Interpreters are vital to ensuring access to justice, healthcare, and essential services.  Interpreters facilitate communication between people with limited English proficiency, Deaf and hard of hearing and the public sector professionals they interact with in important, or even critical, life situations. Court Services Victoria and Language Service Providers (LSPs) are cutting interpreters' pay and reducing their hours, adding stress to an already demanding job.    Under the RNS, interpreters are considered officers of the court. Currently, the conditions faced by interpreters are well below any standard applicable to an officer of a court.   Recent changes undermine long-standing fee structures, leaving interpreters with a further degradation of their pay and conditions – pay and conditions that are not commensurate with the role, responsibilities and expectations quite rightly, of the professionals and community members who rely on them.   The Victorian Government initiated reforms to language services in 2018 which have yet to be completed. This has left the sector exposed to downward price pressure from Government agencies leading to aggressive competition among LSPs at the expense of the workforce. This has a direct impact on outcomes in justice, law enforcement, healthcare and all service provision generally.   The Victorian Government’s failure to address procurement reform has led to further erosion of interpreters’ pay and conditions in the form of: • Reduced minimum engagements; • Covert changes to fee calculation, resulting in lower rates of pay; • No increases to recommended rates in 6+ years; • Reduced pay for working remotely despite its increased complexity. For the justice sector and the community, this means: • The language services sector is becoming unsustainable because: • Experienced interpreters are leaving the sector. • Graduates are not entering the profession due to the poor conditions. • Failures can occur in the administration of justice due to: • Communities being disadvantaged by an absence of procedural fairness in the justice system. • A system that discriminates. • Government and their agencies will be in breach of their own multicultural, access and equity and inclusion policies. • All community services will be jeopardised similarly to the legal sector. • The greater financial consequence of system failures will be borne by the taxpayer. Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion Recommended National Standards (RNS) The RNS were produced by a specialist committee appointed by the former JCCD (now the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion - JCDI) comprising Interpreting and Legal Experts, with its first edition published in 2017 and the second in 2022. The RNS are endorsed by the Council of Chief Justices of Australia. Their purpose was to develop frameworks, best practice advice, and resources to support procedural fairness and equality of treatment for all court users throughout Australia. The Implementation of the RNS is not only vital to promoting and ensuring compliance with the rules of procedural fairness. The RNS are concurrently intended to ensure that the interpreting profession throughout Australia develops to the benefit of the administration of justice generally. The RNS are not universally adopted in Victorian Courts. This is troubling, given the diversity of Victoria’s community, we would expect that Victoria should be leading the way. Regrettably, this is not the case. Join Us in Demanding Fairness for Interpreters and the Communities that they serve. All interpreters, translators, legal professionals, healthcare workers, and professionals who rely on interpreters at work, please sign this petition! Let’s show the Victorian Government that we stand together for justice, fair treatment, and the right to fair pay and conditions.   Get involved: Contact [email protected] for more information or to find out how to further support the campaign. Petition To The Legislative Council of Victoria: We, the undersigned residents of Victoria draw to the attention of the Legislative Council, the ongoing degradation of conditions and standards in Victorian Courts. We note the reduced terms of engagement for court interpreters by Court Services Victoria and the stalled procurement reform for this sector by the Victorian Government and the failure to universally adopt the Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals in Victorian Courts.   We, the undersigned residents of Victoria, therefore, request that the Legislative Council of Victoria call on the Victorian Government to:   1. Restore the previous engagement terms for interpreters in Victorian Courts, with half-day or full-day rates. 2. Adopt, fund, and implement the JCDI Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals, in full, within Victorian Courts and Tribunals. 3. Resume consultations towards procurement reforms for the language services sector to mandate higher standards in professionalism and quality. 

Why is this important?  CLCs offer free legal services to those who need it most. They ensure that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, has access to legal support and justice. Just as our reliance on CLCs have grown, their funding has plummeted.  • Over 350,000 people are turned away from CLCs each year across Australia, including women and children escaping family and domestic violence.  • 9 out of 10 legal centres experienced an increase in demand for services, despite inadequate funding and staff shortages.  • Community lawyers earn 10-35% less than layers in the public sector. Combined with higher demand, staff burnout and turnover, community legal centres struggle to hire and retain staff.  • An independent review commissioned by the Federal Government confirmed what CLCs have said all along: current funding levels are inadequate to meet community needs.  Well-funded CLCs can ensure workers are appropriately-paid, have secure local jobs and continue to provide essential services to those who rely on them. But right now, CLCs have less than a year of guaranteed funding left. Without urgent government support, CLCs will be forced to reduce staffing, close programs, and turn away more Australians who are in desperate need of legal help. This will only exacerbate the challenges faced by those already struggling to navigate a complex legal system.  Sign the petition to stand for justice for all.   

These workers have tried since August 2023 to engage with Saputo’s Australian and Canadian division to resolve this issue, but their efforts have been rebuffed.   Workers have been left with no option but to go on strike which has been ongoing for 3 months. The AMWU and CEPU are seeking an enterprise agreement which, over 2 years, would provide pay parity with Saputo’s Victorian workers, who do the same job, but for higher pay. Saputo’s maintenance workers help in the production of a huge variety of dairy staples in your homes (across Australia and abroad), and they need your support.   Please sign our petition and tell Saputo’s Canadian and Australian management this is unacceptable.   It’s time to show Saputo bosses how strong the union movement is when we stand united on behalf of workers.    Please participate in the boycott of Saputo made products until they pay their workers mainland rates of pay!   You can put the pressure on by boycotting dairy brands including Cheer, Mersey Valley, King Island Dairy, Cracker Barrel, Tasmanian Heritage, Devondale, Great Ocean Road, Liddells, South Cape, Sungold and Mil Lel.   We say same job, same pay! Take a stand with us today.

Senior management at La Trobe University are proposing severe changes to the structure of degrees, coursework and student services. These include changes to ‘Course Architecture’, ‘Course Optimisation,’ and restructures to Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Portfolio Staff, School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, La Trobe Rural Health School, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Information Services Staff. These eight proposals are part of the same attack on the quality of education and on the proper governance of La Trobe, made by Theo Farrell, Jess Vanderlelie, and Rob Pike. The changes pose a severe risk to the University’s reputation, enrollments, accreditation and medium- to long-term financial position.In some cases, changes to Honours degrees may mean that students studying Honours at La Trobe do not qualify for La Trobe’s own PhD degrees. In terms of student services,  Courses and subjects are being cut across the entire university, giving students less choice about what they study. Senior academics are being made redundant and replaced by junior academics. Some staff are concerned that the Bachelor of Science and the Bachelor of Arts will become untenable in several years if these changes go ahead. La Trobe is dismantling the team of experts who provide assistance to students with a disability, replacing some of their functions with generic student services staff. Staff cannot understand how massive restructures and cuts will help La Trobe, because their rationale is unclear. Nor has Senior Management explained why these changes must be implemented so hastily. Students have not been consulted. They have been forced to organise their own meeting to demand that Senior Leadership explain these changes to them. Staff have expressed wide and deep concerns about the adverse effects of these changes. Senior leadership have ignored or dismissed these views.  Vice Chancellor Theo Farrell has been in the job for less than twelve months. If these 8 changes are part of his vision for La Trobe, we reject his pessimistic view and embrace one that respects and values the expertise of staff and students. 

Medical librarians are highly skilled and specialized Allied Health Professionals who deserve to be treated with respect. The plan to transition the library to an infrastructure-only service (focused on e-resources, document delivery, and interlibrary loans) is short-sighted and disregards the valuable contributions of these dedicated workers. We, the undersigned, demand RMH reverses this decision and takes immediate steps to support Medical Librarians and all Victorian patients by committing to maintain the essential library service.

Tasmanian workers shouldn't be left behind. They deserve to be paid the same as workers on the mainland who do the same job as them. Help support wage justice for Tasmanian workers.

The future of TAFE is at a critical juncture. With the increased demand created by Fee-Free TAFE, we must ensure that TAFE teachers and staff receive the funding and support they need to provide quality vocational education to everyone.

We all know that animal rescues, foster groups and shelters across Australia are struggling to keep up with demand.  The 20 foster care networks supporting the Campaspe Animal Shelter are already stretched to their limits. Bendigo and Shepparton services, and their foster networks, are also at capacity. Removing adoption services will push these networks to breaking point, risking the collapse of animal care in our community. This plan is a recipe for disaster for shelter staff, who will be forced to face the emotional trauma of putting down healthy animals. Campaspe Shire is ignoring its duty to provide a safe and supportive workplace, and this will lead to staff burnout and turnover. The ASU is disappointed that Council has failed to genuinely consider the psychosocial impact of this change.  The people of Campaspe value compassionate care for animals. This proposal is a betrayal of that trust, and it will spark outrage across the community. The Shire is abandoning its responsibility to treat animals humanely, and the public won’t stand for it.  Council has not complied with its obligations under the Local Government Act 2020 to engagement with the community around the proposed changes. The Act says that councils must engage authentically with the community when making decisions like this.    Campaspe Shire has invested heavily in upgrading the shelter’s facilities, only to now threaten to undo all that progress. This proposal is a step backward, and it’s time for the community to rise up and demand better. The ASU calls on the local community to speak out against this disastrous plan.  If you work at Council, join the ASU today https://www.asuvictas.com.au/join 

Our hospitals rely on support services to keep running. If we don't have enough cleaners, infections in the hospital increase. If we don't have enough storepersons, the hospital runs out of medical supplies. If we don't have enough wardspersons, patients can't move around the hospital. Staffing levels are already dangerously low in Western Sydney. Allowing HealthShare to take over these jobs will only make things worse for our community.

To help bring a fair pay upgrade to the covid class of 2020. 

After 10 years of wage suppression, engineer members of Professionals Australia stand with the Public Sector Alliance to demand fair pay for the critical work we do for Western Australians. Western Australia is now the richest state in the country, yet our government's wage policy has made it increasingly difficult for public-sector engineers to make ends meet. WA engineers deserve better!

Australia's geography means our communities - regional and urban - depend on reliable, well-functioning airlines. Our citizens' ability to travel between cities and regional towns must not be dependent on market conditions or the whim of airline owners. If the Federal Government owned a stake in Rex - and appointed a "Safe and Secure Skies" Commission as an independent regulator as the Transport Workers Union have long called for - airline workers and the flying public would have a meaningful say in the decisions that impact our travel and our lives.  Regional communities rely on Rex. In many cases it is the only airline that goes to a range of small country towns. The Federal Government needs to consider buying an equity stake or outright purchasing the airline to ensure our regional communities aren't left behind without connections to major cities and other regional communities. Victorian, SA, NSW and Queensland Premiers have already voiced their support for Federal Government intervention to ensure Rex continues to operate. The Government needs to act now to save the airline and their hundreds of workers facing redundancy!