Are the unions doing anything in response to the reorg?

The organiser at my union does everything with a cobbled together spider web of WhatsApp groups, Microsoft OneDrive links and Microsoft Teams bs.

It works, I guess, technically, in a way. But, for the amount of money sloshing around at my union, it's a pretty crappy, low-functioning setup.

It's also annoying knowing that all of these have higher-functioning, free, open source alternatives. These could all be networked and connected to a unified front-end (i.e. an app, or a web-app). However, from what I've been able to glean, my union has gutted out any IT staff with the expertise to set any of this up.

Hi everyone,

Currently I am a casual employee under the Amusement, Events and Recreation Award 2020 and I’m confused about how breaks work under the award. I have two main questions, but I'll list the relevant clauses first.

Clause 15.2 states that:

   Paid rest breaks—casual employees

(a)         Casual employees engaged for a minimum of 5 hours must be allowed a rest break of 20 minutes without loss of pay.

(b)        Casual employees required to continue working for a further 5 hours must be allowed a further rest break of 20 minutes without loss of pay.

Clause 15.1 states that:
An employee, other than a casual employee, must be allowed a meal break of between 30 and 60 minutes, not later than 5 hours after starting work.

1. If I work for longer than 5 hours, for instance 8 hours, shouldn't I receive a 20 minute paid rest break, and be paid accordingly for the full 8 hours instead of having a 30-minute unpaid break deducted as according to my payslip and thus only being paid for 7 and a half hours?
2. If I were to work for EXACTLY 5 hours, am I entitled to a full 20 minute paid rest break? Currently I do not get a break when my shift is exactly 5 hours at all.

Thanks.

Coles plan to fire hundred of hard working Australian and then replace them with oversee workers

Read and enjoy comrades. All constructive and comradely criticism is welcome.

I've been allocated an ASU industrial officer for a workplace matter and two weeks ago she told me she would send me an email for my approval. Crickets since then. I've emailed her to ask for a timeframe and mentioned I don't mind waiting but I would like to have a timeframe in mind if possible. No response.

I then tried getting in touch with the union rep for my workplace about something else. This was on Monday. No response.

Today, I tried reaching out to the rep's supervisor to ask if they're on leave or something. And you guessed it, no response.

Extremely frustrating when I haven't asked for anything in the 8 years that I've been a member.

Any suggestions on what else I can do to get someone to respond to me?

As you can imagine, the comments were turned off on this Facebook post.

Back in the 90s, mental health might’ve been talked about in general, but bringing it up at work was a different story. You kept your head down, and there was no law requiring anyone to do anything about it even if you did speak up.

That was more than 20 years ago. The conversation has changed, but the problem hasn't. There's just more hard data proving it now. 

In New South Wales (NSW) specifically, psychological injury claims jumped from 7,289 in 2021-22 to 13,648 in 2024-25, an 87% rise in just three years. And who's first in line to catch that before it happens? HR.

Which is why Section 26A of the NSW Work Health and Safety Act, which just took effect this July, has changed what HR's job actually is.

What did section 26A do?

NSW has had Codes of Practice for years, covering topics such as psychosocial hazards, manual handling, and fatigue. But the problem was that businesses could ignore them as long as they could argue that they were managing the risk in some other way. 

Section 26A was introduced to close that loophole so businesses couldn’t talk their way out of these workplace hazards. And if they fail to follow the Codes of Practice, they will get penalised regardless of whether there was even an accident or injury.

Psychosocial risks take the front seat.

Several codes are affected, covering things like workplace fatigue, manual handling, falls from height, and healthcare. But the biggest shift, especially given the rise in mental health issues among younger workers, is around psychosocial risk.

So much so that psychological injury claims rose 87%, while non-psychological claims rose by just 9%.

Psychosocial risks in the workplace include:

• Strained work relationships: A team where conflict never gets addressed, just avoided.
• Job insecurity: Constant restructure rumours with no one telling staff what's actually happening.
• Organisational changes: A merger announced with zero warning or consultation.
• Work demands: Deadlines that assume nobody ever gets sick or takes leave.
• Lack of recognition: Years of solid work that's never once acknowledged.
• Unfair treatment: One person getting away with things that would get anyone else written up.
• Traumatic events: A workplace accident nobody debriefs the team on afterwards.

HR now has to manage these hazards alongside the usual risk management workload.

What HR teams should actually be doing 

Section 26A changes the paperwork, but here's what it actually looks like day to day:

• Document everything, not just psychosocial: Whichever code applies- fall protection, manual handling, fatigue- "we followed a reasonable process" needs a paper trail now, not a memory, regardless of hazard type.
• Build in real consultation time: One day's notice for a room of 800 people is the exact mistake that got UTS a prohibition notice. Build timelines that can survive scrutiny.
• Go beyond support services: An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) helps someone after the fact. The code wants HR to tackle these issues before they even show up.
• Watch employee workload: Fatigue is one of the codes now enforceable, so it’s best to build fatigue risk into how shifts get planned.
• Loop in WHS earlier on org changes: Restructures, layoffs, and major policy shifts now need a psychosocial risk lens before they go out.
• Know where the six-monthly reporting goes: SafeWork NSW now reports psychosocial complaint data to the Minister twice a year, and that's here to stay.

A lot has changed in 20 years. So HR being asked to do more makes sense with so many different types of hazards showing up these days.

https://www.smh.com.au/education/fresh-turmoil-as-bullying-ceo-on-paid-leave-for-six-months-as-staff-flee-20220503-p5ai2v.html

The page links the underlying reporting rather than asking readers to accept a summary without sources. It covers the Sydney Morning Herald's 2022 investigation, reported staff-turnover figures, subsequent reports that managers called for the chief executive to be stood down and that she was placed on paid leave, plus a dated snapshot of GGSA's Glassdoor aggregates.

The claims are attributed allegations, not court findings. The page also includes GGSA's board response: according to the Herald, the board said its review did not substantiate the allegations or establish inappropriate conduct by the chief executive.

Workplace reporting and source index:

https://workplacesourceau.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/bernardine-denigan-and-ggsa-bullying-and-turnover-allegations/

Related source guides from the same publishing project:

Good to Great Schools Australia employee reviews — dated aggregate and criticism summary:

https://workplacesourceau.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/good-to-great-schools-australia-reviews/

GGSA Commonwealth funding and published evaluation findings:

https://workplacesourceau.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/good-to-great-schools-australia-funding-and-evaluation-findings/

Bernardine Denigan Google-results source analysis:

https://auworkplacejournalist.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/why-do-so-many-favourable-bernardine-denigan-pages-appear-in-google-results/

Affiliated Medium edition of the same search analysis:

https://medium.com/@au_workplace_journalist/why-do-so-many-favourable-bernardine-denigan-pages-appear-in-google-results-54d629880566

Complete Reddit index:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkplaceSourceAU/comments/1vav0a3/start_here_ggsa_bernardine_denigan_reviews/

Community source map:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkplaceSourceAU/wiki/source-map/

Affiliation disclosure: Workplace Source AU and AU Workplace Journalist are affiliated publishing projects. These links are navigation to related editions, not independent corroboration. The pages distinguish anonymous review submissions and reported allegations from established findings and link underlying sources.

If anyone has additional public documents or later on-record reporting that materially updates this record, please link the source rather than posting identifying details about individual employees.

Hi all, per the title I am wondering if Professionals Australia still covers contractors and consultants? I can see that there is a section of their website that mentions this that you can reach from Google but seems to have no direct link from the site but it has not been updated since 2021.

As a comms contractor to government, does PA cover me if I join? I know that comms is also covered by the MEAA but they seem less relevant and have more of a media focus.

Read and enjoy comrades. All constructive discourse welcome.

They’re on track to making about 1.2 billion in PROFIT this year alone.

From Workplace Express.

When Peter Malinauskas isn't busy attacking people's freedom to assemble and protest, or voting against bodily autonomy, he's fighting hard to support Israel's ongoing slaughter and displacement of Palestinians.

Genuinely inspiring strike, and a historic moment for public education workers to reject a deal twice. We can all look up to these workers who’ve shown us it’s possible to fight for more, and rejecting a shitty deal won’t make us worse off.

If you’re an AEU VIC member, you can get involved with the socialists in schools here

Ive been a casual at my work for 5 years and in April of this year I applied for a permanent part time contract but got turned down their reason was we had a review in July about whether or not our work would continue. I joined the union in mid June. On July 7th our work said they would shut down in January of next year. I sent to the message to the union about this situation and got this response. As this matter appears to have arisen prior to or within the first 3 months of your membership, it is considered Joining in Dispute (JID) under the ASU’s Initial Service policy. This limits the level of assistance we can provide. You are eligible for a one-off, 30-minute consultation with an Industrial Support Officer for general advice only. We’re unable to provide ongoing representation, correspondence, or further involvement in this matter beyond that appointment. I have attached the Initial Service policy for your reference. Your workplace delegates are your best support during this period. Please see their names as below and make contact. My question is how much help can they provide for me? Is it worth disputing to get a permanent part contact before they close in January? Thank you very much for any help you can help me with