Chalmers is in the driver’s seat as another Labor government copes with an economic crisis – very different from the GFC, but similar in being driven by circumstances not of the government’s making.
Perhaps a silver-lining of the pandemic, the economic downturn has created a more constructive discourse between the minister for industrial relations and the unions.
Setka has form in attracting negative media attention as Victorian state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime and Energy Union.
AAP/Daniel Pockett
The Setka affair is now dominating discussion at the highest level of the union movement.
McManus says the present industrial relations system has “excessive, unnecessary and sometimes confusing rules” that hamper parties reaching agreement.
Julian Smith/AAP
There are 750,000 fewer workers under enterprise agreements now than when the Coalition was elected, McManus says in her speech to the John Curtin Research Centre.
As ACTU secretary, Sally McManus has proven effective at elevating the debate over workplace reform.
AAP/Alex Murray
Even with the most favourable laws, unions will still need to confront the reality of a dramatic transformation in the world of work.
The Hawke Labor government had a strong incentive to seek a new approach to industrial relations when it came to office.
National Archives of Australia
The Prices and Incomes Accord was a series of agreements between Labor and the ACTU where unions would moderate their wage demands in exchange for improvements in the ‘social wage’.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus addressing the National Press Club in Canberra.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said 679 of Australia’s biggest corporations pay “not one cent of tax”. Is that right?