Australian Council of Trade Unions

Wages rose 3.4 per cent over the year to March, driven by strong wage increases for workers paid under collective agreements. This is the clearest sign yet that working people’s incomes are finally being restored after years of going backwards. The ABS Wage Price Index shows that wages for workers on collective agreements rose by 3.8 per cent over the year to March 2025 – the strongest annual wage growth in the quarter among all pay-setting methods.

The ACTU welcomes today’s Wage Price Index data by the ABS which showed that real wages have grown by as much in the past year as under nearly a decade of Coalition Government. This comes as early childhood educators from the United Workers Union spoke today about the importance of a pay rise, welcoming the announcement in yesterday’s Budget that the Albanese government will make provisions for funding a pay increase for early childhood educators and care workers.

The Australian Union movement is a movement of peace and respect for all races and nationalities. We oppose war, racism, and oppression. We act in solidarity. The Australian Union movement is horrified by the escalating violence and death toll of civilians in Gaza. The ACTU reiterates its statements and resolution of 19 October 2023 and 23 February 2024 and continues to call for an urgent and permanent ceasefire and the release of hostages and political prisoners.

This year’s International Day of Mourning Service will be held on Monday 29 April 2024 at 12:00 noon, Reflection Park, Little Pier Street, Darling Harbour. International Day of Mourning is held annually to honour those who have lost their lives as a result of a workplace incident or as a result of contracting a workplace disease.

An estimated 11,200 long term casual workers in Tasmania would prefer to be permanent according to a new ACTU analysis of ABS data released today. Despite this strong demand, less than 5% of those casuals have been able to convert to permanent work under the current law. The law reflects the Morrison Government’s flawed changes to casual work in the Fair Work Act in 2021.

The ACTU expresses its deep sadness of passing of former IEU Secretary John Quessy on Sunday 10 December. John was a passionate trade unionist and campaigner. As IEU Secretary he led highly successful campaigns for pay rises and improved working conditions in the Catholic system sector. He spearheaded the 2012 “Teachers are Teachers” campaign for pay parity for university trained early childhood teachers with primary school teachers.

Qantas has been found guilty of illegally standing down Theo Seremetidis for simply carrying out his legal duties as a health and safety representative. The case was brought by SafeWork NSW accusing Qantas of targeting and standing down Mr Seremetidis because of his advice to workers to cease unsafe work during the pandemic.

Digital platform workers are set to lose up to $110 million in additional pay because of the likely three-month delay in passing the Closing Loopholes Bill, according to a new ACTU analysis of recent ABS data. ABS data released on Monday showed that just over 135,000 workers now work for digital platforms, 80,000 of them are either involved in food transport or personal transport, and 11,700 involved in aged care or disability support.

Australian Bureau of Statistics Wage Price Index data shows that wages grew 1.3% over the September quarter, which is the biggest increase in its 26-year history. WPI has lifted from 3.6% (June 22) up to 4% for the year to September 2023. However, this is still below inflation which is running at 5.4% over the same period, meaning real wages are still going backwards by 1.4% or $1350 in real pay cuts over the past 12 months for someone on full-time average wages.

The Australian public are more supportive of changes to workplace laws than they were in July, and want Government to act to stop wage theft, close labour hire loopholes, regulate the gig economy, increase the minimum wage and improve rights for casual workers.