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Australian Council of Trade Unions

January

The government is considering whether employers should pay costs of workers’ unsuccessful underpayment claims.

Change to small wage theft claims could prompt ‘go away money’ surge

A departmental recommendation that employers pay workers’ legal costs if they lose underpayment cases of up to $100,000 has sparked business fears.

  • David Marin-Guzman
ACTU assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell argued big business would use the case to push for lower wages in other industries.

Assault on retail penalty rates may spread to other jobs: ACTU

A major push to simplify the retail award, backed by Coles, Woolworths, 7-Eleven and Mecca, has sparked union fears of a broader attack on penalty rates.

  • David Marin-Guzman

December 2024

A rally protesting the CFMEU administration, at the front of Parliament House in Canberra.

Union warns it might back Greens as CFMEU goes to the High Court

Electrical Trades Union national secretary Michael Wright said the Greens had been on “the right side of history” on union issues.

  • Updated
  • Ronald Mizen
Unionist rallied in Canberra on Tuesday in protest at the CFMEU being placed into administration for alleged links to the crime world.

The secret sting in the union membership surge under Labor

A union membership increase bucking a decade of decline is entirely due to public sector growth, concealing a new low in the private sector.

  • David Marin-Guzman
ACTU secretary Sally McManus on Monday called for interest rate cuts outside the Reserve Bank.

Union growth is back under Labor after a decade of decline

The ACTU says a return to collective bargaining under the Albanese government has helped unions increase their membership to 13 per cent of the workforce.

  • David Marin-Guzman and Michael Read
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ACTU secretary Sally McManus (front left) said the IR laws had increased workers’ wages by $380 a year, or 0.5 per cent.

ACTU pushes for Labor to expand WFH rights

The ACTU is pushing to expand workers’ rights to challenge work-from-home refusals and raise the threshold for bosses to reject them.

  • David Marin-Guzman

October 2024

Tony Maher, national president of the Mining and Energy Union, said the breakaway group was not a split - “it’s a splinter”.

Mining union boss dismisses ‘blue-collar threat’ to ACTU

MEU president Tony Maher lashed the blue-collar union breakaway and condemned attacks on ACTU secretary Sally McManus that he said had led to death threats.

  • David Marin-Guzman

Greens join push to scrap junior worker pay rates

The Greens would push a second term minority Albanese government to abolish lower rates of pay for young workers in retail, fast food and pharmacy.

  • Tom McIlroy

September 2024

Murray Watt will carry a significant burden in two crucial elections.

The unassuming senator with Labor’s fortunes on his shoulders

Queensland is at the centre of two crucial elections in the coming months, and the personable Murray Watt might be the bridge builder who helps tip things for the ALP.

  • James Hall
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives at the Business Council of Australia dinner with BCA President Geoff Culbert and CEO Bran Black.

Why business is prepared to headbutt Albanese

The Albanese government is under siege from a business community alienated from Canberra and dismayed by the lack of an economic agenda to drive growth.

  • Jennifer Hewett
Business Council of Australia chief Bran Black (right) told Anthony Albanese corporate leaders think the country is “losing our way”.

No retreat on IR laws, Albanese tells business

Labor and business will have to agree to disagree on industrial relations but, otherwise, they have a lot in common, Anthony Albanese says.

  • Phillip Coorey
The BCA dinner is It is also the opportunity for the Prime Minister to take on the big economic reform challenges, such as tax reform and boosting productivity called for by Bill Kelty.

Kelty condemns Labor failure on economic growth

Trailblazing former union leader Bill Kelty says the Albanese government has no plan for economic growth and no appetite for the big reforms to secure Australia’s future.

  • Jennifer Hewett
The Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black (left), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former BCA president Tim Reed at the BCA annual dinner last year.

BCA must speak out on Australia’s big-picture policy challenges

Some of the criticism in our story of the declining power and influence of an institution, whose meaningful voice helped reform Australia’s economy, we believe is merited.

  • The AFR View
Some CFMEU workers are unhappy with the union forcing them onto a new fund that doesn’t return profits to the workers.

Union redundancy fund war heats up

A major NSW fund has blocked members from transferring their money to the John Setka-backed Incolink fund in a fight to control billions of dollars in the unregulated sector.

  • Updated
  • David Marin-Guzman
Bill Shorten with wife Chloe and daughter Clementine after anonuncing his retirement.

From Beaconsfield to Bruce: Labor’s loss will be education’s gain

Bill Shorten will rival, if not supplant, Kim Beazley as the best prime minister Labor never had.

  • Phillip Coorey
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August 2024

Melbourne hosted up to 50,000 construction workers protesting the administration.

Rogue CFMEU leaders vow ‘absolute destruction’ of Labor

Ousted CFMEU officials have vowed to campaign to turf Labor out in state and federal elections, as tens of thousands stopped work to protest the CFMEU administration.

  • David Marin-Guzman and Gus McCubbing
Restaurateur Chris Lucas at Society with executive chef Luke Headon.

Right to disconnect is ‘silly’ and will cost businesses extra

The new workplace entitlement gives most employees the right to ignore contact from their bosses outside normal working hours, unless doing so is unreasonable.

  • Patrick Durkin and Euan Black
Former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan brought the house down as Edmund Barton.

Wayne Swan’s Cbus plays a sticky wicket

Superannuation funds are barred from marketing expenditure they can’t prove is in the best financial interests of their members. Cbus will have to prove it.

  • Myriam Robin
CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith arriving at the Federal Court in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Getting witnesses to talk is tough in CFMEU case, court told

The judge in the union administration case has recused himself at the first hearing, as the Fair Work Commission’s lawyer warns it will take time to prepare the case.

  • David Marin-Guzman

July 2024

Penalties have to be harsher than just a cost of doing business.

How to burst the CFMEU’s balloon for good

Press the construction union, and it simply bulges up somewhere else. More tools are needed if the union’s long-term culture is to change.

  • Peter Richards

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/australian-council-of-trade-unions-1m17