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The ACTU will pursue its claim to make paid domestic violence leave a workplace right in the Fair Work Commission today. The ACTU is pushing to make 10 days paid domestic violence leave for employees an award condition, which would benefit more than six million Australian workers. Having access to…
It is now well known that amongst its many broken election promises, the Federal Government broke Abbott's key centrepiece promise on paid parental leave (PPL). The fact they chose Mother's Day in May this year to announce the death knell of their policy just rubbed salt into the wound of…
New parents will be forced back to work shortly after the birth of their child thanks to the Abbott Government's cuts to Paid Parental Leave (PPL) introduced into the Parliament today. The Abbott Government's $1 billion cut to PPL will leave as many as 80,000 parents a year worse off…
Spectacular paid parental leave (PPL) backflip & cuts to family support compromise child care
12 May 2015
Australian unions have long called for an increase in child care assistance and funding but it should not come at the expense of overall support to families. The Abbott Government is forcing an impossible choice upon Australian families by linking new investment in child care with extreme cuts to paid…
Employers try tricky legal tactics to quash new support for family friendly work arrangements and domestic violence leave
24 April 2015
Employer groups are using tricky legal tactics to avoid new workplace protections for domestic violence leave and family friendly work arrangements which will increase women's workforce participation. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Housing Industry Association (HIA), Australia Industry Group (AIG) and National Farmers Federation (NFF) lodged responses…
Australian Unions are lodging a claim with the Fair Work Commission to give more than four million Australian workers who are covered by an award the right to return to work after parental leave either part time or on reduced hours. The ACTU will lodge the new claim for family…
Unions call for ILO Standard on gender-based violence at work
25 November 2014
The ITUC is calling for a new international Convention on gender-based violence at the workplace, as the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women today. Click here to read this story on the ITUC website The Governing Body of the International Labour Organization – made…
Unions push for the right to domestic violence leave
28 October 2014
Unions are pushing to give millions of Australian workers the right to access domestic violence leave. The ASU has been active and innovative on this front since 2010 when our Union won the first clause providing domestic violence leave in Australia. ACTU President Ged Kearney said paid domestic violence leave…
Domestic violence: a workplace issue
08 August 2014
“I HAD to get the children out. I was left with no money, everything taken away from me. I felt less than a person; the emotional abuse is constant. I cannot afford to lose it, I am the sole carer for my children.” By TANIE HARRIS-SANSEYRead this on Working Life…
White Ribbon Ambassador and ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said Australian Unions will support a special resolution at the ACTU Executive on Tuesday for paid domestic violence leave to be included as a minimum entitlement in the 2014 modern award review. "Australia is already leading the world with over 1.2 million…
ASU and other public sector unions seek certainty on Abbott’s paid parental leave policy
23 August 2013
The ASU joins the ACTU and other unions in seeking a commitment from the Federal Opposition that local government, state government and all other public sector workers will not be disadvantaged by the Abbott Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme. The current scheme introduced by the ALP Federal Government allows a…
The ASU is concerned to have read in this week’s media reports that Abbott is planning to fund his controversial paid parental leave scheme by excluding public sector workers, including local government employees, from it. In effect, council workers, teachers and nurses, amongst many others, would lose out in order…
Following the Federal Government's introduction of Paid Parental Leave and the Dad and Partner Pay schemes over recent years, we are surveying workers who have accessed or tried to access assistance from them, or plan to in the near future. This will help us respond to the upcoming Government review…
ACTU president Ged Kearney said parents and especially women should be extremely wary of the Coalition's trumped up paid parental scheme policies, "This policy would dismantle well-functioning agreements between business and employees and create a one-strike-and-fold opportunity for the Coalition to dismantle the scheme should they come to power," Ms…