Why would a company lock out its workforce for trying to maintain their working conditions? Well, that's what’s happened last week on Friday, 25 May at 12.01am when IXOM locked out its workers in response to their protected industrial action. IXOM is a Major Hazard Chemical Facility based in Botany Sydney. We are alarmed at IXOM’s actions and concerned as to how IXOM is manning the Major Hazard Facility since it has locked out its whole workforce. This is especially worrying as IXOM is surrounded by residential housing, schools and hospitals, which could be devastated by any major event at the facility. A community protest will be taking place outside Ixom's facility at 118-120 Denison St, Hillsdale NSW 2036 from 11am-5pm on Tuesday 29 May 2018. Activists will be stationed along the public walkway. Sign to support these workers and our community's safety.

We will not tolerate inaction. In 2018, nearly 50 workers have been killed on the job already. We cannot stand idly by and let this happen under our watch. Our government should be as shocked by these figures as we are. In 2015, two Irish backpackers working a construction job in Perth were crushed to death when a concrete slab fell on them. Less than a year later, a young female backpacker fell 13 storeys to her death. Her boss allowed her to work at a height without providing a harness, using an upturned bucket as a ladder. MUA members will never forget Andrew Kelly, crushed to death in front of his fellow workers after being directed to handle containers in adverse weather. We have met with affected families. Their devastation and sense of injustice is heartbreaking. Every workplace death is avoidable. If more had been done by the employers, these workers would still be alive and their families would still be together. If there were significant consequences for big corporations that kill workers, then our workplaces would be safer. Employers are getting away with workplace deaths occurring under their watch. This is sickening. Not one more wreath should have to be laid, not one more memorial attended. We want action and justice now. The good news is that there are ways to make our industries safer. Harsh penalties will improve workplace safety, worker health and wellbeing, and productivity. They will force cowboy employers to think twice about allowing unsafe work practices to continue. Strong laws will mean negligent employers can be charged with industrial manslaughter when a worker dies on their watch. It’s time for WA Labor to step up. We call on the McGowan Labor Government to introduce industrial manslaughter legislation in line with other states or territories in Australia, which imposes $10 million in fines and jail time of up to 20 years. Labor is the party of workers. It is the party to provide and defend dignity at work. WA Labor is letting down our workers, our families and our communities. Every death at work that goes unprosecuted in the harshest possible terms, is a failure of the party. Kill a worker, go to jail! Christy Cain MUA WA Branch Secretary & National President and Mick Buchan CFMEU WA Branch Secretary If you or someone you know has been affected by a workplace injury or death and feel distressed by the content on this page, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

It's not enough for CEOs and people like the Reserve Bank Governor to say that wage rises are important for our economy - they need to put their money where their mouths are. Workers at Note Printing Australia work hard, and are extremely skilled. As well as printing Australia's complex, anti-forgery bank notes they also print the notes of up to 100 other countries. They also print our passports! All workers are asking for is: - A fair pay increase (currently they are offered less than inflation) - An update to their classifications, - domestic violence leave , and - to offer pathways to permanency for long-term casuals. Support the workers: tell the Reserve Bank to PAY UP!

As parents of pre-school kids at the Melbourne City Childcare Centre on A'Beckett Street, we are upset and angry about the hastily announced proposal from Melbourne City Council to shut the centre in four weeks. We have been given an unreasonably short consultation period of two weeks and are feeling rushed and stressed by the sudden announcement. We want the decision reversed because it is going to be bad for our kids, bad for our families and bad for the early childhood educators and carers who work at the centre. Our kids need to stay with their friends and educators and carers they trust. The educators and carers need their jobs. Our families need accessible care near our work for our kids. Melbourne City Childcare Centre provides a safe, fun and professional service to our pre-school kids. This centre offers a unique 'family' like environment. Our MCCC community is irreplaceable and the value cannot be seen in budgets and bottom lines. Our response to this proposal is a reflection of the respect and support that we have for one another. As parents, we worry about moving our kids from their established friendships and relationships at the centre. We also worry about the confusion and stress caused by finding and settling in to new childcares. As working families it is important that we have access to childcare near our workplaces, we know that finding other good quality centres for our kids in such a short timeframe will be incredibly difficult and stressful. We ask that you sign this petition to call on Melbourne City Council to keep our childcare centre open. - Parents of Melbourne City Childcare Centre, A'Beckett Street

The National Quality Framework is essential to the ECEC sector as it guides educators to extend and enrich children's learning from birth to five years and the transition to school. The NQF supports professional practice, especially in building and nurturing relationships, curriculum decision making and teaching and learning. The NQF allows the expression of personality and uniqueness as it caters to each individual child whilst acknowledging that educators are professionals, taking them away from the ‘babysitter’ persona. The paperwork allows us to show our parents the professional role we have in educating their child and displays a portion of the knowledge that is being imparted and also learnt by each child each day. By defunding the national partnership this Government is putting at risk our internationally recognised National Quality Framework. The Abbott Government already attempted to wind back our professional standards in 2014. Together, educators fought against it and won! The Turnbull/Morrison Government is now trying the same tactic to undermine our sector. Sign our petition to protect the NQF!

Women are more likely to be in insecure and casual work, therefore earning less super over their working life. They often don't reach the $450 super threshold to receive contributions, and women also receive 50% less super upon retirement. It is also a startling fact that 70% of single women upon retirement become homeless due to this Super gap.

The Victorian Pride Lobby has been fighting for LGBTIQA+ rights for decades. We believe that no worker should face the sack for coming out at work. But under current laws there over 200,000 jobs in Australia - including at least 38,564 jobs in Victoria alone - that a worker can be fired from if they come out. These include teachers, school staff, doctors and health workers. May*, a lesbian woman, was employed by a Christian welfare agency for two years when she was asked to resign after they found out about her relationship with her partner. She told the Lobby: “I resigned and fell apart after having served that community for years. The fall out also meant I had to leave my church community. All of this resulted in mental health challenges, isolation, loss of faith, friends, purpose... I can’t express the devastating impact being asked to resign due to my sexuality had on my life. I lost everything - my vocation, faith, community - and had to rebuild myself from a very broken place.” Workers like May deserve job security and fair rights at work. Our political leaders must commit to amending the Fair Work Act to protect workers like May from workplace discrimination. * Name changed in order to protect privacy

Hospo workers are too often exploited. We work without breaks, we're not treated with respect and our wages are stolen. I stood up to my employer and was fired for exercising my rights! Businesses like BARRY get away with this kind of behaviour too often. I'm calling on the Fair Work Ombudsman to conduct a full audit of BARRY and order repayment of wages to past and present staff. Send a clear message that it's time to take wage theft off the menu.

As an outreach of the Queensland Baptists, Carinity claims to “provide communities of care, compassion and respect” to those in need, yet is failing to provide any of these things to its staff – Carinity doesn’t seem to care. Carinity’s cuts to the working conditions of teachers and school support staff will put them behind their counterparts in other Queensland schools and create second-tier teachers in the state but Carinity doesn’t seem to care. Carinity’s cuts would reduce superannuation provisions for its largely female workforce putting their financial futures at risk but Carinity doesn’t seem to care. Carinity’s cuts would deny its staff access to community standard leave provisions including paid Domestic Violence Leave – an area that Carinity works in and claims to care about yet when it comes to its own workers facing such devastating circumstances, Carinity doesn’t seem to care. Carinity’s cuts would mean its students’ teachers are worse off despite Carinity publicly emphasising the extra support their students, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, are given by school staff but Carinity doesn’t seem to care.

The Victorian government is gutting the community mental health sector. It argues that it can pull this funding out of the sector because the NDIS is a better system for people with mental health needs. But here is what is really happening: • 91% of Victorian with severe mental health needs are not even eligible for the NDIS – leaving a massive 135,000 people without any support services. • Mental health admissions at ED’s have jumped over 19% in the past 4 years, putting an incredible strain on an already over-burdened system. • Victoria spends less per capita on mental health support than any other state or territory – $197 per capita to the rest of Australia’s average of $227. Along with these shocking facts, more than a thousand well-trained and dedicated Community Mental Health workers are being forced out of their jobs. This is devastating to them, their families and the people they support. Community Mental Health workers work in services that support Victorians with a wide range of mental health challenges. Their support helps people to live better lives and contribute to their communities. Community Mental Health is the frontline of mental health services that takes pressure off the hospitals and other acute services, the police and the courts. We’ve been warning of a crisis in mental health support – that crisis is now here. Vulnerable people with complex needs are falling through an ever widening gap. The Andrews government must recognise this looming disaster and act quickly to save Victoria’s recovery-focused community-based mental health support services.

Newstart at $269 per week, is $177 per week below the poverty-line. It is less than 41 percent of the minimum wage, less than 18 percent of the average wage, and has not been raised in real terms for 23 years.
 Even the Business Council of Australia has advocated to the government that the low rate of Newstart presents a barrier to employment and risks entrenching poverty. 
 Increasing Newstart would benefit local economies, by increasing the spending power of those on low incomes, whose extra funds would circulate through local businesses. It would also reduce the strain on Council community services assisting the growing number of people experiencing hardship. Eleven local councils in South Australia and Victoria have added their voices to the chorus of business, union and welfare groups which have called for Newstart to be increased. The South Australian councils which have passed motions are Adelaide, Clare and Gilbert Valley, Copper Coast, Kangaroo Island, Mount Gambier, Onkaparinga, Playford, Port Adelaide Enfield, Salisbury, and Streaky Bay. In Victoria, the Moreland City Council has also passed a motion. The inadequacy of the Newstart payment entrenches poverty and contributes to homelessness. With the growth of gentrification and development in Melbourne's inner west the Newstart payment is no longer providing the means for Maribyrnong's working-class and migrant population to live in the area. The Maribyrnong City Council should support the motion to increase Newstart and protect the area's identity as being one of the most diverse and accessible places to live in Melbourne.

The Easter Sunday public holiday is a chance for hard-working Victorians to enjoy a much-needed break and quality time with family and friends. Others won't be so fortunate and they will spend Easter Sunday making our coffees, caring for the ill, pouring our pints and cleaning our hotel rooms. They deserve to be fairly compensated for missing valuable time with family and friends.