Publications & Submissions
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This report finds that unpaid overtime remains widespread and deeply normalised across industries, with little evidence of meaningful improvement since the last report. In many workplaces, workers report increasing pressure to work beyond paid hours, contributing to serious impacts on their health, safety, and wellbeing.
Exploitation Magnet report: Why the Absence of Labour Hire Licensing in NSW is Attracting Unscrupulous Employment Practices.
This paper highlights both barriers to and opportunities for ethical bystander action, with particular attention to workplace culture, masculinity norms, and structural conditions that shape intervention.
Read the full 2025 Annual Report with forward by Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey.
This report draws on a survey conducted by Unions NSW between October-November 2025 to examine how workers understand, interpret, and act on incidents of sexual and gender-based harassment. The findings highlight both barriers to and opportunities for ethical bystander action, offering evidence-informed recommendations to support cultural change in workplaces across Australia.
In April-May 2025, Unions NSW surveyed over 10,000 essential workers on proposed changes to the workers compensation system. The results show strong opposition to the NSW government’s plan, which would limit access to mental health and financial support for seriously injured workers. Respondents warned the changes would cause severe harm and hardship. This report
Whether it’s managing menstruation or the impacts of menopause, accessing fertility treatments, managing chronic health issues or accessing preventative health care like cancer screenings – whatever your gender, your reproductive health can impact your working life. This report surveyed over a thousand workers about their experiences managing their reproductive health at work and how
Read the full 2024 Annual Report with forward by Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey.
Male union members, and other men in workplaces, have campaigned for decades alongside women for equal entitlements and fair representation. It is less common, but not unheard of,
for men to campaign in support of women’s safety from sexual harassment and sexual assault.
It is this last area, though, in which men need to be more
Unions NSW’s research aims to expose the prevalence of workplace sexual harassment among women on temporary visas and provide evidence for developing effective strategies to address their needs.
Like most workers across the state, NSW public sector workers are feeling the pressure of the rising cost of living.
Unions NSW survey results reveal unpaid overtime worked by Australian employees has reached crisis levels. On average Australian workers perform over an hour and a half of unpaid overtime per day. Over a full year the total amount of unpaid overtime worked by Australian employees is over 11 weeks.
Like all gender equity endeavours, this project has grown from the extensive legacy of women, men,
and gender-diverse people who believed in – and struggled for – a more equal future.
Read the full 2023 Annual Report with forward by Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey.
The Fair Entitlement Guarantee (FEG) scheme provides workers who lose their job due to liquidation or employer bankruptcy with financial assistance to recover some unpaid employment entitlements, including unpaid wages, annual leave, long service leave, payment in lieu of notice, and redundancy pay.
This report is about temporary migrants, their lives, and experiences at work. By and on behalf of workers, it makes the case that temporary visa status is directly linked to inequality and exploitation.
Since the white settlement era began, Australia has experienced frequent labour shortages and has relied heavily on immigration to boost the population and fulfil local labour needs.
Essential workers are the ones most in demand in the NSW labour market. While the pandemic saw a decline in demand for many professions (as the labour market softened), this was not the case for ‘essential occupations’ in which demand actually increased.
Read the full 2022 Annual Report with forward by Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey.
This Unions NSW research demonstrates that the exploitation of migrant workers in Australia is endemic and a direct result of the current visa system that makes workers reliant on their employers due to the precarious nature of their visa status.