UnionsWA has responded to the introduction into the Parliament of The Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Bill 2023 by the WA Government.  

UnionsWA has responded to the release by the WA Government of new workplace safety regulations that aim to ensure employers take responsibility for workplaces free from bullying, harassment, abuse and other psychosocial hazards.

The WA Council of Social Service (WACOSS) and UnionsWA have today released results of an extensive survey that details the extent of the housing crisis in WA and have called on the Federal and WA governments to take urgent action. This Housing, Work and Income Report Part II is available online here.

UnionsWA has today released The WA Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 based on an analysis of the most recent data from the ABS. The WA Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 can be viewed and downloaded here. 

Today, an International Workers’ Memorial Day commemoration in Perth heard from Tony and Robyn Hampton. Their son, Jarrod, was the victim of a work fatality while working as a diver for Paspaley Pearls out of Broome. UnionsWA has today called on the WA Government to fast-track a Safety Code of Practice for all Occupational Divers and to strengthen occupational health and safety laws to ensure harsher penalties for safety offences. Comment is also provided on the sad news overnight of a work fatality at a Collie mine.

Sadly, Tony Cooke, former Secretary of UnionsWA passed away overnight, during the evening of Wednesday 24 April 2018 following a long illness.

Photo reproduced courtesy of Westpix, depicts the welcome Tony Cooke received upon leaving the WA Parliament after an all-night protest over the Third Wave of industrial law changes.

The local WA ACTU Change The Rules campaign has announced a range of activities in the Pearce federal electorate, currently held by Minister Christian Porter. Supporters today paraded outside Porter’s electorate office with a skeleton to remind voters of the skeletons in Porter’s closet – his support for cuts to weekend penalty rates pay, the robbo-debt disaster and a failure to deliver federal government support for the Ellenbrook rail line.

Pearce local, Benjamin Peskett, rattles skeleton outside Christian Porter MP's office

UnionsWA has today commented on recently released data by the ABS comparing the wages of men and women in casual work where no annual leave or sick leave is provided. The ABS estimates that 271, 600 working West Australians are in some form of insecure, casual or contract work where they have no entitlement to paid annual leave or sick leave.

UnionsWA has today commented on the recent submission by the Minerals Council of Australia to the Senate Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers.

UnionsWA today released the findings of a major survey (available here) conducted on work and health that has exposed risks arising from employers coercing those injured at work to have employer representatives present during medical examinations and pressure to, in the first instance, attend medical professionals other than an injured working persons’ GP. With 1,052 respondents, this is a credible survey, one of the larger studies on work and health in WA in recent years.

The ABC Online story from Nyrie is available here.