Your Rights at Work
Welcome to the NUW's "Your Rights at Work" Campaign page. Here you can find out how the Federal Government's proposed workplace changes might affect your rights and living standards. There are loads of media articles discussing the changes, which will give you lots of detail about what the Howard Government wants to do to your rights at work. There is also postcard that you can fill out and send to your local Member of Parliament to let them know you are opposed to the Federal Government's changes. The NUW and the ACTU are currently holding workplace meetings about the upcoming changes to working people's rights. To view the presentation, click on the links below. There is also a Workplace Charter you can ask your employer to sign, and then forward to us. And if you think the changes will effect your workplace, fill in the contact sheet below and we'll help you get your story heard. So get involved - your rights at work are worth fighting for. articles
Compare the pair - Labor's Forward with Fairness against the Howard Government's WorkChoices
A lot has been written and said in the past 18 months about how unjust and unfair the Howard Government’s WorkChoices IR laws are.
We have seen workers unfairly dismissed with no recourse, people forced to sign AWAs to get a job or a promotion, and people’s wages and conditions slashed through the use of AWAs.
All the things the ACTU and union movement predicted when John Howard first released these so-called reforms.
We all know these laws are bad and need to be changed. But just what is the alternative?
Email Treasurer Peter Costello
Our national airline Qantas is about to be sold off, and Treasurer Peter Costello refuses to guarantee that the jobs of Australian workers won't be sent offshore.
NUW campaign fundraising
About the NUW's campaign fundraising drive.
NUW fundraising contributors
A list of companies where members have contributed to the campaign fund. Together, NUW members have raised an outstanding $350,000 to the ACTU Fighting Fund.
At last month's Delegates Conference, Victorian Secretary, Martin Pakula, presented a cheque for over $300, 000 on behalf of the NUW to ACTU President, Sharan Burrow, to assist the ACTU with its successful national advertising campaign.
Individual Story - Contact Sheet
A contact sheet for you to send us your story
NUW presentation
The presentation the NUW is giving in workplaces about the Howard Government's extreme IR laws.
ACTU presentation
The graphics and text of the presentation the ACTU has created for presenting in workplaces
Work Charter
A workers' resolution you can ask your employer to sign
Leading academics agree IR changes are bad for workers
A group of Australia's leading academics has pooled their resources to investigate the impact of the Federal Government's planned Industrial Relations reforms on Australian workers, and the net result, they say, is a new system which is overwhelmingly bad for workers; particularly the low paid.
ACTU Media Release - Annual leave entitlements could be cut to two weeks under new IR Laws.
Employers may be able to cut the annual holiday entitlements of Australian workers from four to just two weeks a year under the Federal Government's new industrial relations laws.
Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews said today that the Government was still considering whether it would allow employers to use individual contracts to reduce workers' annual leave entitlements from four to two weeks.
Do you have some spare time to Volunteer?
Do you have some spare time to assist with letter box drops? Would you like to be a community ambassador in your neighbourhood? Do you have some time to help out at shopping centre stalls?
ACTU Press Release - Individual Contracts hurt work and family balance: Inquiry told
The Federal Government's own research report shows its individual contracts (AWAs) are hostile to work and family balance a Parliamentary Inquiry hearing in Melbourne will be told by the ACTU today (Wednesday August 3, 2005).
NUW members’ opposition to IR changes grows
Opposition to the Howard Government’s Industrial Relations agenda continues to mount, with workers across the country voicing their concerns to the radical changes.
Just this week the NUW received a letter from a former employee of the Department of Housing and Construction (Assett Services), Tom Hutchinson, from NSW, stating his concerns about the changes, and urging the NUW to continue its campaign against them.
SA Branch gets behind IR campaign
The national campaign against the Howard Government’s radical IR agenda continues to gain momentum, with the South Australian Branch of the NUW involved in some major activities over the coming weeks.
The activities are designed to increase public awareness about the proposed changes.
Second-wave regulation complex and partisan: Academic
The Senate inquiry into workplace agreements looks set to inflict a new round of damage on the Howard Government over its' second wave IR agenda, with academic Professor Andrew Stewart highly critical of the OEA's approval processes and young employees testifying of their Award entitlements being undercut by AWAs.
ACTU Media Release - Government’s extreme and radical IR legislation confirms union campaign – Australian workers’ rights and conditions to be stripped away
New workplace legislation introduced into Federal Parliament today will strip away one hundred years of respect for workers’ rights, remove legal protection for many employment conditions and will set a new low for the future workplace conditions of Australian workers, the ACTU said today (Wednesday November 2, 2005)
Let your opposition be known - contact your Federal MP
With the Federal Government’s radical Industrial Relations legislation up and running, the fight is on to let all Federal MPs know just what ordinary working Australians think of the changes.
As we have been informing you for two years, these changes are anti-worker, anti-family and anti-union.
They do not make the Australian Industrial Relations system fairer and simpler.
Instead they make it more complex, handing the bulk of the power to employers with a drive to slash wages and conditions for ordinary Australian families who are already struggling to keep their heads above water.
So if you would like to contact your local Federal MP or Senator and tell them just what you think of the new system, we have put together a list of all of their email addresses below.
ACTU Media Release - More working conditions to go under new Liberal IR plans
The Howard Government would remove even more workplace conditions and rights from Australian employees if it wins the next election Finance Minister Nick Minchin has revealed.
In a secret address to the HR Nicholls Society, Mr Minchin, who is a senior member of the Howard Government, revealed that the Government was planning 'another wave' of Industrial Relations changes if it won the 2007 Federal Election.
Click the logo below to visit the ACTU's Your rights at Work Campaign page:
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