Union members led 8,000 participants at the Melbourne Pride March this year, recognising the mighty contribution union members made to the marriage equality campaign last year. Although a ‘survey’ was never an appropriate way to determine a human rights issue, the LGBTIQ community did what it’s always done: we got on with it, with strength, solidarity and some fun. More...

A Fair Work Commission (FWC) Full Bench has now ruled on various applications by university managements and the NTEU to change the Awards covering academic and general staff in universities. The outcome from the NTEU point of view is very unsatisfactory and reiterates the need to change the (Un)Fair Work Act 2009, but it is also indicative of the conservative and anti-worker positions increasingly taken by the FWC in this environment of antagonism to workers and their unions. More...

Leadership was the theme of the 3rd women’s conference of Education International (EI) held in Marrakesh in January this year. EI President Susan Hopgood explained the conference title, “Through the Labyrinth” in her opening address. Any scan of the data confirms that while there are improvements in some parts the world, women are still under-represented in political, business and even trade union leadership. Without radical interventions, at the current rates it would still take at least a century to achieve gender parity. There is some evidence that quotas help, and targets can also assist. More...

While excessive working hours is an acute characteristic of academic employment in Australia, it is one hardly unique to this part of the world – nor to academic work.
Commentary on the practices that lead to academic burnout have a growing home on the internet with the phrase academic “overwork” bandied about for years. However, it has surged in early 2018. More...

Even though the Coalition Government has effectively abandoned its higher education ‘reform package’ (see p. 22) the aspects of this package that Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, is continuing to pursue the changes to the Higher Education Loans Program (HELP) proposed in the last Federal Budget. More...

NTEU’s submission rejects and opposes any further legislative changes to protect religious freedoms at the expense of human rights. The Union has also called for any further questions about balance in the protection of human rights to be depoliticised, and framed by the introduction of a National Human Rights Bill. More...