Professional Scientists Australia is petitioning the Fertility Society of Australia to put patients first. 72.5 % of fertility scientists believe that high workloads have increased the possibility of human errors occurring at work.* Women's reproductive health should be in the hands of fertility scientists who have the skills, time and knowledge to look after patients. Without a voice for fertility scientists', profits are being put ahead of workers and patient's health and families. Patients, scientists, and the public need to stand together to demand an enforceable staff to patient ratio like those seen overseas that will lead to better patient outcomes and stem the tide of staff burnout. 56.9 % of fertility scientists say that the industry’s high workloads have harmed their mental health.* If we don’t have an enforceable staff to patient ratio the fertility industry will continue to be driven by profit and workers will be unable to help people bring about their dreams of having a family. 89.4 per cent of scientists believe there should be explicit provisions for adequate staff ratios in IVF clinics.* If we stand together, we can ensure the industry is driven by best practice science, informed patients and scientists who have the time and training to look after each patient properly. *January 2020, PSA survey of fertility scientists

After 12 months of drought, floods, fires and pandemic our community services are needed more than ever. We cannot afford a cut to our sector, we cannot go backwards. We are busier and working harder than ever. The sector has been agile, resourceful, and dedicated. Our services support the most vulnerable members of the community – and in extremely challenging times we have been there for the community. If services do not receive sufficient funding indexation urgently it will have a detrimental impact on their ability to deliver services to the community. We can't afford to be overlooked again.

Changes like these may end up oversaturating the job market in areas such as nursing, where even more students will be left without a job when they graduate. Lowering the cost of tertiary education for some shouldn't come at the cost of access to others - particularly when a fee increase will disproportionately affect low SES and first in family students. For some students, studying maths or science degrees just isn't an option for them due to where they live, their secondary education or physical inaccessibility of STEMM courses. To make them pay more because of reasons out of their control isn't just unfair - it's discriminatory.

1. OUR SKILLS ARE EMPLOYABLE: The government’s assumption that studying arts degrees and subjects does not lead to any ‘employable skills’ is factually wrong. These subjects provide highly transferable skills, such as critical reading, research and analysis skills, problem solving, and writing persuasively for different audiences. 2. OUR SKILLS ARE THE FUTURE: The World Economic Forum says the top three skills for 2020 The Future of Jobs are Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. These are the skills that a broad, liberal education teaches. 3. LIBERAL EDUCATION IS A FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY: Healthy democracies need a strong and liberal education system. It’s good for both society and for maintaining a productive, dynamic workforce. A liberal education helps us understand ourselves as a nation, how to navigate our current world as well as how we can learn from our shared human history. 4. STUDYING HISTORY, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY IS A RIGHT OF ALL, REGARDLESS OF WEALTH: Australia has long had a proudly egalitarian tertiary sector, which has allowed students from less advantaged households to benefit from higher education. Why should an arts, social sciences, or legal education or career be only available to the very wealthy? 5. LET'S NOT LEAVE DISADVANTAGED AND DIVERSE COMMUNITIES BEHIND: Less funding is likely to have a particularly damaging effect on teaching programs and the careers of many disadvantaged and diverse communities, including Indigenous communities, regional communities, and women. FOR MORE INFORMATION: News article from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064 World Economic Forum here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ And word from the British Academy on arts and social science graduates: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/arts-humanities-and-social-science-graduates-resilient-economic-downturns/

Teachers and school support staff working in Queensland Lutheran schools are facing the biggest attack on working rights seen in their sector. A serious question mark hangs over the employment future of employees in Queensland Lutheran schools as their employer remains intent of pushing through a plan of cuts, controls and constraints to the existing working conditions. Some of the cuts the LEQ want to make to their employees’ conditions: - CUTS to Teacher Hours of Duty protections for some teachers - CUTS to key employment protections which ensure procedural fairness and natural justice for all employees LEQ's shameful plan was made very clear when the employer stopped collective bargaining negotiations in early June 2020 with a view to hold a ballot on its substandard agreement for employees. LEQ’s plan will make it far from an employer of choice in the non-government education sector. The move by LEQ to cut, control and constrain current conditions is an affront to Queensland Lutheran teachers and school support staff who have shown the utmost dedication and professionalism over the last few months of the COVID-19 crisis. Learn more about LEQ's plan of cuts, controls & contraints @ www.qieu.asn.au/stopthecuts

This Convention is ground-breaking for many reasons, including that it: • Protects against all forms of violence and harassment in the world of work, including during commuting to and from work, and through information and communications technologies; • Protects all individuals in the world of work, irrespective of their contractual status, including volunteers, trainees and apprentices, and casuals; • Recognises that family and domestic violence is a workplace issue and sets out specific measures that can be taken to protect workers; • Recognises that workers in some sectors, such as health, transport, education, retail and hospitality, or those working at night or in isolated areas, may be more exposed to violence and harassment and need special protections. Although violence and harassment in the workplace can be suffered by any worker, stereotyping and power inequalities make women much more vulnerable to it. The ACTU’s 2018 sexual harassment survey found nearly two thirds (64%) of women and more than one third (34%) of men who responded had experienced one or more forms of sexual harassment at some point in their working lives. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner supports ratification of the Convention in her report ‘Respect@Work’, which shows that our laws don’t keep workers safe. We urgently need improvements to our work health and safety law, anti-discrimination laws, and workplaces laws which make governments and employers step up and do their bit to prevent violence and harassment. Please tell the Attorney-General and Minister for Women to urgently commit to ratify C.190 to make workplaces healthy, safe and respectful for all of us.

The Morrison government's announcement that it will double fees for a series of humanities degrees is one of the worst attacks on students in recent times. Law, economics, management and commerce subjects will face fee hikes that means students could be charged up to $72,500 for a 5 year degree such as Law. The cost of a humanities or communication degree will be more than doubled - increasing by 113% to $14,500 a year. A three year arts degree will now cost approx. $45,000. This is essentially an attempt to abolish the humanities as a serious discipline, and instead restrict its accessibility to only wealthy students. This fee increase deliberately prioritises economically profitable degrees, while decreasing the accessibility of degrees designed to encourage critical thinking about society. Our education should not be subordinate to the needs of industry. The government wants to divide us by granting fee reductions to other students. We reject a two-tiered fee system that attempts to force students into studying what the government deems more important. Students should have the right to study what they want. Cost should never be a barrier when deciding what to study at university, or even if you want to study at all. We need free, fully funded public education, not a user pay model that prioritises particular disciplines or degrees. We are demanding that the government to scrap the proposed fee increases for university degrees. Written by Jazz Breen & Jack Mansell, Sydney University SRC Education Officers

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on ASU members who work for airlines or in ground handling. It is clear that it will take airlines longer to bounce back than other parts of the economy, and it is unlikely that people will resume interstate and international travel at the pre-COVID-19 rates for some time. The Government is planning its next steps for the economic recovery right now, and we need to take urgent action to ensure that they back Australian aviation workers.

The petition of certain citizens of the City of Kingston draws to the attention of the Kingston Council that: 1. Don Tatnell Leisure Centre was closed on the 30th of January 2020 due to serious structural issues that made the centre unsafe for use. 2. This facility was used by many of members in the Parkdale, Mordialloc and Mentone community -offering pool, spa and sauna facilities, as well as a gym with local classes and other support services. 3. Don Tatnell is walking distance from Parkdale Secondary College and St John Vianney's Primary School, and accessible to many other local primary and secondary schools in the Mordialloc-Parkdale area. 4. The centre is readily available to our local community via bus from Mordialloc Station. 5. Since its closure, Kingston Council has not committed funding to a redevelopment on its current site and has instead flagged a possible relocation. This would be a huge loss to our local community. 6. The Mayor of Kingston has stated that costs to return the ageing building to a “useable state, without any improvements in service” would incur $9 million in costs and a 10-month closure. Instead, the Mayor says the Council “will focus on developing a new, modern centre that meets the current and future needs of our community.”

Over the past decades universities have come to rely upon casual and fixed-term staff to perform essential teaching, research and service roles. At La Trobe University over 70% of staff are not on ongoing contracts. University workers on casual, sessional and fixed-term contracts are bearing the brunt of cuts universities are making in response to COVID19-related revenue deficits. On 16 April 2020 La Trobe University communicated to all staff that due to from 1 May 2020, casuals will only be retained if they are deemed “essential”. This has led to significant job losses and loss of hours for causal staff, with many more still waiting in limbo to be informed about the future of their positions. We condemn the sacking of casual staff. Casual redundancies are projected to potentially save LTU around $1 million, less than 1% of the projected revenue deficit of $120-150 million. Casual redundancies will therefore have only a marginal impact on addressing overall revenue deficit, but the loss of these positions will have a number of significant impacts including on: • the mental health & financial wellbeing of LTU casuals who have lost their jobs and who face the uncertainty of potentially losing their jobs. Many casuals will face considerable financial hardship, especially given the ineligibility of university workers to access JobKeeper. • the student experience and the quality of teaching and learning at La Trobe University, given that the loss of causal jobs necessarily will translate to larger class sizes, the cutting of subjects, especially electives and the reduction of student services; • the workload of remaining staff at La Trobe University who will invariably be asked to pick up additional work to compensate for cuts; We, the undersigned, condemn the sacking of casual staff at La Trobe University and call on La Trobe University to recognise all the work casuals do is essential and protect their hours and conditions during this difficult time. Those of us who have ongoing roles commit to not taking on work that would otherwise be allocated to casual or fixed term staff – recognising that doing so harms the quality of our teaching and/or research as well as enabling the University to take work from our most precarious colleagues.

The loss of these skills will be detrimental to the future of the Deakin as the COVID - 19 pandemic subsides. This is a once in a lifetime event and requires a once in a generation level courage and imagination to support those who make Deakin Worldly .

More than a million people are estimated to have become unemployed in March and April, because of public health measures to stop the spread of coronavirus. On 27th April 2020 the government began paying the “COVID 19 Supplement” to people receiving Jobseeker (previously Newstart) payments, Parenting Payment and Youth Allowance. This is the first increase of these payments for 26 years. The government has confirmed that the COVID-19 supplement is temporary and will end in October 2020. If the Jobseeker payment reduces in 6 months, new claimants and people previously trying to survive on the low rate will be facing a dire situation. Politicians from both sides of Parliament, independents, business groups and welfare organisations have called for the increase to extend beyond six months, citing the increased unemployment rate and the uncertain effect of the pandemic on the economy. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/25/calls-from-within-coalition-to-keep-higher-jobseeker-rate-after-coronavirus-crisis?fbclid=IwAR2Uwvv7vMx5YkNs_aHRqit7kz0TseirJeiHzjEeclAgpkHscH-ppLM4F18 Please support the AUWU’s call to #KeepTheRate