Unions have launched a radical push for a four-day work week without pay cuts, calling it the biggest employment shake-up since the 1970s.
Unions are calling for the biggest change to employment conditions since the 1970s -including a 35 hour, four-day work week – that won’t impact workers pay.
In a radical shake up of the current employment legislations a group of unions have used their time during the House Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations, Skills and Training, to overhaul the working week.
They say these changes will massively lift living standards for Australians and improve employment outcomes.
The calls comes at the parliament debates the National Employment Standards (NEM), which sets out the minimum terms and conditions for about 14 million workers.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil told the committee the current rules need to be updated.
“The NES needs to adapt to keep pace with the modern world, when Australians on average work 4.5 weeks in unpaid overtime per year there is a need to give them back time.” she said.
Under the unions changes, worker hours would reduce from 38 to 35 and a standard work week would be four days.
They are also calling for an additional weeks leave for employees.
This would mean annual leave rises from four to five weeks for most Australians, and five to six for regular shift workers.
“Another way to make things fairer is to allow workers to take an extra week of annual leave to reclaim some of that unpaid overtime,” Ms O’Neil said.
“We’ve had annual leave stuck at four weeks for the last 50 years while much of Europe has already moved to leave beyond four weeks.”
The plan is backed by the retail workers – the SDA, the Australian Services Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the United Workers Union, the Victorian Trades Hall Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
The ACTU says a key part of these changes involves workers not having their pay and conditions impacted - including penalty rates, overtime and minimum staffing levels.
Ms O’Neil said Australians had been working long hours for some time now and it was time for change.
“Working people work to live, not live to work, and the results of trials tell us more time for workers boosts productivity, reduces burnout, improves their health and retention,” she said.
According to the unions, now is the time for the biggest change to employment standards since the 1970s, as workers have not received their fair share from the benefits of productivity gains and technological advances over the last five decades.
Ms O’Neil told the committee the NES should evolve to meet new social norms including new forms of leave to be placed into workers contracts.
“We’ve seen this with the inclusion of paid family and domestic violence leave into the national employment standards in 2023, which has already saved lives.”
“The time is right for other new forms of leave to be recognised as minimum standards with reproductive leave and cultural and kingship leave are two examples of this,” she told the inquiry.
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