United magazine • Summer 2021

FIGHTING BACK TO PROTECT
ESSENTIAL WORKERS
Save COVID-19 protections for essential
workers!
In May last year, emergency protections
were introduced to support
essential workers who contract
COVID-19.
The protections ensured that for the
first 21 days, a sick worker didn’t have
to go through bureaucratic hoops to
prove they contracted the disease at
work. This is critical because we know
essential workers are most likely to
contract COVID-19 at work.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet
wants to repeal section 19B of the
Workers Compensation Act which
provides this protection.
It’s an awful way to treat people. Any
government savings are tiny compared
to the enormous impact on essential
workers.
The USU has been able to achieve
a significant win for existing staff at
Wollongong City Council, as well as
establishing new positions at council
for refugees.
Recently Wollongong City Council
made a decision to outsource overtime
and significant weekend work in
the parks and gardens area of council
to a private contract labour hire
company. This would have led to permanent
staff losing a large portion of
extra wages which workers often rely
upon to make ends meet. This contract
was able to sneak by councillors
being presented as a social justice
program as the private company
had a not for profit status employing
recent refugees who had moved
to the Wollongong area. While this
may seem like a good deed, the refugees
would be paid under the modern
award rather than Wollongong
Council’s Enterprise Agreement
meaning these individuals were not
only being exploited by the council,
but in turn undermined the wages
and conditions of our members.
With the support of our membership,
USU staff and delegates were able to
On Tuesday 23 November the USU
joined Unions NSW and other unions
at a snap protest calling for the
NSW government to back down.
Unions are fighting back. On Tuesday 23 November the USU joined Unions
NSW and other unions at a snap protest calling for the NSW government to
back down on their bill to strip workers of their COVID protections. For updates
on this campaign visit www.usu.org.au
OPPOSING CONTRACT LABOUR LEADS
TO PERMANENT JOBS FOR REFUGEES
stop this work being contracted out
and were able to achieve a further
benefit of having the refugees hired
directly by council as employees. The
actions of the union ensured the protection
of our members’ pay and conditions
and also allowed council to
act on their social justice initiative by
engaging these workers directly.
This is a significant win in the fight
against contracting. It is for this reason
we urge all members to support
the Council services by Council workers
campaign to protect jobs and conditions
in our industry.
16 • United Summer 2021