For average Australian workers, last week's Australian Labor Party (ALP) Conference may seem irrelevant to our jobs and daily lives. But the decisions made at this conference directly feed into ALP positions.
And when the ALP is governing the country, as is the case now, those positions ultimately influence legislation and policies that have real consequences for all Australians.
To ensure the issues confronting finance workers were front and centre of this important policy-making platform, our union was there to represent our members' interests, including working with decision-makers on the government's AI policy platform.
We welcome the following commitments made during the ALP Conference:
- A fair AI taskforce: Labor will establish a 'Fair AI Taskforce' to ensure workers and unions help shape the way AI impacts our workplaces. The proposed taskforce would bring together unions, workers, and AI experts to develop AI policy ideas and advocate for wider access to AI education and digital skills training. Labor would also create an AI expert panel inside the Fair Work Commission to oversee AI deployment and standards.
- Fair Work Court: Labor has committed to establishing a new Fair Work Court that would sit alongside the Fair Work Commission. Headed by expert judges, its purpose would be to help resolve workers’ disputes more quickly and at lower costs. The Howard Government abolished the last industrial relations court in 1997, leading to a situation today where some workers are having to wait years to resolve simple disputes and often incurring significant costs. The government will consult later this year on the design of the court.
- More time off due to AI gains: The government will engage with unions and employers to “examine how a ‘time dividend’ can be returned to workers” as a result of increased productivity, particularly from AI advancements. It’s only fair that workers share in the benefits of AI productivity gains – whether that be through more leave, shorter working days and weeks, or other arrangements.
- Other commitments to make workplaces fairer, including broadening the scope of current ‘same job, same pay’ laws, strengthening laws that force reluctant employers to engage with collective bargaining, and new powers to restrict employers from locking out workers who participate in protected industrial action.
The FSU looks forward to working with the Federal Government on making these commitments a reality for finance workers.
