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The ACTU has warned against an employer push to reduce or remove weekend penalty rates in Awards and cut the take home pay of over 500,000 low-paid workers. Fair Work Australia will today hear submissions in Melbourne from employer groups who want to remove or reduce penalty rates in awards…

The ACTU will today urge Parliament to reject a bill that would strip penalty rates from up to 500,000 workers in businesses with less than 20 employees. ACTU president Ged Kearney said new Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing a continuing fall in wages in the food and accommodation and…

Employees must be given a genuine right to ask for family-friendly work arrangements, including going part-time, to balance work and caring responsibilities, the ACTU said today. ACTU president Ged Kearney said that the lack of a right to family friendly work arrangements was forcing women out of the workforce or…

A new report highlighting the growth of insecure work across the globe, released in time for World Day for Decent Work, is disturbing evidence that employers around the world are joining forces to erode workers' rights and conditions through labour hire. ACTU President Ged Kearney said the report, The Triangular…

Recently Senator Xenophon introduced a bill to parliament that would scrap penalty rates for thousands of workers. Despite hundreds of emails sent to the Senator asking him to Bin his Bill, he hasn't listened and more employers are joining him. Now it's time to tell the Senate direct what individual…

Australians' enjoyment of the biggest sporting weekend of the year is under threat from a push by employers and politicians to create a 24/7 economy and abolish penalty rates, say unions. The ACTU has called on Parliament to reject a push to strip penalty rates from hundreds of thousands of…

One in four young workers are not receiving their legal entitlements to penalty rates, sick leave, superannuation and other conditions because employers are using a black market cash economy to avoid their obligations, according to new research. A survey of more than 1000 workers commissioned by the Victorian Trades Hall…

A media release issued today from Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Bill Shorten has advised: "The Australian Government will urgently introduce an amendment to the Fair Work Act to protect the entitlements of tens of thousands of state public servants threatened by job cuts announced by state governments." Minister…

The Government's commitment to maintain the penalty rates system shows it is on the side of Australian workers who give up precious family and social time to go to work at weekends, say unions. ACTU President Ged Kearney said the Government should be congratulated for resisting the scare campaign being…

Unions are today reminding Australian workers to check they are not missing out on wage increases which should have automatically come into effect at the start of the new financial year. ACTU President Ged Kearney said today had been declared National Check Your Pay Day to educate workers about the…