All workers, regardless of where they’re from, deserve to earn a living wage and work in safe conditions. But the Migrant Workers Centre and Unions NSW’s latest survey of more than 1300 backpackers reveals the majority of farm managers are engaging in rampant wage theft and outright abuse. Workers from 54 countries were surveyed about their rates of pay, entitlements and conditions. Key findings ● 78% of survey respondents reported being underpaid at some point. ● 80% were underpaid while on piece rates, and 61% were underpaid on hourly rates. ● Some piece-rate workers reported earning less than $1 an hour. ● Only 2% earned $26 or more an hour. ● The lowest daily wages were reported by piece-rate workers employed on grape and zucchini farms, earning an average $9 per day, followed by blueberry farm workers who averaged $10 per day.

This is extremely important to all Australians as not only could Neale pass away at any moment but also because of the countless hours he puts into raising money, helping with research, hosting, organising and attending events as well as helping others despite raising over $50 million dollars for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and suffering with it himself which is currently in the last and worse stage of the heart breaking condition not to mention the other stuff he has done outside of his campaigning and the football career he has had, therefore this man deserves no less than to be awarded the Companion of the order of Australia immediately.

Medical experts have already warned these changes will increase out of pocket costs – this means patients could be left paying hundreds of dollars for some common procedures and up to $10,000 for rarer conditions. The Liberal Government has already cut billions in funding for Medicare and other health programs since 2014. What’s worse is that they froze the Medicare indexation rate, which undermines bulk-billing. And they’ve already bungled the vaccine roll-out, the most important public health program in a generation. Now we need to stop the Liberal Government from wrecking Medicare.

Operating since 1979, the Collingwood Community Gardens are under threat of being bulldozed. The destruction of this important cultural and community space was announced by Collingwood Children’s Farm Committee of Management on Thursday, 3 June. Citing ‘safety concerns’ such as uneven ground, the use of removable metal cladding and ‘piles of wood and sticks’ as the catalyst, the Committee of Management made the determination to indefinitely close the Gardens, situated on Crown land, without community consultation. There is no evidence that alternatives to the bulldozing of this important community space were considered, even after multiple volunteers offered to fix the issues cited in the report. For generations families have nurtured this space, using it as a place to share knowledge, connect with the earth and build community. Many Plotters (a warm term used by those that tend to the gardens) rely on these gardens for their food production, social activities, exercise and mental health. There are multiple stories of migrant families that have kept their culture and knowledge alive through the activities at the Gardens.

General Mills is one of the largest food manufacturing companies in the world and made more than $26 billion in 2019-2020. Workers at General Mills manufacturing site in Rooty Hill NSW have experienced rampant casualisation and low wage growth. Throughout 2020 and 2021, as essential workers, we worked extra-long hours to keep up with massive increases in demand during the pandemic. We thought this would mean that General Mills would listen to our demands: But we were wrong! Many of us have been at General Mills for more than 10 years and we’ve helped the company grow and become very profitable in Australia. Despite this, many of our casual labour hire co-workers have been in insecure work for more than five years and desperately want a good, permanent job!

Victorian renters are overrepresented in casual work and will lose more than a week’s income that is urgently needed to pay rent. Victorian renters including older renters are already facing eviction, including self-evicting due to significant rental stress and Notices To Vacate since the COVID19 protections were lifted. Renters in significant hardship are facing rental increases in some cases by 25% in regional areas, as well as compounded COVID19 rental debt in addition to standard rental payments since the moratorium legislation was lifted on March 29th. Insecure, casual and low income workers are in significant insecurity and displacement since income support measures and the Rental Moratorium were scrapped from March 29th. Temporary Visa holders have been hit with extreme debt and forced into repayment of up to $20,000 in JobKeeper payments, as well as student and rental debts.

Independent assessments are intended to reduce spending on NDIS participants. They are part of government efforts to contain costs in the NDIS. These cuts will only increase the number of disabled people unable to access proper support and funding, and will force many disabled people into precarious positions. The cuts to the NDIS will also drive down pay and conditions for disability and mental health workers. The government says it will not introduce IAs until the second IA trial and further consultations have happened. But whatever they end up proposing, the government's plans are clear: to cut spending and exclude people from the NDIS. But we can stop them. Disabled people, disability and mental health workers, and our supporters can band together to show the widespread opposition to IAs and demand a fairer NDIS for all.

Dr Jan Bryant has been teaching in Monash's Art, Design and Architecture faculty for 11 years. In that time she's taught thousands of students, supervised dozens of PhDs and published books, papers and essays. For all of those eleven years, Jan has been employed on short-term contracts. Now Monash is letting her go. To add insult to insecurity, Monash University advertised a job for Jan's exact role, and Jan applied. Monash then told her she wasn't good enough for the role. No-one got the job. Jan is the unwilling face of workplace insecurity in Australian higher education. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 17,000 university workers have lost their jobs. Monash University's Art, Design and Architecture faculty is in crisis. Several employees have resigned due to workplace bullying. Now MADA has engineered the departure of a popular teacher. The NTEU asked the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Shane Murray, to meet with us. He refused. Jan is a beloved teacher at Monash University. As a result of this decison, many of her PhD students will be left in the lurch. Jan says: "I've struggled with 11 years of insecure work, but through that time have worked hard, and been dedicated to my teaching and research, only to discover that my contract is not being renewed." "I face a precarious future." Jan deserves job security, and her students deserve to keep their teacher. Every employee at Monash University deserve secure employment.

ASU members in the sector are calling on the Andrews state government to work with the ASU to implement the following reforms; 1. Secure Employment a. Set as a condition of funding that community sector agencies engage their staff as on-going staff rather than fixed term, other than for genuine fixed term staff leave replacements. b. Casual employment to only be used for genuine casual vacancies. 2. Workplace Fairness a. Set as a condition of funding that community sector agencies: i. Be bound by a codified DFFH dispute process similar to the COVID-19 dispute process ii. Have a family violence policy approved between the DFFH, ASU and the community sector iii. Agree to allow the ASU to access staff as part of the agencies’ induction process 3. Longer Funding Terms a. The government to fund agencies for at least 5 year terms as part of each program ( other than genuine pilot programs). 4. Sector Sustainability and Reform a. The state government should establish and resource a community sector sustainability and reform committee chaired by the lead Minister and with members including the ASU and DFFH community sector peaks. b. The committee should have oversight of; i. Sector wide workforce issues / requirements ii. Sector wide training issues / requirements Please sign the petition to tell the Andrews government that essential community service workers are not expendable!

Disgracefully the Andrews Labor Government has announced they plan to enter into a "joint venture" (ie privatisation) of VicRoads. VicRoads workers need your support! However you spin it, this will put jobs, wages and conditions at risk. We could also see big increases in registration costs, the closure of customer service centres, and your data made available to the private sector. ASU members have told us repeatedly that remaining in the public sector is the most important issue to them. It is important that these wishes are heard throughout this process, and we don’t have a Labor government forcing workers out of these good secure jobs. We call on the Government to halt this process, and to ensure all VicRoads workers remain in the public sector and do not pay the price for successive Government failures to deal with an ageing IT system.

The Commonwealth Bank is withdrawing their services from Logan Central Plaza, a move that will impact hundreds of local pensioners, not-for-profit groups, families and local business. Distressed residents from the local community are coming to me asking for help to reverse this mean-spirited decision. The planned closure is outrageous and lacking in community spirit. I regularly hold mobile offices at Logan Central Plaza and the queues to get into the bank can span the frontage of several shop tenancies. The people who frequent the bank then go on to spend money in the local shopping centre which in turn supports local jobs. Moving the bank away from the centre will move the spending capacity of local residents. This quiet closure of the local bank has come at a time when business is just starting to get on their feet post-covid, when pensioners are starting to feel confident about heading out to the shops for social outings and when families are receiving an income again. I have written to the Finance Sector Union and the Commonwealth Bank asking for a reversal of the decision. It is important to note that the staff from Commbank know locals, know their circumstances and know their challenges. A lot of clients are aged, come from CALD backgrounds and have trust in the staff that have been servicing their financial needs in a prompt and professional manner for years. I urge residents and community members to sign the petition and let Commbank know we need our local bank branches to be active in our community. Invest in us like we do in you.

For over 10 years, the Restaurant and Catering Association has been fighting to freeze hospitality wages. Year on year, submission on submission, they request that the Fair Work Commission hand out a 0% wage increase to restaurant and cafe workers. In 2020 they won – delaying our annual wage increase by 9 months. For the average Casual level 2 worker* that was a loss of $739.83 in wages and $70.28 in superannuation. They cited the pandemic as the cause for the delay. But looking into their submissions, they’ve been asking for a 0% increase as far back as 2011. And they’re asking for it again. “R&CA submits that any increase in the National Minimum Wage for those awards covered under the Group 3 tier should not occur until 1 February 2022.” Freezing the minimum wage again will result in a $980.72* wage cut to the average casual worker*. Another stab in the back for workers already facing the crisis of insecure and casual work. We can’t stand by and let them give us another wage cut. It’s time to stand together and fight for the future of hospitality. Sign our petition today to demand the pay rise we deserve this July. *working 3 weekday shifts and 2 weekend shifts at 7.6hrs per shift. *Assumming 1.75% inflation