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Why I'm Marching
If you haven�t guessed already, I'm no Labor apparatchik. In fact my entry into politics was through the old Nuclear Disarmament Party.
Interview: The Wedge Buster
Labor's immigration spokeswoman Julia Gillard talks about her job of developing policy to blunt Howard's wedge.
History: Fighting for Peace
Was the first Palm Sunday parade a celebration or a protest, asks Neale Towart.
Unions: Rattling the Gates
When Pacific Power workers traveled from Newcastle to Macquarie Street this week life-long loyalties were on the line, as Jim Marr reports.
International: Facing Retribution
Serious fears are growing for the safety of Zimbabwean trade unionists after the tainted election defeat of their former leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Technology: How Korean Workers Used The Web
Electrical power industry workers in Korea are relying on the internet, and mobile phones, to successfully organise a militant nation-wide anti-privatisation strike.
Industrial: Working Futures
Can an assortment of economists, lawyers, historians, industrial relations specialists, unionists, journalists, sociologists and psychologists help us develop a decent future for work and social relations in Australia?
Review: Rumble, Young Man, Rumble
To compress the full and exhilarating life of The Greatest to film-length is no easy task but Ali makes a reasonable fist of the job writes Noel Hester.
Satire: GG Survival Doomed: Fox-Lew In Charge Of Rescue Bid
The hopes of embattled Governor-General Dr Peter Hollingworth took a battering last night, after he learnt that the rescue bid for his survival is being headed up by Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew.
Poetry: PSST
From Sue Robinson to Michael Kirby, some things in politics are constant...only the names have been changed to defame the innocent.
 Girl's Maiming Sparks Entry Plea
More Time Off for Babies
Workers Break Bank Cartel
State Law Push For Virgin Sites
Outrage at Privatisation by Decree
Woomera - Flames, Razors, Rope and Despair
Bus Drivers Block ALP Funds
Crean Gets on Front Foot
Nurses, Teachers On The Money
Asset-Stripping Sparks Walk-Out
Opposition Grows Over Howard's Freedom Attack
Heffernan Prompts �Right of Reply� Demands
Della Dumps Dunny Blues
Smith Flies Into Turbulence
Guards Force Drinks Break
Levy Struck to Support Rockhampton Meatworkers
ACTU Assists former Ansett Staff
Activist News
The Soapbox
The War on Terror - Impunity for Abuses?
Federal Labor MP Duncan Kerr argues that governments are using the fears of the post-Septmeber 11 environment for thier own ends. The Locker Room
Oh, The Humanity!
So, sports people are human after all. Now there�s a headline. Week in Review
Tomorrow, The World
Jim Marr picks over the entrails of a week in which world domination, or at least hegemony over that part of it in which the principal operates, is a recurring theme.
Carr and the Fire Fighters
On Inequality
Harmony Day
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News
More Time Off for Babies
Sixty thousand retail workers have won new rights for paid time off to attend pre-natal classes, along with an extra six months unpaid maternity leave under a groundbreaking new enterprise deal.
The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees (SDA) has struck the innovative deal with Coles and Bi-Lo Supermarkets.
It includes:
- paid leave for 'appointments associated with pregnancy', including pre-natal classes, for both male and female employees.
- unpaid parental leave extended from 12 to 18 months.
- the option for fulltime employees to return to work, part-time, after having a child.
SDA state secretary Greg Donnelly says the deal, which also includes a $50 per week pay rise, was struck after extensive canvassing of his membership.
Donnelly says while the current political debate centres around provision of paid maternity leave, the more important factor for his members was the right to return to work after a lengthy break.
"There are real limitations to the notion of paid leave; while eight weeks paid leave may be good, it really isn't much time for a new parent," he says.
The 18 months leave period is the first step in the SDA campaign to extend the community standard for maternity leave from one to two years.
The provisions of leave for pre-birth medical appointments is also significant because it would mean female workers did not need to take sick leave before the birth of their child, as many are currently forced to do.
Donnelly says the other big advance in the agreement is the reduction in the age at which adult rates are paid from 21 to 20 years, which would amount to a pay increase of around 10 percent for 20-year-old workers.
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Issue 128 contents
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