Yesterday, web pages were aflutter with comments by celebrity chef George Calombaris about the high cost of paying staff to work on weekends. An article in The Power Index reported Calombaris complaining that he’s looking down the barrel of paying his restaurant staff ‘$40 an hour on Sundays … and it’s not like they’ve had […]

When the CPSU took 12 government agencies to Fair Work Australia (FWA) a couple of weeks ago in a dispute over negotiating enterprise agreement, it barely rated a mention in the press. And, if the comments in the Sydney Morning Herald’s online edition are anything to go by (‘The Australian Public Service might go on […]

The federal industrial relations tribunal, Fair Work Australia, has passed down an exciting and historical Decision on women’s wages. More than a year ago, the Australian Services Union brought an application for an equal remuneration order to the tribunal. If granted, the order would apply to employees of non-government employers in the social, community and […]

Let’s say you’re a worker in Victoria and you get fired, but you don’t qualify for Legal Aid and you can’t afford a solicitor. The industrial relations laws, however, have just become so complicated. Didn’t Howard change things? Didn’t Rudd change them back? Thankfully, you can call JobWatch for help. JobWatch is an employment rights […]

For over 60 years, the International Labour Organization has been trying to set an international standard for domestic workers. Overwhelmingly female, often migratory, and typically racialised, these are the workers who raise the children of wealthy families, look after the disabled and the elderly in their homes, work as drivers, gardeners and live-in cleaners. And […]

Jason Dowling has been sacked. Not for behaving badly at work, but for behaving badly in his own spare time. Jason posted some offensive comments on Facebook, was dobbed in to his boss by a stranger who happened to stumble upon his page and then given his marching orders. What’s the world coming to? It’s […]

I believe fundamentally in the importance of the unions. But I’m not a union member. In my first week as a fifteen year old check-out chick, I signed up as a member of the SDA. As a casual working the registers at Christmas time, it was only because of the the union presence in the […]

I applaud Matthew Spencer, I do. Here’s a kid who has enough nounce to rally 1500 signatures in his home town in aid of a cause he believes in. The 17-year-old from Terang is out of a job because of the new retail award that now operates in his industry. He and six others used […]

I’m in the market for a new job. I’m not sure if you’ve ever noticed, but there really isn’t that much information out there to help me narrow my search. Employers generally don’t advertise what the salary is, and if you phone them they’re often coy. So I’m going to have to wait until I […]

The National Retail Association (NRA) is having another cry. This time, it’s in response to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s announcement that it will be writing to 50 000 retailers across Australia to make sure they are complying with new workplace laws. It will then look at the employment records of 1500 staff, selected at random, […]