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…

The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement was finalised in November 2014 but the text was only released on 17 June 2015. It appears that the Australian Government made huge concessions on temporary labour and investor rights in its desperation to complete the deal. Click here to read this on the AFTINET…

On 2 July 2015 the ASU represented members in a dispute against Jetstar before Vice President Watson at the Fair Work Commission. Recently there has been plenty of confusion and inconsistency in the way Jetstar has applied Nil48 - Jetstar has tried to underpay staff by making a range of…

The wages of Australia's lowest paid workers will increase by $16 per week from 1 July as the annual wage review decision affecting 1.8 million award dependent workers comes into effect. This is the only chance for a pay rise for low paid workers and follows the Fair Work Commission's…

Yet another series of leaks confirm PSI's repeated concerns on the restriction of governments' right to regulate in the public interest as well as underlining the lack of transparency surrounding the Trade In Service Agreement (TISA) negotiations. Click here to read this item on the PSI website The documents –…

Government decision to support the ALP's proposal today to direct the revenue from the first two years of the fuel excise indexation, estimated to be $1.1 billion, towards additional Roads to Recovery funding for Local Government. This week the ALP Anthony Albanese, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, and Julie…

The Abbott Government's proposed changes to Australia's world leading not for profit superannuation system are nothing more than an ideologically driven attack on workers.Not-for-profit industry super funds have lower fees and have outperformed the for-profit retail funds owned by the big banks over any time period comparison. As Industry Super…

Last week ASU delegates at our regular quarterly meeting put an ultimatum to Jetstar management to fix the way in which the company pays nil 48s at airports. Jetstar has responded to the ASU request to clarify how nil 48s operate under EBA 5 by asserting that it does not…

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…

The Australian Education Union are encouraging all teachers, students, unionists, TAFE graduates and community members to get involved in celebrating National TAFE Day. 24 June 2015 will be a day to celebrate the achievements of TAFE, & remind politicians and the broader community that TAFE is too good to lose.…