Trade unions
NARROWER TERMS
Report
Family and domestic violence leave review
This report outlines the findings of an independent economic analysis of the cost of providing paid family and domestic violence leave to workers on the modern award wage by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), as part of their submission to the Fair Work...
Report
Container stevedoring monitoring report 2020-21
This report presents information on the financial and operational performance of the monitored container stevedores, as well as observations regarding key developments within the sector relating to COVID-19 and prior supply chain transformation, competition and port regulation.
Report
Powering the just transition
This report gives an overview of the challenge of ensuring a just transition to a low-carbon economy in Yorkshire and the Humber regions of the United Kingdom.
Report
Contemporary social movements in Iraq: mapping the labor movement and the 2015 mobilizations
This study shows that the emergence of trade union organizations and social movement organizations in the post-war era played an important role in shaping Iraq’s current political, social, and economic landscape beyond the meta-narratives of war and sectarianism.
Report
Industrial relations in a post-COVID world
Industrial relations regulation in Australia is an historical anomaly. It is highly prescriptive and complex, with substantial third party involvement. The economic shocks of COVID-19, and the associated government responses, have rendered aspects of our industrial relations regulations unworkable. This paper proposes some solutions.
Fact sheet
Fact Check Fact File: COVID-19 has put jobs in danger. How many workers don't have leave entitlements?
The ACTU has repeatedly said 3.3 million Australians, or one in three workers, are "casuals, contractors, labour hire and gig workers". That claim is likely an understatement. Combining the estimated number of self-employed workers with those in casual employment would suggest as many as 4.8...
Report
The long struggle of the Amazon employees
This study explores the structures of the Amazon company and worker's experience of trade union resistance in Germany. The research is primarily based on a series of interviews conducted with Amazon strike activists which took place within trade union meetings as well as an Amazon...
Fact sheet
Fact Check: Is the CFMMEU the most unlawful organisation in the history of Australia's industrial laws, as Christian Porter says?
As the Federal Government seeks support for tougher union penalties under its proposed Ensuring Integrity Bill, Attorney-General Christian Porter has repeatedly criticised the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union, or CFMMEU, labelling it
Survey
Work shouldn’t hurt
This survey, carried out by the ACTU in July 2019, exposes an underbelly of unsafe work practices that has led to unacceptable numbers of working people dying as a result of their work, being exposed to trauma, experiencing violence, or sustaining psychological/physical illnesses and injuries.
Audio
Who Runs This Place - The people
Union membership is a fraction of what it was, but people power is finding a voice through new platforms and movements.
Briefing paper
Union organising and labour market rules: two sides of the same coin
This study documents the correlation between workers' rights and union organising - and shows they are two sides of the same coin. The correlation between workers' rights and the success of unions suggests that unions in Australia will need to continue their campaign to "Change...
Fact sheet
Fact Check: The ACTU's Sally McManus said Australia has the highest rate of temporary work in the OECD. Is she correct?
As wages growth and job insecurity loom large in the 2019 election campaign, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Sally McManus claims that Australia is at risk of morphing into an "Americanised economy" of low wages and poor job security.
Discussion paper
Is declining union membership contributing to low wages growth?
This paper concludes that trends in unionisation rates are unlikely to have contributed materially to the decline in wages growth in recent years. It is important to note that this conclusion is limited to only the most direct channel in which unions influence wages -...
Report
Ending wage theft: eradicating underpayment in the Australian workplace
This report outlines how state and federal governments can do more to eradicate the underpayment of wages in Australia.
Presentation
Work in the data economy – What action is needed to ensure good work for all?
Presentation from Society 4.0 Forum, held in Melbourne in November 2018, which scrutinised some of the key issues that relate to the Fourth Industrial Revolution - Industry 4.0. How can we design ethical data governance, information systems and analytics that involve citizen and service data...
Report
Trends in union membership in Australia
This statistical snapshot outlines the decline in union membership in Australia over the past forty years using the latest data available and considers possible reasons for the decline.
Briefing paper
Polling – Royal Commissions: September 2018
A majority of Australians believe the Royal Commission into Banks and Financial Services has uncovered more wrong doing (70%) and is most important for Australians (65%) compared to the Royal Commission into Trade Unions.
Report
An earnings standard for New York City's app-based drivers: economic analysis and policy assessment
This report addresses a critical public policy challenge facing the City of New York—the low pay of app-based drivers.
Fact sheet
Fact Check: Did the Pope declare wage theft a mortal sin that reaps eternal punishment?
The union movement has enlisted the opinion of an unlikely ally in its campaign to make wage theft a crime. Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Sally McManus has told her Twitter followers that the Pope declared wage theft a mortal sin, which mea
Discussion paper
Power to the people: how stronger unions can deliver economic justice
This paper shows why trade unions and collective bargaining are good for workers and good for the economy. It shows how the decline of the union movement has contributed to a growing power imbalance in the economy and to soaring inequality.