December: We did it!
For the past three months, you and other Together members have been campaigning for parliament to make legislative changes to strengthen the employment security of public sector workers. From submitting your personal stories to signing petitions and meeting face to face with government and crossbench MPs, Together members have been hard at work engaging in the political process to secure better outcomes for members and public sector workers.
The work you did to lobby politicians, engage in the political process and influence the decisions of politicians, be it on the floor of parliament or through drafting legislation, means temporary workers now have the opportunity to gain more secure employment. Together members were influential in the creation of amendments to strengthen our protections at work and ultimately the passing of this bill through parliament.
Congratulations to all the members who campaigned extensively for these changes to your protections at work. Make sure your colleagues know what you achieved this week for your workplace and ask them to join your union.
Petition is now closed
Soon Queensland Politicians will vote on important legislation impacting of the rights of thousands on Queensland state government workers who serve Queenslanders every day. This legislation will determine whether state government staff that work in temporary and insecure roles have the rights to protections at work to secure a permanent job and protections against unfair dismissal and unfair treatment.
November: Together members lobby pollies!
The committee processed has wrapped up and reported back with recommendations to give long term temp workers the ability to appeal their employment status with an independent umpire. These recommendations will be put to MPs in the Queensland Parliament in the coming weeks.
That means our campaign focus must now shift to getting 45 votes in the parliament.
Together members have been lobbying decisions makers in Government and on the cross-bench to ask them to supporting the recommendations. We know that an secure public sector jobs are good for members and good for Queensland services, these changes to the Public Service Act will deliver for members and the state.
October: Statewide Day of Action
After the fantastic work from Together members making submissions and joining the online rally, members organised meetings in their workplaces to discuss their concerns regarding temporary employment as part of the statewide day of action! This statewide day of action reminded those committee members tasked with analysing the bill that we are serious about our employment security.
Well done to all the members who organised meetings!
October: Thunderclap - Our online rally reaches half a million!
On Wednesday, October 12th your union presented evidence at the public hearing analysing the IR bill before parliament. We recommended, just like workers in the private sector, Queensland public servants should have the right to secure permanent employment through an independent umpire like the Fair Work Commission.
While your union’s representatives were inside Parliament House advocating to the committee, we put our strength in numbers to work and made social media go boom!
559 members signed up to join our online rally which meant 570,497 people saw our campaign when they logged on to their social media accounts on Wednesday morning!
September: Members break submission records
Union members successfully campaigned for legislative amendments in 2015 to restore rights that were taken away by the Newman government. Now the Parliament is bringing in a new Industrial Relations Act for the first time in over 15 years. This new Bill contains significant improvements for public servants and for the ability of union members to secure better terms and conditions.
However, there is one more very important issue that must be fixed in this Bill: the problem of temporary employment.
Together members kicked off the campaign to strengthen employment security by making 829 submission to the parliamentary committee. These submission called for politicians to change the Public Service Act to allow long time temps, casual and contract public sector workers the ability to have an independent umpire decide their employment status.
What a fantastic result! This means over 95% of all submissions were from Together members expression their concerns about long term temporary work and our campaign was well and truly on the radar of the decision makers inside the committee!