August 14, 2026

transport workers union

ILO builds on Australia’s groundbreaking gig worker laws

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The UN’s International Labor Organisation (ILO) has adopted a new International Convention on the rights of gig and platform workers that is modelled on Australian laws that established world-leading rights for workers in the Australian gig economy.

The ACTU and the Transport Workers Union led the push for the new convention in negotiations in Geneva.

Under the new convention gig and platform workers:

  • will no longer be able to be unfairly sacked or ‘deactivated” by an automated system, using algorithms to hire and fire;
  • cannot be misclassified, get paid on time and at rates that at least match their country’s minimum wage;
  • must also be protected from violence and harassment at work either online or involving the clients and customers of the platform company.

ACTU President Michele O’Neil said the Convention is a big breakthrough that will significantly uplift the working lives of millions of gig and platform workers around the world.

“Behind each of these provisions are real people. People who are working long hours to support their families. People who face risks every day simply to earn a living.

“People who too often feel invisible but no longer will be thanks to this landmark convention.”

The World Bank estimates that there are between 154 million and 435 million app-based gig workers globally.

Qantas: “The wrong kind of sorry”

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Federal Court judge accuses airline of “performative remorse” and fines it $90 million for illegally sacking 1,820 baggage handlers.

Justice Michael Lee handed down his decision nine months after Qantas and the Transport Workers’ Union agreed the airline would pay $120 million in compensation to the sacked workers, taking the total cost of its illegal outsourcing decision to more than $200 million. $50 million of the penalty would go to the Transport Workers’ Union, the judge said.

Lee said allocating a significant proportion of the fine to the TWU would incentivise unions to pursue potential breaches of the Fair Work Act when the federal ombudsman fails to act, as he said it had in the case of Qantas.

Lee said he felt a “sense of disquiet and uncertainty as to precisely what went on within the upper echelons of Qantas leading up to the outsourcing decision” and described the airline as having “the wrong kind of sorry”.

Among the reasons Lee gave for imposing the record penalty was the airline’s attempts to obscure the decision-making process behind the outsourcing and the role the then chief executive officer, Alan Joyce, had played.

The TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said the union had won a “David and Goliath” battle and secured “the most significant industrial outcome in Australia’s history”.

The New South Wales Labor senator Tony Sheldon, a former TWU national secretary, said the $90m penalty against the airline confirmed workers had been “sacked in a ruthless, calculated act of corporate cost-cutting”.

Union wins against Qantas in outsourcing case 

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The Transport Workers Union (TWU) has had a huge win against Qantas, with the Federal Court ruling against Qantas’ axing and outsourcing of 2,000 ground workers’ jobs.  

The court stated Qantas fired workers to prevent them from exercising their rights to bargain for better wages and conditions and to take industrial action. Justice Michael Lee of the Federal Court referred to evidence presented in the court showing Qantas saw the pandemic as a “transformational opportunity”. 

Australian Unions Secretary Michele O’Neil lauded the decision as a win for working people. 

“The union’s win demonstrates the power that working people have when they stand together, even against businesses like Qantas, who are using the pandemic as an excuse to reduce the pay, conditions and jobs”. 

77 per cent of workers sacked by Qantas indicated that they wanted their jobs back, according to a survey conducted by the TW. Further, three quarters have been unable to secure full-time work. 

The TWU has indicated that they will be fighting to ensure that their members can get their jobs back, which includes baggage handlers, ramp workers and cabin cleaners. 

The union movement will continue to fight against attacks against working people, including the implementation of illegal outsourcing. If you’re not yet a member of your union, make sure you join today. 

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