Principles:
1. Every worker must have the right to pursue their conditions and well-being with dignity.
2. Everyone is entitled to a secure job and a minimum wage that is a living wage.
3. Work must be safe and personally rewarding. These criteria are more important than profitability and efficiency.
4. All workers are entitled to strong workplace health and safety standards including workplaces that are free from psychological risks such as discrimination and bullying, and to have access to training, development and advancement.
5. There must be equal pay for work of equal value.
6. Everyone has the right to engage in properly paid work if they choose.
7. All workers should have the right to flexible working conditions wherever it is possible, including job-sharing, the four-day week and telecommuting, without loss of pay or conditions.
8. It is the obligation of the government to ensure that fiscal, monetary and policy settings ensure that everybody who wants a job has one.
9. The workplace and employment standards promoted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) must be endorsed and implemented.
10. All workers, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to the same work rights.
11. Workers should have a Right To Disconnect such that work does not impinge on their personal time if the employee does not consent to it. This decision should not adversely impact the employee’s future prospects or potential for advancement.
12. Unwaged work such as volunteer, community, caring and domestic work should be recognised and valued.
13. People must be afforded the option to spend less time in paid employment to engage in voluntary, community and creative activities.
14. As technology and more efficient work practices reduce the need for specific types of labour, it is necessary for our society to examine ways of sharing the existing amount of paid work on a more equitable basis and explore new opportunities for meeting community needs.
15. Sex work is a valid form of work, and as such, sex workers deserve the same rights and respect as any other worker. Sex worker organisations must be consulted on changes to regulation.
16. Workers are entitled to democratic participation in deciding the future direction and development of the organisation for which they work.
17. Everyone has the right to be a member of a union that is free, independent, democratic, and which enforces and defends members’ rights at work.
18. Unions are their membership - working people - and it is up to members to decide how their union functions, subject to common governance standards, and without political interference from government.
19. The rights to strike, organise, collectively bargain across entire sectors, withhold labour and engage in secondary boycotts are each essential to achieving a sustainable, equitable and democratic future.
20. Bargaining should not be limited to prescribed periods.
21. Profits must not come at the expense of workers’ wages and conditions, or the environment.
22. Effective processes of conciliation and arbitration before an independent tribunal, free from executive intervention, are necessary elements in any fair and effective industrial relations system.
23. Fair and comprehensive workers compensation rights are essential to protect workers.
24. Industrial manslaughter must be an offence under the Work Health and Safety Act.
25. All workers are entitled to fully transferable long service leave after 10 years of work, as a minimum, regardless of any changes in workplace, industry or employment status.
26. Climate change threatens the occupational health and safety of workers. Government and employers must manage the risk to workers from climate change.
27. Governments and employers have the responsibility to ensure a just transition for workers to a net-zero greenhouse gas emitting economy, which guarantees comparable or better working conditions and security.
28. All workers are entitled to all the necessary support required during public health emergencies, natural disasters and other major events that impact on the ability to work.
Aims
The Greens NSW will work towards:
29. Providing opportunities for more flexible work, job-sharing and working from home without loss of pay or conditions.
30. Mandated shorter standard working hours without loss of pay, a fairer sharing of paid work, and the elimination of obligatory and unrewarded overtime.
31. Ensuring workplaces are free from discrimination and intimidation.
32. Requiring that employers take all reasonable steps to ensure workplaces are accessible to all potential employees.
33. Closing loopholes in anti-discrimination legislation, including those related to gender, age, disability, marital status, sexuality, race, ethnicity or religion, that create barriers to equal access to work and equal pay.
34. Inclusion of sex work as a protected class in legislation, including but not limited to the Anti-Discrimination Act, Sex Discrimination Act and the Fair Work Act.
35. Elimination of discriminatory pay gaps, and instituting mechanisms to guarantee equal pay for work of equal value regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, disability or ethnicity.
36. Achieving a more equitable distribution of corporate income between management and employees, in part by initiating measures such as executive salary caps and corporate income ratios.
37. Introducing employee ownership schemes in large companies.
38. Workers in medium and large-sized corporations having greater control over financial and organisational decisions.
39. Reform of the income support system to ensure a guaranteed adequate income (GAI) for all, including simplification of pensions and allowances into a universal GAI scheme.
40. Increased public holidays to bring New South Wales into line with other states, and a re-composition of existing holidays to reflect Australia’s independent and culturally diverse identity, and specifically recognising May Day as a public holiday.
41. Requiring all employers to inform new and existing employees that they are entitled to join a union, and of the unions responsible for the sector.
42. Confirming the right of unions to undertake industrial action to promote and protect the economic, social and environmental rights of their members, as well as those of the community and third parties.
43. Legislating for strong right of entry powers for union officials to protect workplace safety and workplace rights.
44. Supporting the protection of unions and workers from common law actions.
45. Legislating to protect the right of trade unionists to have their union dues deducted from their wages directly.
46. Restricting surveillance technology in the workplace without workers' prior informed and active consent, and banning disproportionate or punitive surveillance technology, including facial recognition and eye or body movement monitors.
47. To prohibit employers selling employee data to third parties or commercialising any data acquired through the surveillance of employees.
48. Employers to guarantee employees' rights to privacy and freedom of speech in any bargaining process.
49. Ensuring that relevant training and skills development is made available to all workers, including apprentices, trainees, part-time and casual employees, without loss of pay or cost to workers.
50. Increasing casual loadings to seek to reverse the trend in casual labour, and the enforceable ability for casual employees to convert to permanent part-time work after three months of continuous employment.
51. Providing an enforceable right for workers on temporary contracts to convert to permanent work after 2 years of continuous employment.
52. Improving minimum employment standards for trainees and apprentices.
53. Legislating to end sham contracting and stop the exploitation of contracted staff, out-workers, casual workers and those employed through labour hire.
54. Providing resources to grassroots and democratic organisations of the unemployed to give them an effective voice in society and enable the establishment of a union, or unions, of the unemployed.
55. Ensuring, if people are provided with work as part of a welfare scheme, that such work must be meaningful, non-coercive and paid at minimum award wages with industry standard conditions of employment.
56. Abolishing the “work for the dole" scheme.
57. Providing that voluntary, community and creative activities attract relevant work experience credits.
58. Making it easier for low income people to access state government concessions.
59. Ensuring a strong and viable public sector dedicated to the public interest, with the state government and local councils setting the standard for best practice wages and conditions across New South Wales.
60. Opposing and committing to reverse the contracting-out of ongoing services, policy work and other core functions of all levels of government.
61. Repealing the NSW Public Sector Wages Policy, and removing the wage cap on public sector workers.
62. Ensuring that any for-profit organisations and companies that receive state funding for the provision of services or infrastructure provide their workers with wages and conditions that are at least the equivalent of public sector workers.
63. Restoring the autonomous NSW Industrial Relations Commission as the independent umpire in NSW industrial disputes.
64. Legislating for a mandatory minimum of five weeks paid annual leave for all workers covered by the state's industrial relations system.
65. Ensuring a minimum 26 weeks paid parental leave in addition to any minimum federal payments.
66. Ensuring that 20 days of paid domestic and family violence leave per year is available to all employees.
67. Implementing a workers’ compensation scheme that promotes the recovery of workers from workplace injuries through the payment of adequate and timely benefits, including medical support, and that provides return-to-work pathways where appropriate, which include training and work adjustment support.
68. During public health events such as Covid, ensuring that workers receive adequate income replacement, paid sick leave, and workplaces with effective infection control measures.
69. As part of a whole of government strategy, the NSW worksafe safety regulator must have well-developed workplace support strategies that can be implemented immediately in the event of an emergency or disaster
70. Legislating an offence of industrial manslaughter under the NSW Work Health and Safety Act.
71. Providing protection for workers injured at work through a universal workers compensation scheme that ensures fair compensation for any ongoing loss of income, temporary and permanent impairment, or pain and suffering, together with lifetime cover for reasonable and necessary medical expenses.
72. Extending workers’ compensation benefits to cover workers injured on a journey to or from work.
73. Reinstating workers’ compensation benefits lost by injured workers as a result of legislative reforms introduced by the state government in 2012.
74. Restoring injured workers’ lump sum benefits under the Workers Compensation Act based on a statutory formula that considers the individual worker’s actual loss and damage, including psychiatric loss and damage, as assessed by an independent tribunal member, with the benefit of independent medical opinions.
75. Ensuring that payments from the workers’ compensation statutory fund are made and administered by a public authority in the public interest and not by private insurers acting as independent agents.
76. Ensuring that injured workers have a right to have their claims for compensation heard before an independent tribunal, to be legally represented, and to be awarded compensation that allows them to live with dignity and in comfort.
77. Providing one consistent and simple mechanism for determining fault-based damages, including access to damages based on the NSW Civil Liability Act 2022 No. 22.
78. Establishing and maintaining industry trust funds for the comprehensive protection of all workers’ entitlements in the event that their employer becomes insolvent.
79. Capping the remuneration of senior executive roles in the public service, government agencies, universities, and state-owned corporations at no more than ten times the median full time wage in NSW.
80. Tying changes to MP and Councillor salaries to real dollar increases and decreases in the median wage.
81. Ensuring that all workers who are not under an award, such as casual and gig economy workers, are afforded the same work rights as any other worker in NSW, including a minimum wage and leave entitlements no less than those available to award-covered workers.
82. Ensuring that workers have sustainable and satisfying work in safe environments during the transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas emitting economy by supporting the creation of jobs in appropriate sectors, and worker assistance and retraining schemes where needed.
83. Repealing criminal laws relating to sex work and supporting the full decriminalisation of consensual adult sex work, and ensuring that sex workers are entitled to:
- Independently advocate and organise for their rights in sex worker-run organisations and/or unions;
- Fair pay,safe working conditions, and anti-discrimination protections;
- Operate without the requirement for registration and oversight by government agencies.
84. Recognition of interns and academic work experience students as workers, and instituting fair payment and conditions for work undertaken over the course of an internship, mandatory work experience or tertiary study.
85. Encouraging all employers to introduce healthy workplace and lifestyle programs, such as active travel to work and breaks for exercise at work.
86. The vibrancy and sustainability of our news and creative media is crucial to a functioning, just and meaningful society. Freelance journalists and creatives must be properly supported and protected financially in order to do their vital work.
Last revised December 2022