Insurance companies offer their staff financial incentives if they can figure out a way to avoid paying for injured workers' costs. They celebrate "wins" when they can deny -- or delay -- workers compensation. They even hold an awards ceremony each year to celebrate their success. But while they celebrate, injured workers are contemplating suicide. Insurance agents are dealing in human misery. We need to stop rewarding them for it. I lost my arm and was almost killed while working on a crusher at work. I had to break my own arm and use the broken bone to rip my arm off, in order to save my life. But that was still not as bad as the process of trying to get my insurance claim sorted. If you're seriously injured at work, you don't want the person assessing your compensation claim to get a cash bonus and a prize to turn you down. But that's what's happening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SdZ0IOvlag&feature=youtu.be

We are the cleaners at 469 La Trobe Street. Between us, we have decades of experience keeping your building clean and safe. But we’ve just been told that we are out of a job because the new cleaning company Elite Property care wants to replace us. Questions for the building manager? If you’ve got more to say, send your concerns to the building manager, CBRE, via Peter Starsunn, National Operations Manager at [email protected].

Submissions made to the Royal Commission report into Family Violence, delivered in March this year reinforced that paid leave rights and other arrangements for people experiencing domestic or family violence are crucial in terms of both reporting and recovery. People employed casually experience intimate partner or family violence too. Workers in precarious employment already have fewer protections. Of course, the casual loading does not consider this form of leave. It is self-evident that domestic and family violence paid leave rights should be extended to all staff of all Victorian universities.

I'm a lifelong Bulldogs fan and I'm so excited for the new professional women's AFL league, but by offering such measly pay rates for women players, the AFL is preventing women from training and playing as equal professionals. While rookie male players can live off their wages, rookie women will have to work another job. I want the league to support the women players the way any employer should: by providing a safe working environment and decent wages and conditions. Paying a women’s team playing list of 26 players the AFL’s minimum for a rookie would cost just under $1.5 million dollars per season, or just 14.5% of the current total player payment for the men’s teams. These women will be role models: The AFL should show that they value women players by paying professional wages, and protecting the players from being chewed up and spat out if they are injured.

According to the leaked University draft change proposal, jewellery, ceramics, and glassmaking will be scrapped, and 60 per cent of jobs will be cut. The University has closed enrolments for the Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) for 2017, and is proposing to move all SCA students into ‘transitional’ spaces on the main campus. This threatens the future of the historic campus at Callan Park. Arts, and arts education, are an invalueable part of any humane and progressive society. The University is not in financial trouble, as the recent construction of the $180m new Business Building attests. The University could fund SCA. Instead, they have decided to prioritise courses that can attract high enrolments, fees, and sponsorship. The expertise and opinions of staff and students have been ignored as the University pursues a top-down managerial approach over a collegial one. In an affront to academic freedom, staff have been told they risk disciplinary procedures if they speak out for their jobs and their students. Sadly, situations like this are too common in the higher education sector, where, in an environment of economic rationalisation, secure employment and educational quality are under threat. It is heartening to see the protests and community opposition by students at SCA, and their determined occupation of the University administration building. We believe that this is more than a fight for one art school, but a fight for the future of higher education.

We call on Crown to support United Voice Casino Union members’ proposal for a weekend night shift allowance. We also call on Crown to agree to support their push for fair annual pay increases and greater job security.

We are Eden and Ula. We came to Australia on Working Holiday Visas. We wanted to travel this beautiful country, have new experiences, make new friends and work along the way to help pay for our trip. We loved Australia so much that we wanted to stay for a second year and saw a regional job going at a zucchini farm in Bowen, Queensland through a labour hire contractor called AZIT. We had to fill out many forms and there were lots of conditions for us to be employed as casual labourers. We also had to pay the contractor $800 each before we could start work. The work never came. The contractor gave excuses about the weather. When we decided to look elsewhere for work, we asked for our money back. The contractor refused and told us we could take him to Fair Work. Now, with the help of our union the NUW, we are campaigning to get our money back and put an end to dodgy labour hire contractors ripping off workers. AZIT exploited the fact that we didn't have a good understanding of workplace rights in Australia and now has stolen hundreds of dollars. How many others have they stolen money from? We are taking a stand for all workers who are exploited in Australia. Workers should join the union and the campaign to stop the rip offs, wage theft and exploitation.

I've worked for two different bosses at Subway - but it's the same experience every time. Wage theft. Unpaid training. Bullying. And I know that there are thousands of other young workers right around Australia just like me. Young workers who are being paid at less than the Award rate, working overtime for no pay, facing intimidation and threats from franchisees, and being expected to complete the official Subway training program "Subway University" in our own time. https://youtu.be/UolcRec2Ezs When I tried to report this wage theft to Subway's head office, I was told that there was nothing they could do. But that's a lie. Subway's head office has a responsibility to make sure the people it permits to run businesses under it's brand are not exploiting workers. This isn't just one "bad egg" franchisee. This is systematic. Subway needs to take responsibility for this mess. Read more about the investigation into Subway's underpayments: https://www.theage.com.au/business/small-business/subway-under-investigation-by-fair-work-over-staff-underpayment-20190809-p52flv.html

In an outrageous act of corporate greed, 55 CUB workers were terminated without notice and then offered a take-it-or-leave-it non-union deal with a 65 per cent reduction in monetary entitlements and cuts to most of their hard-won conditions. The Abbotsford CUB brewery makes huge profits producing leading brands like VB, Crown Lager, Melbourne Bitter, Carlton Dry, Pure Blond and Strongbow. It’s shameful that CUB workers are paying a price for being union and doing their job well, while SAB Miller (CUB's parent company) made $4.4 billion in profits this year and is currently part of the biggest ever corporate takeover in the history of the global beer industry. We need your support to call on CUB to reinstate the workers and end their shameful anti-worker, anti-union tactics.

The hundreds of jobs Telstra is cutting and sending offshore belong to real people, like Chris who has two little kids and a partner working part time. They bought their first house last year. Chris and his workmates pride themselves on working hard for customers, delivering multi-billion dollar profits to Telstra. CPSU members at Telstra predict that network outages will be more common because Telstra has cut highly skilled people, often with 20-30 years experience with the Telstra network. Telstra's and Australia's future success lies in the company investing in Australian innovation, skills and jobs rather than making decisions based on short-term greed. Telstra is not only reducing its' own capacity but it removes thousands of job opportunities for future generations.

The particular cuts at CHL have not been justified. Why are these positions being lost? Positions including a key academic in the Japanese program, one in the Sanskrit program, ARC Fellows, Professors and an editor of a key journal. As ANU attempts to side-step protections in the Enterprise Agreement (EA) which provide for re-deployment, staff are left wondering what their future holds. This has serious implications for staff in other areas who face reviews and restructures in the future.

NUW members in Bendigo recently won a protracted legal case to get entitlements they were owed paid to them following the collapse of Empire Rubber in 2006. However of the $4.5 million win, workers will never see a cent. Nothing. All because corporate law firms are swallowing the win up in fees. LCM Litigation Fund Pty Ltd and Piper Alderman have pocketed 91% of the win, $4.1 million dollars, while their clients have been told they will never see any money and there is nothing they can do. NUW member and former Empire Rubber worker Shane Hogan is owed $15,000. His wife Tracy has said that “To get a letter saying that it’s all been eaten up in fees is very disappointing.” “A lot of people who were laid off did not gain employment afterwards, so they were really relying on getting that money”. Members refuse to accept this gross denial of justice. We are calling on Piper Alderman to waive their fees and give their clients the money they have won. The Law Institute of Victoria’s code of ethics calls for lawyers to “advance their clients’ interests above their own” and to “charge fairly for their work”. Clearly Piper Alderman have failed in their ethical obligations to NUW members at Empire Rubber. In pocketing the cash and failing to meet ethical standards, Piper Alderman undermines the integrity of the justice system to serve the needs of workers. Piper Alderman and LCM Litigation Fund: give workers their money back so justice is closer to being served!