ACTU urges $30-a-week rise for lowest paid

Clay Lucas More than a million low-paid Australians who depend on the nation's award system to set their wages should get a 79 cents-an-hour wage rise, the ACTU has told the national industrial relations...

ACTU push for $30 a week minimum pay rise

Ben Schneiders Unions will push for a substantial pay rise for lowest paid workers in what is likely to be last minimum wage claim under current Labor government.

ACTU pushes for flexibility for carers

Lenore Taylor ALL workers who care for children, elderly parents or incapacitated partners would have the right to ask their employer for flexible hours and to seek arbitration if they were refused under changes...

ACTU defends own job axings

Ben Schneiders The ACTU joins the ranks of corporate Australia by moving to axe nearly 20 per cent of its staff.

ACTU tries to flush out Abbott on IR plans

Clay Lucas ACTU president attacked the lack of industrial relations policies outlined by Tony Abbott.

ACTU vows to clean up image

By Miles Godfrey, Stephen Johnson Prime Minister Julia Gillard and union leaders have promised ACTU conference delegates they will rescue Australia's shrinking, scandal-ridden trade union movement by enforcing zero tolerance for...

ACTU moves on union governance

Clay Lucas A new panel set up by the ACTU and led by a retired Federal Court judge will help unions avoid serious governance scandals such as those engulfing the Health Services Union.

ACTU pushes to increase base wage

The ACTU has urged the national industrial relations watchdog to reject any push by employers to offset a decent pay rise for low-paid workers.

ACTU secretary being pressed by unions to stand aside

Richard Willingham, Michelle Grattan THE Australian Council of Trade Unions, the country's top union body, is poised to get a new national secretary with Jeff Lawrence to stand down under pressure from senior union bosses.

ACTU blasts business campaign

ACTU president Ged Kearney has slammed the ''self-interest'' of business and corporate interests, vowing to fight any return by the Coalition to individual workplace agreements.

ACTU to seek minimum wage of $660

Clay Lucas THE ACTU will begin a push next week to increase the minimum wage by 12 per cent and secure better protection for those who become union delegates in their workplace.

ACTU defends 'normal' waterfront dispute

Waterfront strikes on Australia's eastern seaboard will extend to Fremantle tomorrow in what the ACTU says is a "normal" dispute over pay and conditions.

Gillard courts ACTU bosses

Kirsty Needham and Ben Schneiders JULIA GILLARD has sought to quell an increasingly restless union movement, becoming the first prime minister in a decade to attend a meeting of the ACTU executive.

ACTU shifts from Labor to seek help from Greens, independents

Kirsty Needham The ACTU president, Ged Kearney, has cast the organisation as an independent voice that will seek support from any political party in the new environment of minority government where ''so much public...

Policy makes its creators proud

Phillip Thomson In two years, Labor's Paid Parental Leave scheme has helped more than 250,000 parents.

Palmer ready for the big questions on Q&A

Natalie Bochenski Clive Palmer says he’s ready to “butt heads” with Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls, and is hoping to get some credit from Greens’ senator Larissa Waters.

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Coalition's plan for workers revealed

Clay Lucas and Ben Schneiders Individual workers will be able to strike a deal with their employer over hours and working conditions, but only if they remain better off overall, under the opposition's new industrial relations...

New database shows US informants were inside Whitlam's ALP

Philip Dorling Bob Carr might have been Foreign Affairs Minister for only 12 months but he started talking to US diplomats about internal Labor politics nearly 40 years ago.

Fears of PS job cuts stir campaign

Ross Peake The CPSU will convene a ''council of war'' in Canberra on Thursday to plan a high-profile election year campaign.

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New Fair Work posts labelled jobs for mates

Ben Schneiders In the latest controversy over the appointment of former union officials to the Fair Work Commission, the Gillard government has appointed former ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence and others with strong...