Wage Theft: Lighting up the Black Market
In some sections of the workforce underpayment of wages has become routine. Employers are unashamedly advertising below Award rates for vacant positions.
This seedy underbelly of exploitation and wage theft has been exposed through high profile examples of migrant worker exploitation. Workers have been threatened against making complaints, with employers taking advantage of workers who have poor English, are on temporary work visas and are young.
Wage Theft: the Shadow Market
The exploitation of temporary migrant workers in Australia is a common and known problem that appears to be endemic throughout Australian workplaces. This exploitation persists despite numerous government inquiries,¹ legislative reforms and in 2019, the establishment of The Migrant Workers’ Taskforce whose recommendations are yet to be implemented.
NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry
This submission will provide an overview of union concerns in relation to the 2019-20 NSW bushfires, and make several recommendations with respect to primarily industrial concerns. The submission will be structured around the Terms of Reference of the Inquiry. For the purposes of this submission, “Bushfires” will refer to the bushfires in NSW over the devastating 2019-20 season which are the subject of the Inquiry.
Visa Assist Annual Report 2020
Visa Assist is a partnership between Unions NSW and the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre
(IARC), designed to advocate for and advise union members with immigration matters.
Premier’s lack of confidence in local industry an opportunity missed
No Worker Left Behind - Survey Results 2020
Unions NSW’s survey is the first large-scale data set regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related govern-ment economic and social restrictions, upon temporary migrants. Temporary migrants have been particularly impact-ed because of the reluctance of the Australian government to extend access to its JobKeeper and JobSeeker schemes to visa holders.
Future Work report: A robot took my job
Unions NSW commissioned YouGov to conduct a survey of Australian attitudes and feelings towards automation. This research demonstrates a deep anxiety about automation, and a hunger for governments to intervene and help.
‘The robot apocalypse is coming — and they will take our jobs’
Secure, well-paid jobs are slowly evaporating and being replaced by electronic and digital alternatives. But if we don’t take action soon, our economy will be ruined.
Hazardous Air Quality: The New Normal?
New South Wales has experienced an unprecedented
drop in air quality over the 2019-2020 summer. Bushfire
smoke has blanketed rural and urban areas for days at
a time. With experts warning that climate change will
cause more intense and frequent bushfires, New South
Wales must prepare for the new normal. Unions NSW
has produced this document to propel this discussion
forward into concrete actions the NSW Government can
take to protect people’s health.
Ensuring Integrity Bill - Submission to Senate Inquiry
The Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 (Cth) provides excessive and unnecessary external oversight of the leadership, staffing and internal operations of registered trade unions. It confers significant power to the Minister, employers and broader corporate interests to interfere with the democratic operation of trade unions.