Over the past five years the ANMF has been resisting a concerted campaign by aged care employers to remove important protections that give part time employees a level of predictability in their hours and days on which they are required to work.

Nurses and other health workers have long understood the often deleterious impacts that shift work can have on sleep, wellbeing and performance at work.

For those active in industrial relations there is quite a well-known book titled From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of Labor in the United States. The books' thesis or focus was firstly to remind readers of the many struggles in the USA by trade unions to obtain and protect basic working conditions American workers, now take for granted, and secondly to reinforce the important and enduring relationship between unions and their members.

In December 2015 the Australian Senate called for submissions on proposals that would allow all employees to maintain their long service leave entitlements when they transferred between jobs or took breaks in employment.

One of the great disappointments of the Productivity Commission (the Commission) Report into Australian workplaces undertaken in 2015 was that the Commission appeared to proceed on the assumption that their ultimate goal was to enhance the arrangements of employers and government and simply ignore any employee unfairness.

The Australian Parliament is once again examining the various migrant work programs, on this occasion specifically looking at the impact of the programs on the labour market and whether changes are necessary to improve the employment opportunities for Australian citizens and, if so, how could this be achieved.

As expected the federal government has now directed the Productivity Commission to undertake a review of Australian workplace relations laws and to make recommendations for change to government by November 2015.

The Australian government has established an expert panel to undertake a review of the existing regulations applying to employers who wish to bring migrant labour into Australia.

The Australian government have made no secret of their desire to make 2014 the year to address Australia's so called flagging national productivity and competitiveness.

In March 2013, the Australian government announced it was reforming the national aged care system in an effort to ensure residents received improved residential and community care services.