The Covid-19 Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment has been cut despite workers still being required to isolate if they test positive. Case numbers are rising and new variants emerging. Now is not the time to turn off paid pandemic leave. This is the wrong decision. Pandemic leave is what workers need to keep the community safe. The Federal Government must make sure workers are supported to isolate and keep themselves and the community safe. If governments are asking people to isolate to keep the community safe then we need to ensure that they are supported to do that. No one should be forced to make the impossible choice between doing the right thing and paying the bills. The Federal Government should not ignore the lessons that we have learnt since the start of the pandemic. They should reverse this decision and continue to support working people during this ongoing crisis.

School cleaners have done everything asked of them during the pandemic to keep schools clean and healthy. But under the current contracting system they are underpaid and undervalued. In order to keep schools clean and safe cleaners need: • more time to do the job • decent equipment to do the job • a job they can count on • respect and fair pay This is why they should be directly employed by the State Government. Our children deserve Victorian Government cleaners.

Workers were only enacting overtime bans during the dispute in order to win a fair deal. But in response, the company took the extraordinary measure of locking workers out for multiple days without pay. When the company still didn’t address workers' concerns around personal leave, the workers took a day of strike action and now the company locked workers out again! We’re calling on the company to stop their unfair lockout immediately, allow workers to return to work, and address workers' concerns about personal leave - which they need to keep themselves and their families safe.

Australia has a cost-of-living crisis. CPI is rising at 5% per annum, and Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe says inflation could reach 7% by the end of 2022. Staff need a pay rise to keep up with rising food and petrol prices, rising interest rates, and rising rents. Melbourne faces an acute rental crisis. Some staff are having their rents hiked $50 or $100 a week. Monash staff moved mountains to keep the University operating through the pandemic -- voting for a pay freze in 2020-21 to help the University through. While the Vice-Chancellor takes home $1.3m a year, many Monash workers are low-income casual teachers, librarians, and adminstrative and laboratory staff. Now we need the University to do its bit. Monash University can afford a pay rise. Monash made a $416 million operating surplus in 2021. There is more than $800 million cash in the bank. Since 2019, the University has tallied $1 billion in supluses. Normally, staff would negotiate a pay rise through enterprise bargaining. The NTEU has been trying to negotiate, but Monash University refuses to talk. Monash University's Enterprise Agreement expired on June 30. Monash management have refused to open pay negotiations, despite repeated requests from the NTEU for months. Every fortnight that Monash refuses to negotiate is a fortnight where real wages go backwards. It's time for Margaret Gardner to step in, and give Monash University staff some cost of living relief.

Unions of nurses, teachers, paramedics, cleaners, transport workers, child protection workers and many more are saying their jobs and conditions are under immense stress. The NSW Government is ignoring their pleas for help. Workers have been left with little choice but to strike to force the government to listen. So the NSW Government has proposed fines of up to $110,000 for striking. It's unfair and undemocratic - workers will suffer in silence and their unions fined if they take action. But it can be stopped. The Liberals and National Government does not hold a majority in Parliament. If Labor, independents and just 3 minor parties team up they will have a majority to overturn the new fines. The vote is expected in early August - which means we have just a few weeks to act. Add your name to send a clear message to members of the NSW Parliament - you must use your vote to protect essential worker's rights.

Tasmania has a small fire service. It takes 3 years to train a First Class Firefighter and around 10 years to train and develop a Station Officer. With an aging workforce, TFS will struggle to retain enough Firefighters and Officers to maintain a functioning fire service for the Tasmanian Community. Whilst this is an emerging concern right now, low pay and conditions will accelerate this issue over the coming decade. If we wait to fix this, community service delivery will be compromised.

Health workers are the backbone of the Victorian health system during this COVID pandemic. They are overworked. Their workplaces are chronically understaffed. The hard work of Victoria's private health workers deserves to be recognised with a $3000 payment. So let's send a strong message to ALL Victorian private health employers. Sign this HWU petition to voice your support for all private health workers to receive a $3000 Winter Surge and Retention Payment from their employer.

Join our campaign to ask the Swans AFLW to take an inaugural team photo at the steps of the Opera House. This opportunity only exists now, and we should seize it.

In the decade since Qatar was awarded the right to host the World Cup, exploitation and abuse of these workers has been rampant, with workers exposed to forced labour, unpaid wages and excessive working hours. At the heart of the abuse faced by migrant workers is Qatar’s ‘Kafala’ system of sponsorship-based employment which legally binds foreign workers to their employers. Other factors linked to the abuse of mi-grant workers are high levels of worker debt caused by illegal and unethical recruitment practices, the late and non-payment of wages, barriers to obtaining justice when rights are violated, the prohibition of trade unions and the failure to enforce labour laws and penalize employers who abuse their workers. In past campaigns, FIFA sponsors have been asked to reconsider their support – with no result. Some of the sponsors, including Coca Cola, have issued statements condoning human rights abuses anywhere in the world and underlined the trust in FIFA in addressing those. One reason brands are unlikely to take drastic action is simply the pay-off from being a World Cup sponsor. Several are also long-term sponsors, with Coke involved with FIFA since 1974. Pressing FIFA on a PR campaign seems like a very soft measure. However, it is a measure that allows sponsors to take action with real impact without compromising their business interests. In Australia alone, Coca Cola employs more than 3.000 workers in 9 manufacturing sites. Since 2018 Coca Cola developed a Human Rights Action Plan and published several Human Slavery Reports. If Coca Cola takes these self-commitments seriously it should take its responsibility as FIFA World Cup sponsor and act now.

For the last two years, the Queensland Rail Shift Roster Team has been made to work in a small unassuming room off the main control room in Queensland Rail's Rail Management Centre located at Bowen Hills. In the original building designs, this room was designed as a storeroom or a meeting room. Senior QR Management thought it appropriate to stick the Shift Roster Team in this room and expect them to work on a rotating 24/7 roster in unsuitable conditions. The room stinks. It is too hot in summer ( it is pretty typical to reach 30+ degrees), it is too small to permit proper social distancing, and in general, it is not exactly comfortable for three people to work in. After two years of trying it alone with Management, the Team have asked the RTBU Office to help them TEAR DOWN THE WALL! For context the wall is non-structural, the office next door is vacant most of the time, and by increasing the space for the Roster Officers they will be able to include an additional Shift Officer in their team to assist with their heavy workloads. But we need your help, we want to make it clear to Queensland Rail that cooping our Members into a tiny, unsafe, and uncomfortable room for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is not good enough. We want the Shift Roster Office Team to know that they have the full support of our Union in this fight and that they have the collective strength of our Union behind them all the way in this fight.

Kiama Municipal Council are proposing to sell Blue Haven Care, its aged care facility and independent living units. The original decision was made without any community consultation, and rather than rebuilding the asset that creates profit for the community some in the council seek to sell the asset off. This would lead to the loss of half the council’s employees and an insecure residential environment for close to 400 elderly residents. This action is deplorable and we seek the intervention of the State and Federal governments to ensure the service remains viable and in public hands and that financial assistance is provided to enable the ongoing viability of the service. Further, this petition also seeks that Kiama Municipal Council not take any action that could lead to the sale of Blue Haven Care without first engaging in a formal process of community consultation so the views of the public are heard.

Staffing is so stretched in Mildura that Ambulance Victoria has been flying paramedics from Melbourne into Mildura to respond to emergencies. More and more community members are complaining that they are unable to receive an ambulance when they are in need. This means community members are needlessly suffering because of Ambulance Victoria's understaffing issue. “Nightshifts are the worst…we simply don’t have enough ambulances at night.” – Mildura Paramedic Increasingly, Paramedic Crews from Ouyen and Robinvale are being sent to Mildura to assist with workload, leaving the towns uncovered for dangerously long periods of time. It's not unusual for patients to wait extraordinary amounts of time for an ambulance in Ouyen and Robinvale. Paramedic crews are also being split and having to respond in unequipped ambulances just to meet service demands which is risky for patients and paramedics alike. “I'm exhausted from the workload… we just can’t keep up.” – Mildura Paramedic When our healthcare workers are fatigued, overworked and split up, they are at risk of making clinical errors. The Mildura community deserves to receive timely emergency care from paramedics who are not stretched to their limits.