Secure Jobs - Worth Fighting For

Workers from a range of industries rallied in Cessnock on Saturday 19 February, having their say on the negative impacts of insecure work and casualisation.

“All industries today are affected by insecure work in one form or another,” Hunter Workers secretary Leigh Shears said at the rally. “Crucially we are calling for same job same pay, a proper definition of casual employment, the real opportunity for workers to convert from casual employment to permanent employment and industrywide bargaining for workers that are in satellite workplaces. “We’ve seen over the last nine years that there’s no willingness from this government to make any meaningful change and they actually project things to get worse.” Representatives from the Mining and Energy Union (MEU), Health Services Union (HSU), National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) spoke at the rally, along with Labor Senator Tony Sheldon and Hunter candidate Daniel Repacholi. Speakers outlined how job insecurity is impacting workplace standards across a range of industries. Health workers spoke about a dire situation in aged care, citing the negative effect inadequate pay and job insecurity has on care quality and resident wellbeing. Mining and Energy Union acting president, Robin Williams, said a common scene in the Hunter is to have a labour-hire employee working alongside a permanent coal miner doing this same job but earning “30 to 40 per cent less” with no entitlements. “That can be a difference of $40 thousand to $50 thousands dollars a year. So we are not talking about small amounts of money,” Mr Williams said. The rally comes following a final report by the Senate Select Committee on Job Security released on 18 February, which found job insecurity in Australia had reached “a crisis point”. Labor Senator Tony Sheldon, who chaired the senate committee, addressed the rally on Saturday. “We are going to be the first generation to pass on to our kids worse conditions than what our parents passed on to us,” Mr Sheldon said. “The inquiry found more than 50 per cent of Australians working do not have permanent full time jobs for the first time in our history.” The report found that job insecurity is damaging the physical and mental health of Australian workers, and it is holding back Australian wages and the Australian economy. That is the inescapable conclusion of the Senate Select Committee on Job Security, after 230 submissions, 26 public hearings, six in-camera sessions, three interim reports, and responses to almost 1000 questions on notice. The foreward to the report cited that within a decade of launching in Australia, Uber has become the second largest employer in the country—although its workers are solely engaged as independent contractors, without access to basic rights including the national minimum wage, superannuation, or workers’ compensation. “The scope of the job insecurity crisis in Australia is breathtaking. It affects men and women, older and younger workers, migrants and nonmigrants, and white- and blue-collar workers alike. There is no segment of the Australian workforce insulated from insecure work.” the report found’ Other studies submitted to the inquiry found that casual workers are seven times more likely, and fixed-term National Organiser Leanne Holmes and Newcastle Organiser, and newly elected Mayor of Cessnock, Jay Suvaal, at the Hunter Rally

contract workers 11 times more likely, to report unwanted sexual advances at work. These findings echo the recent Respect@Work report, which similarly found that people in insecure or precarious work may be more likely to experience sexual harassment in the workplace. This evidence demonstrates job insecurity is not just an industrial or workplace issue, it is a public health issue. Job insecurity is also an economic issue. The committee does not believe it is a coincidence that the steep rise in job insecurity has occurred alongside eight years of record low wage growth. Australians in insecure work often do not have the bargaining power to obtain wage increases. Through the use of labour hire intermediaries, gig platforms and dependent contracting, many insecure workers do not even have access to bargaining with their true employer.

RTBU support NSW nurses and midwives in protest over pay and work conditions during COVID-19 pandemic.

RTBU members and activists attended rallies in Sydney and regional centres in support of the thousands of nurses and midwives who walked off the job in NSW on Tuesday 15th February in protest against staffing levels that they say have pushed an already stretched system to its limit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff travelled from across Sydney and beyond to march through the city’s CBD to Parliament House with rallies also taking place in regional parts of NSW. The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association defied an order issued on Monday by the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to call off the industrial action. The intervention came after the NSW government took the matter to the IRC, arguing that the planned strike would disrupt health services across the state. The union had organised for a skeleton staff to remain on duty to ensure the sickest patients were cared for.

Thousands of nurses have marched to Parliament House in Sydney.(ABC News: Tim Swanston)

The NSW government said strike action would cause disruptions and delays to health services. (ABC News: Tim Swanston) Crisis talks between the nurses union and Health Minister Brad Hazzard a day before the stoppage failed to resolve the stalemate in negotiations over pay and staffing levels in hospitals. The Nurses and Midwives’ Association said the intervention came too late as members across the state had already voted to strike, and they needed to “stand tall” to express their frustrations. Speaking this morning, nurse Kathy Triggol said health workers “deserve better”. “Most of the time, the staff are overworked and stressed and it’s just not fair. We don’t ask for much, we’re asking for it to be fair,” she said.

Kathy Triggol is among the nurses striking in Sydney. (ABC News: Jake Lapham) She said the last few years had been “dreadful” with many wards short-staffed. “It’s gotten to the stage that every hospital is the same,” Ms Triggol said. “We’re talking about nurses in the ICU and emergency department who can’t even stop to go to the toilet. It’s just ridiculous.”

Striking nurses in Sydney marched through the CBD. (ABC News: Tim Swanston)

Striking nurses listen to a speech outside Parliament House.(ABC News: Tim Swanston)

Wollongong midwife Emma Gedge boarded a bus to Sydney this morning along with 150 colleagues. “We’re drowning...we’ve been drowning for a long time and COVID has really just pressed that point home that this health system is just not working,” she said. “As nurses and midwives, we don’t walk away from our patients lightly and this really rips our heart out to have to do this.”

Nurses and midwives from Wollongong Hospital boarded buses to Sydney to protest at state parliament. (ABC News: Fatima Olumee) In Orange, in the state’s central west, about 60 nurses marched up the main street where a crowd watched on and motorists honked their support.

Nurses are striking right across NSW, including in Orange in the state’s central west.(ABC Central West: Mollie Gorman)

Midwife Sarah Anderson addresses striking nurses at Bega’s Littleton Gardens.(ABC South East: Adriane Reardon) On the state’s south coast, about 200 nurses rallied in Bega’s Littleton Gardens. Nurses in different districts chose to strike for between four and 24 hours, with the union saying that timings had been staggered to lessen disruption for patients. Skeleton staff have remained to treat critically unwell patients and preserve life.

A nurse addresses protesters in Lismore, NSW.(ABC North Coast: Bronwyn Herbert)

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the protesters are calling for pay rises and legislated staff-to-patient ratios, similar to those in Queensland and Victoria. The union said the changes were needed to prevent a further loss of qualified health professionals.

A nurse dressed in full PPE attends the rally in Sydney. (ABC News: Tim Swanston)