Policies, Publications & Submissions
ACTU Policies, Publications and Submissions
Recent Policies, Publications & Submissions
ACTU Submission: Annual Wage Review 2016-17
March 29, 2017
INTRODUCTION 1. The Panel’s decision this year will directly impact a higher proportion of the…
The incidence of, and trends in, corporate avoidance of the Fair Work Act 2009
March 28, 2017
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (‘ACTU’) is pleased to make a submission to this Inquiry. The ACTU is the peak body representing almost 2 million working Australians. The ACTU and its affiliated unions have a long and proud history of representing workers’ industrial and legal rights and advocating for improvements to legislation to protect these rights.
ACTU Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women
March 28, 2017
The Australian union movement has been at the forefront of efforts to raise awareness internationally about the benefits of engaging workplaces as part of a broader strategy to reduce the prevalence of violence against women and minimise its impacts.
In 2015, the ACTU mounted an historic test case in Australia’s national workplace relations tribunal, the Fair Work Commission (FWC), seeking a new minimum employment standard of up to 10 days paid leave per year for employees subjected to family and domestic violence. This test case represents the first attempt anywhere in the world to provide a nationally consistent entitlement to paid family and domestic violence leave for both public and private sector workers.
The ACTU continues to play a significant role in assisting the deliberations of the International Labour Organization (ILO), whose International Labour Conference (ILC) will begin the process of setting a new standard on violence against women and men in the world of work at its meeting in June 2018.
Gender Segregation in the Workplace and its impact on women’s economic equality
March 28, 2017
Gender segregation remains a stubborn feature of our labour market. Women are more likely to work in lower paid roles and lower paid fields, are more likely to work part-time or casually, and are more likely to take breaks from paid employment to provide unpaid care for others. Over their lifetimes, as a consequence, they will earn significantly less than men.
The gender pay gap in Australia has not shifted in two decades and the economic disparity between women and men around the world is rising. The World Economic Forum estimated that at current rates, it would take another 170 years to close the global pay gap between men and women. This injustice must not be allowed to continue.
ACTU submission to the inquiry into Innovation and Creativity: Workforce for the New Economy
March 28, 2017
AS WITH OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, AUSTRALIA MUST ADAPT AND RESPOND TO THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE END OF THE MINING BOOM, TECHNOLOIGICAL CHANGE, GLOBAL COMPETITION AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE
Even the most casual observer of the Australian economy is aware that we are entering a period of change. What is equally clear is that this change demands a measured and planned response from government. One of the core assumptions of this inquiry is that the ‘new economy’ is a discrete, known entity which can be examined and solutions to the issues it creates developed. But fifteen years ago the job title ‘Social Media Manager’ would have been considered nonsense. The internet, mobile phones, smart phones and portable computers and all their associated employment opportunities were largely unpredicted by futurists and economic planners. While we can make educated assumptions (future jobs are likely to require greater levels of digital literacy for example) and attempt to extrapolate from current trends, as the CSIRO have done in their recent report “Tomorrow’s Digitally Enabled Workforce”1, it remains largely impossible to be sure about the precise nature of the new economy. Perhaps the only certainty is that change is coming. If this is true then then only responsible course for the government to take is to ensure that the Australian economy is as well-placed as possible to adapt to that change. Change will be fast paced and technological change will have impacts across the entire economy. The only way to make sure this transition is smooth is to start now, to ensure that Australia is able to address future challenges and opportunities from a position of strength.
Inquiry into the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Support for Commonwealth Entities) Bill 2016
March 15, 2017
KEY POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
The ACTU believes that the proposed amendments should not be supported.
Australia’s local industries require more rather than less support in order to sustain and create job growth. Manufacturing in particular plays a large role in innovation and needs to be supported by relevant government policies.
In addition, further reforms are necessary to ensure that Efic’s procedures are consistent with international standards and that taxpayers can be assured that their money is not contributing to human rights abuses.
Australian Foreign Policy White Paper – A Trade Union Perspective
March 15, 2017
“The Conference reaffirms the fundamental principles on which the Organization is based and, in particular, that:
a) labour is not a commodity;
b) freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress;
c) poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere;
d) the war against want requires to be carried on with unrelenting vigour within each nation, and by continuous and concerted international effort in which the representatives of workers and employers, enjoying equal status with those of governments, join with them in free discussion and democratic decision with a view to the promotion of the common welfare”
ILO Founding Principles, 1919
ACTU Submission to the Finkel Inquiry
March 8, 2017
Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market
ACTU Submission to Joint Parliamentary Committee: Whistleblower protections in the corporate, public and not-for-profit sectors
February 10, 2017
The Committee Secretary Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services Whistleblower protections in…
ACTU submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Human Services: Stage Two
February 10, 2017
Background
• Since June 2016 the Productivity Commission has been running an inquiry that seeks to determine “the services within the human services sector that are best suited to the increased application of competition, contestability and informed user choice”.
• Note the lack of any analysis of ‘if’ they would benefit.
• The inquiry has now gone through two rounds of submissions in the first stage, which aimed at ‘identifying sectors for reform’. The sectors identified are:
o Social housing
o Public hospitals
o Specialist palliative care
o Public dental
o Services for remote indigenous communities
o ‘Grant-based’ family and community services
• Today’s submission is to stage 2 of the inquiry, where specific reforms are beginning to be proposed for each sector.
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