Final Joint Submissions re Migration Amendment
The Department to consider altering discretionary provisions to vest courts with powers to make additional enforcement orders including adverse publicity orders and banning orders prohibiting employers from employing migrant workers and people under the age of 25 for a fixed term following a finding of non-compliance.
No Community Left Behind: Survey of Workers in Lockdown
Unions NSW Annual Report 2020
COVID-19 touched every industry, workplace and worker in 2020. It drove us into lockdowns, isolation, social distancing and working from home. For some, the greatest challenge was turning themselves off mute or maintaining personal space. However, for many workers the very viability of their industry was threatened.
Build it here: The economic cost of offshoring major transport projects in New South Wales
Public procurement is a major driver of economic activity, constituting 15% of GPD – higher than the OECD average of 11%. Through competitive tender processes, governments in Australia have awarded 13% of all public procurement expenditure to international bidders.
In awarding tenders for major projects, governments must balance public expectations with the need to ensure that major expenditure commitments represent value for money.
Working for $9 hour
Labour is vital to the Australian horticulture industry. Seasonal variation and the transient nature of the work makes the farmworker population difficult to measure. It is estimated that approximately 142,000 people work in the horticulture industry. Fruit grape and nut farms employ around 104,000 workers and vegetable farms employ 38,000 workers.
Young, free and living precariously
There has been significant media reporting and public commentary on the impact on young people of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic recession. However, there is limited empirical research into the experiences of young people during the height of the 2020 pandemic. This discussion paper is the result of a survey of over 300 respondents conducted during the final months of 2020.
24-hour childcare and tradie toll relief needed in State Budget
A new report finds tradies and shift workers were the state’s forgotten people during COVID and recommends a trial of 24-hour day care and toll relief to help our blue, pink and fluoro-collared workforce.
The McKell Institute research for Unions NSW will be presented to Treasurer Dominic Perrottet as a State Budget option paper. It finds many of the workers in question suffered greatly reduced incomes and work hours at the height of the pandemic, all while facing a higher degree of exposure to COVID.
Inquiry into Job Security
The industrial environment in Australia over recent decades has seen increases in productivity and flexibility with the majority of benefits geared towards business. Flexibility has manifested as increasing levels of casualisation, part-time work, short-term contracts and the use of independent contractors, all inherently insecure and precarious forms of work.
Wage Theft: Horticulture report
At time of writing migration to Australia is at an all-timelow. Many nations have begun their roll out of vaccines for the COVID-19 virus however the pandemic still poses a serious threat to lives and economies. To limit the spread of the virus in Australia the federal government has continued its restriction on international arrivals and particularly its halt on immigration to Australia.
Inquiry into the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020
Unions NSW is the peak body for trade unions and union members in New South Wales with 48 affiliated trade unions and Trades and Labour Councils, representing approximately 600,000 workers across New South Wales. Affiliated trade unions cover the spectrum of the workforce in both the public and private sectors.