ACTU

New Campaign Campaigns

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  We need jobs you can count on

  All across our country – and especially outside the larger cities – people are crying out for good secure jobs. It’s vital to being able to plan and live a decent life. The Turnbull Government is making choices that ignore working peoples’ needs. Under this government, nearly half of us are in some kind of insecure work. Increasingly people are in jobs that are casual, forced into part-time work, engaged in labour hire or on rolling fixed-term contracts. Recent research shows that Australia has the highest level of temporary work in the OECD. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can use government purchasing power to create good, secure jobs instead of insecure work or sending our money overseas. We can make sure that that when the government hires teachers, nurses and other public servants they provide good, secure jobs instead of leaving people in limbo for years. And we can make a better country for everyone by putting the needs and lives of working people ahead of big business bottom lines. Please tell Malcolm Turnbull we need jobs we can count on.

  3,685 of 4,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Council of Trade Unions
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  Keep banks out of our super

  The Turnbull Government has resisted a banking royal commission for too long. Now we are going to have one, it should focus on the bad behaviour of banks - behaviour that has hurt too many Australians. Anything else is a cop out. It would be totally outrageous for Malcolm Turnbull to turn this banking royal commission into an attack on industry superannuation designed to hand retirement savings over to the big banks. That’s not what Australians demanded in their calls for a royal commission. Big banks can’t be trusted with workers’ money. Banks have been forced to refund or compensate their customers $480 million in the past two years. In contrast, industry superannuation is scandal-free and consistently delivers better returns for members than any bank super fund. Industry super isn’t broken and doesn’t need fixing. It’s the big banks that are broken - that’s why we needed a royal commission in the first place.

  8,463 of 9,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Council of Trade Unions
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  Stop Turnbull’s PaTH to Poverty

  PaTH is a con designed to rip off young people and put more money in the pockets of employers. The day after cutting retail workers’ penalty rates pay under the lie that it will create jobs, the Turnbull Government is driving young people into $4 an hour arrangements with big companies that will avoid paying penalty rates altogether and ensuring they remain in entrenched poverty. Young working people are already up against it; - We have double-digit youth unemployment figures across the country. - Apprenticeships have dried up and now come with university style government loan debts. - The cost of studying at university and TAFE is exorbitant. - Young people working on weekends and public holidays face penalty rate cuts. - Most young people have never even known a paid sick day Turnbull’s PaTH program will do nothing for young people beyond churning them through short-term, dead-end placement. It will take away full wage paying positions, denying Australians of decent work, and will entrench the current situation of soaring profits and stagnating wages. Young people are being driven into programs that will not guarantee a job. Only 15 per cent of PaTH internships have resulted in real jobs. Under PaTH, business is benefiting at the expense of workers. The rules need to change to stop the exploitation of young people.

  7,708 of 8,000 Signatures

  Created by Chris Bates
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  Keep Michaelia Cash out of our unions

  The Turnbull Government have been running a smear campaign against your union using all the same old dirty tricks and dodgy outlets. They don’t like us because workers are calling out the Turnbull government for failing to address inequality, failing to protect penalty rates, failing to lift wages and failing to create good steady jobs. Turnbull and Cash want to give themselves the power to be able to say who runs your union. They want to stop unions providing training to members about rights at work, how to get a pay rise or how to keep our workplaces safe. They want to put big banks in charge of your super. Attacks on unions hurt working people and make inequality worse. We must defeat these anti-union laws. Sign and share this petition to tell Michaelia Cash to keep out of our unions.

  5,026 of 6,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Unions
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  Stop Gender Based Violence

  Michaelia Cash and Kelly O’Dwyer should be supporting this, but instead they are trying to prevent the creation of this new law. We need to send a message that we won’t tolerate workplace gender violence: Not here, not anywhere. Sign the petition

  1,409 of 2,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian 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.

  70,197 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Erin, weekend worker
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  Time Together. Time to Grow - Support Paid Parental Leave

  When a baby is born, this usually means one parent earning an income, one parent caring full-time. But for families who need two incomes, this can be tough. And for the first few weeks while mother and baby recover from birth, both parents really need to be at home. While employers want more and more from employees, there hasn’t been enough done to make sure family still comes first. Babies do best when they are cared for by a parent, full-time for their first six months. And when parents are back at work, they need affordable early education and care. Making sure every new family can give a child this start in life is something employers and the government need to provide, together. A full-time wage for the first six months of a child’s life, and affordable early education and care when both parents are back at work is the best way to create a bright future for all of our kids. Raising the next generation as best as we can is everyone’s responsibility.

  6,167 of 7,000 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.

  6,123 of 7,000 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.

  4,227 of 5,000 Signatures

  Created by Australian Council of Trade Unions