Lebanon. There are many Australians who have relatives, family and friends in Lebanon. I again urge Australians in Lebanon to leave now. There are flight cancelations and disruptions, and there is a risk that Beirut airport may close for an extended period of time.

Please do not wait for a preferred route. Please take the first option you can to leave. We continue to monitor the situation closely. We have been working with partners on contingency plans now for many months but I again say to anyone who any Australian who is in Lebanon: please leave now.

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Australia news live: Labor’s preliminary refusal of Pep11 gas project ‘an amazing step forward’, Scamps says; total fire ban announced for parts of NSW

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On the double-dissolution threat floated by Anthony Albanese yesterday, Sarah Hanson-Young says:

Again, why, why be so bullish about this? The Australian people don’t need a panicked prime minister who wants to press the exit button because he can’t get his own way.

They want a government that’s willing to work across the parliament. Now, a third of Australians voted for parties other than Labor or Liberal at the last election. And they did that because they want a parliament that works for them.

We want to fix it. We want to give the government the opportunity to fix it. I’m not just interested in saying no to things. I want to get outcomes. I guess that’s my concern.

This prime minister seems to have such a chip on his shoulder, doesn’t want to work with anyone. Just wants to do it all his way. I don’t think this is a very good sign for the future. Come on, come on, prime minister, you know, let’s put – put aside the politics and get on with getting some outcomes.

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CFMEU faces fresh investigations into alleged corruption in Queensland, NSW and SA branches

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Union’s administrator accepts all seven of Geoffrey Watson SC’s recommendations, including looking into alleged links to motorcycle gangs

The construction wing of the CFMEU is facing investigations into alleged corruption and criminal links in its Queensland, New South Wales and South Australian branches and a further inquiry in Victoria backed by new coercive powers, after its interim administrator accepted the findings of an initial investigation in full.

Responding on Tuesday to an interim investigation conducted by barrister Geoffrey Watson SC into the CFMEU’s combined Victorian and Tasmanian branch, administrator Mark Irving KC accepted all seven of Watson’s recommendations, including that alleged links to outlaw motorcycle gangs and other organised crime be further investigated.

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Anthony Albanese may decide who runs in safe Labor seat as deputy PM and union locked in tussle

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Richard Marles and Bill Shorten’s old union, the Australian Workers’ Union, in stoush to pick candidate for Gorton

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is locked in a struggle with Bill Shorten’s old union, the Australian Workers’ Union, to pick the next candidate for the safe Labor seat of Gorton.

Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong will be contested by the left’s Jo Briskey while Labor’s choice for Gorton is a tussle between the climate crisis and water policy expert Alice Jordan-Baird and the Brimbank mayor, Ranka Rasic.

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NSW nurses and midwives strike: hospital wait times up and surgery delays expected

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Premier says agreeing to 15% pay rise this year would lead other workers to ‘knock on my door’ demanding the same

A New South Wales nurses’ strike has prompted warnings to keep ambulances and emergency departments clear of minor cases as Labor feels the heat from public sector unions.

Nurses and midwives are walking off the job across NSW for 12 hours on Tuesday after demands for a 15% pay rise this year were rebuffed.

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High court will expedite challenge from former CFMEU officials against administration

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Former construction union bosses claim forced administration is unconstitutional because it prevents or limits political donations

Former construction union officials challenging the government’s law putting the union into administration will get their day in the high court as early as November, after the court agreed to expedite the case.

On Friday, the acting chief justice, Michelle Gordon, ordered a timetable that will allow the case to be heard this year after the plaintiffs argued the law prevented them giving political donations and campaigning ahead of the federal election, due by May 2025.

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Senate committee told foreign student cap would ‘gut’ private education sector – as it happened

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Michele O’Neil said this isn’t about “expecting everyone to have the same opinion all of the time” but continued:

We’re a diverse movement, and people have strong opinions, but it is at its core about who we are and what we stand for. And we don’t walk away when things get tough, we face up to them. And angry individuals lashing out and blaming everyone except themselves doesn’t get us through this.

We need to stay steady on what is in the interest of working people and what’s in the interest of working people is good, clean, strong, effective unions with leaders who see their job as representing workers and their members, not acting in their own self-interest.

No … I think that it’s important that we realise that the union movement – the vast bulk of unions – want to stay part of the united union movement, and have made that really clear.

What I’m saying, Patricia, is we’re talking to all of our unions all of the time … I haven’t had any other unions threaten to quit.

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Builders and the Fair Work Commission are delaying CFMEU members’ pay deals, union leader says

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Electrical Trades Union secretary says it’s ‘appalling’ that agreements struck before the CFMEU was placed into administration ‘aren’t getting through’ the FWC

Blue-collar unions have taken aim at builders and the Fair Work Commission for delays approving pay deals struck before allegations of criminal misconduct and bikie links resulted in the construction union being placed into administration.

Troy Gray, the Electrical Trades Union Victorian secretary, said it was “appalling” that administrators have removed three union-appointed directors from the board of industry super fund Cbus and that enterprise agreements “aren’t getting through” the FWC.

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CFMEU administrator moves for ‘clean sweep’ of union super fund directors at Cbus

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Exclusive: Former national construction union secretary digs in, while ETU suspends Labor and ACTU contributions in protest of ‘trial by parliament’

The administrator of the construction union wants a “clean sweep” of union-appointed board directors on the Cbus industry super fund, prompting two resignations and a plan to sack another former union official.

On Wednesday a spokesperson for the Construction Forestry Maritime Employees Union confirmed Rita Mallia, who was sacked from her New South Wales construction president role on Friday, and former ACT secretary, Jason O’Mara, had resigned as member directors of the fund, which is one of Australia’s largest, with $94bn under management.

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Albanese government rejects Setka’s claim Labor double-crossed him over CFMEU administration as ‘ridiculous’

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Construction Forestry Maritime Employees Union members to protest administration in capital city rallies on Tuesday

Labor has emphatically rejected claims by former construction union official John Setka that the Albanese government agreed to let him stand down in return for not putting his union into administration.

The workplace relations minister, Murray Watt, said this was a “ridiculous claim” and rejected as “absolutely fanciful” suggestions Labor had double-crossed him by proceeding to put the union into administration over accusations of criminal misconduct and bikie links against the body.

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‘Strong sentiment’ among construction union members to disaffiliate from Labor, CFMEU secretary says

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Zach Smith says federal government plan to appoint administrators has left members feeling their democratic rights have been stripped

Construction union members are “angry” and there is a “strong sentiment” among many to disaffiliate from the Labor party, the Construction Forestry Maritime and Employees Union’s national secretary has warned.

After the Coalition and Labor struck a deal to appoint administrators to address accusations of criminal misconduct and bikie links, Zach Smith said the union was “never given an opportunity” to address the issues itself.

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Labor pushing for new powers to ‘clean up’ alleged criminal activity in CFMEU

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In further toughening of stance, government considers calls for joint federal and state police taskforce to investigate unions

The Albanese government will next week push for new powers to appoint an administrator of the construction union, due to a delay in the Fair Work case brought after accusations of criminal misconduct and bikie links.

In a further toughening of Labor’s stance, the workplace relations minister, Murray Watt, signalled the government was considering calls for a joint federal and state police taskforce to investigate alleged criminal conduct in unions.

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As many as 360 workers sacked at Rex with hundreds more jobs to go

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Employees reportedly told the airline will no longer operate flights between capital cities

As many as 360 staff at Rex Airlines have been sacked already and hundreds more are on the chopping block after administrators were called in to run the embattled carrier, with remaining staff told they may not get paid until a new buyer is found.

It comes amid speculation that Asia-based private equity firm PAG, which funded Rex’s $150m expansion to jet operations, was considering becoming the airline’s new owner out of administration.

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