Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s aggressive cost-cutting program at the start of the pandemic has been blamed for Qantas’s poor performance. Jim McIlroy argues Labor’s decision to privatise Qantas in the early 1990s is the root cause.
Transport Workers Union (TWU)
Qantas received $2 billion in federal assistance — via the taxpayer — and still sacked 5000 employees. Binoy Kampmark argues its business model is in tatters.
Hundreds of truck drivers and their vehicles converged on Parliament House in Canberra demanding transport industry safety rules. Jim McIlroy reports.
The Federal Court has ruled that Qantas unfairly sacked and outsourced thousands of baggage handlers, ramp workers and cabin cleaners late last year, using the pandemic as the excuse. Jim McIlroy reports.
A federal committee looking into insecure work has received submissions from a range of workers' organisations as well as the big gig corporations. Jim McIlroy and Markela Panegyres report.
The rapid growth of the gig economy has swelled the coffers of the international tech giants. Isaac Nellist reports on the growing push to end the exploitative business model which allows individuals to receive little pay while braving dangerous work conditions.
The Transport Workers Union is calling on the federal government to regulate the gig economy, after a British court ruling that Uber drivers should be considered workers not contractors, reports Jim McIlroy.
Jim McIlroy reports that the Transport Workers Union has warned Qantas on its latest job cuts, saying it will “hurt the airline deeply”.
The deaths of five food delivery riders in just two months prompted unions organise a vigil outside the Sydney HQ of Uber Eats, reports Jim McIlroy.
Three unions have called for the scrapping of the working holiday visa program, claiming it will lead to better wages. But will it? Or is it an excuse to scapegoat and play the nationalist card, asks Zane Alcorn.
More than 300 truckies, their families and supporters protested around the country on July 16 to demand an end to the pressure in the industry that is killing hundreds of people on the roads every year. In the past 12 months, 184 drivers have been killed in truck crashes.
The federal government has succeeded in scrapping the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT). Legislation to abolish the tribunal passed the Senate without Labor and the Green's support on April 18 after two hours of debate.
The bill passed 36 to 32 with the support of the crossbench except Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiast Party.
