ACTU

Campaigns

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  Coronavirus: Extend JobKeeper and JobSeeker

  This crisis isn’t over. Far from it. The JobKeeper end date is fast approaching and working people are facing the prospect of the economic trapdoor opening up underneath them as more companies and organisations start to announce job losses in anticipation of JobKeeper being switched off in September. JobKeeper needs to be extended and expanded to cover workers in higher education, early childhood education, the arts, aviation, casuals who might have less than 12 months service, visa workers who were invited here and are now trapped. By signing our petition, you can let the government know that if we are all in this together as they claim, it needs to provide JobKeeper to all those that need. The old JobSeeker rate was a poverty trap and Australian’s have always deserved more than $40 a day. It was never enough to live and there can be no going back to that kind of starvation payment. With nearly 1 million people unemployed, but the reality that there is almost an additional 700,000 who’ve given up looking for work because there are no jobs, ordinary Australians are dealing with both economic hardship and a loss of faith in the future. JobSeeker should be permanently lifted because it provides people with a chance to pay their bills, put food on the table and not struggle trapped in poverty. We need to give all Australian a sense of hope and security. Without extending these supports millions of Australians will suffer as the economy falls over the September cliff, jobs are destroyed and incomes are thrown back to poverty levels. You can do your bit by signing this petition and demanding that Scott Morrison leaves no worker to navigate this crisis alone.

  20,057 of 25,000 Signatures
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  Don’t let the Morrison Government Ruin our Retirement

  For years now, members of the Morrison Government have been campaigning against industry super and using the cover of Coronavirus, they are planning to take a sledgehammer to workers’ retirement savings. More than two million Australians were forced to raid their superannuation just to get by throughout the crisis, and hundreds of thousands of Australians are now out of work. A generation of workers’ retirements are at risk if the Government succeeds in kicking the ladder out from under them. Australian unions won superannuation for it to be the best retirement income system in the world. We need to protect these hard won gains and strengthen our superannuation system to match the modern economy.

  3 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Matt Burke
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  Call on the Australian government to ratify ILO Violence and Harassment Convention now!

  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.

  87 of 100 Signatures
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  Coronavirus: Guarantee Paid Special Leave For All Workers

  As Australians, we stick together with our mates – we don’t leave people behind. But there are 3.3 million Australian workers with no access to paid leave – this represents 32% of all working people. If these workers become ill they will either attend work sick or potentially be subject to self-isolation quarantine at home without means to pay their bills. We can't wait - people are already being forced to go into quarantine and losing income. Many workers are also being forced to use their leave and some are even being stood down without pay. We are demanding that the Morrison Government guarantee two weeks paid special leave for all workers. Sign this petition to demand access to two weeks paid special leave for all workers affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19).

  113,891 of 150,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Unions
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  Coronavirus - A guaranteed wage subsidy to save jobs now!

  Working Australians have been dealt a body blow by the impact of the coronavirus. Millions of workers are facing the very real prospect of losing their job and they need the government to act. Sign our petition and tell the Morrison government it must provide a guaranteed wage subsidy to all working people immediately to save jobs. Other countries' governments have already done this. The UK government is guaranteeing 80% of people's wages. It’s time Scott Morrison gave Australian workers the same assurance that they are not being abandoned. Scott Morrison has announced a wage subsidy for Australian workers, but it excludes 500,000 casuals and over 1 million temporary visa holders. Let the Prime Minister know that it is only by keeping people in jobs that the future of Australian workers, their families and their communities can be secured. If we guarantee wages now we will keep people in jobs and out of welfare. Sign the petition for a guaranteed wage subsidy and let Scott Morrison know Australian workers need a government that puts the well-being of workers first.

  44,354 of 45,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Unions
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  Support Family Violence Leave for all workers

  Right now in Australia, employers are shirking their duty of care to employees experiencing family violence. Despite community pressure, many employers are still denying people experiencing family violence the time they need to attend doctors’ appointments and court dates. That’s why union members are asking the Fair Work Commission and Governments to give people subjected to family violence a minimum of ten paid days away from work. It is the responsibility of our whole community to end family violence, and to support people experiencing violence right now. Employers say that this is a 'private issue' rather than something we must tackle as a society. They even argue that we should have to trade off other work rights to get it! They are refusing to step up and help to end this crisis. Survivors have suffered for too long behind closed doors. We all have a part to play in ending violence: it’s time that employers played theirs. Tell employers everyone has the right to feel safe at work, and everyone should have the right to paid days away from work if they are subjected to family violence.

  4,248 of 5,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Council of Trade Unions
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  Weekend workers don't deserve a pay cut - protect our penalty rates

  As a hospitality worker, I work when most people are enjoying time off with family and friends. My weekend penalty rates make up for this. And they put food on my table and a roof over my head. Retail, fast food and hospitality workers are already some of the lowest paid people in Australia. We cannot afford this cut to our wages. Tell the Prime Minister, Australian workers deserve a pay rise, not a pay cut. He needs to act now to protect our pay.

  70,255 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Erin, weekend worker
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  The Morrison government must save 16,000 local jobs and take a stake in Virgin

  Virgin Airlines have gone into voluntary administration which means time is running out to save the 16,000 local jobs, spread across Australia, including in regional airports. The Morrison government is at a crossroad where it can choose to invest tax payer money in buying a stake in an Airline that will allow Australia to avoid becoming a country with one all powerful corporate airline in control of the skies or watch as 16,000 jobs are destroyed, tax payers are lumped with an $800 million bill for unpaid entitlements and our domestic tourism industry collapses as ticket prices exploded and services are cut. The foreign shareholders of Virgin Australia are all airlines. Despite the name Richard Branson’s company owns less than 10%. Around the world airlines have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and many other countries have already stepped in to save national airlines.

  11,664 of 15,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Unions
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  We Won’t Wait

  In Australia a woman dies every week because of family and domestic violence. Some women were killed at work. Many of these women were employed. Most did not have access to paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. Family and domestic violence is the leading cause of death, disability and illness among women aged 15-44 years, greater than cancer or heart disease. And yet access to paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave is limited. Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave means a woman can access support services so she can leave. It means she can attend court, doctor's appointments, meet with real estate agents, change her children's school, all without the fear of losing her job. Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave will save lives. The estimated cost of introducing a minimum 10 days’ paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave in the National Employment Standards is just five cents per day per worker. The estimated cost of family and domestic violence to the economy is $12.6 billion per year. When 800,000 women in work have experienced sexual or family violence access to 10 days’ paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave will make a real difference. The Federal Government must act.

  6,414 of 7,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Unions
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  Stop Morrison’s union-busting bill

  Less than a week after being rejected in the Senate Scott Morrison has delivered on his promise to big business and put his union-busting bill through the House of Representatives again. But before it can be law it must go to the senate. The senate rejected union busting only a week before Morrison has rushed the same law back into parliament. These union-busting laws will hurt working people in this country. These laws will make it harder to win pay rises, harder to keep workplaces safe and will make it easier for bad bosses to do the wrong thing. These laws continue a double standard that targets unions with deregistration over minor errors, like filing paperwork late, yet the big banks continue to get away with outrageous, ongoing criminal behaviour. Morrison’s laws are union-busting pure and simple. Morrison has no plan to stop the criminality of the big banks, no plan to end wage theft and has one set of rules for banks and big business and another for working people and unions.

  21,214 of 25,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Unions