There is always the complaints process at Fair Work Australia.

http://www.fwa.gov.au/

The contact number is: 1300 799 675

There is also an online help/chat but check top right hand corner to see if it is open or closed. It was closed on posting this comment.

thinker 2,
Your experiences happen more than many people realise particularly among young people. Many not taking lunches or breaks in mainly hospitality positions or staying later than rostered without being paid because it would fall into overtime. Lunch breaks are still recorded but not compensated, because it would breach obligations if an audit was undertaken. Often what is on paper is not what really happens.

The real power lies with people if unemployment is low (as it is now). Resign if work practices are unfair and if it is easy to secure another suitable job, but I understand this is difficult if supporting a family or mortgage or both and the threat of unemployment may be significant to ensure one remains in less than satisfactory situations. Take from the jobs what you can, adding to your experience and move on to an employer that will value your contributions. They are out there, as an employee, shop around and ask all the right questions. Remember you also need a reference from previous employers which is why many people don't rustle feathers. I learnt that mistake the hard way.

The unions are more than useless under a Labor Government, they even got rid of the Forum on the ACTU 'Rights at Work' website once Labor was ensconced even though WorkChoices has gone, unfair practices still continue.

The unions will only really be a force for their members when unaffiliated with any political party. It is a huge conflict of interest.

on the topic of
*no one policing things

[let alone workers rights]

there are other things
it seems arnt bering policed
i see the sum total of this and that..as signs of bad govt

to wit
i heard on abc last night a throw-away line
about how methanol..[in the body]..
converts into formaldahyde
[killing people]..

and we got it in our fuel..
[govt MANDATED]..into our air

add this sort of stuff to govt duty
WHO IS POLICING THIS STUFF?

who is policing this *crime?
ripping off wages
is one thing..
[a sign]

BUT

how about this bit on fracking?
[did i spell that right]

http://www.realvail.com/article/603/DeGette-led-congressional-study-reveals-29-different-carcinogens-in-hydraulic-fracturing-fluid

DeGette-led congressional study
reveals 29 different carcinogens in hydraulic fracturing fluid

Between 2005 and 2009, the nation’s 14 leading natural gas drilling service companies used hydraulic fracturing fluids containing 29 different chemicals

regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
as potential human carcinogens,..according to a new congressional report released Saturday.

Nationwide, the companies injected 11.4 million gallons of products containing at least one of the so-called BTEX chemicals (benzene, toluene, xylene, and ethylbenzene),

according to the report produced by Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee, including Colorado’s Diana DeGette. Colorado, along with Oklahoma and Texas, ranked in the top three for the highest volume of fluids containing possible carcinogens.


If it is in the ground,
eventually it is in the water.

WHO IS POLICING* IT
FOR THE WORKERS
or the people who will soon get it on their food
[from irrigation]

lest we forget
our power bills are doubling
as our wages keep reducing

to put in infastructure...for gas..
mainly produced by fracking
to put us to death?
by..1000 cuts

its not enough
they rip us off with wages
they are planning to kill us off with cancers..

poisening us slowly
recall the lead [making kids dumb]
well it was replaced by benzine..[a known carSINogene..]

anyhow there is worse things that low wages
or working for nothing..but its all

just govt doing what govts are told to do..
by their masters...[the invisable men..running the party machine men]

i worked for 3 months
at my last job..
commision only

its a hard road
but if we knew who was doing it
we could invert our 'bying'..to those only getting commision

but who to police the police

" I remain grateful for the opportunity to make a living, as my incentive"

It sounds to me more like exploitation than incentive, thinker 2. Thanks for explaining your situation more fully, but I'm wondering why you remain in it. Is work that hard to find that you'd do it for free over Easter? There's a guy on another thread who's complaining about having to pay penalty rates in his retail business on weekends and public holidays, and I thought that this was the norm in retail.

I'm retired now, but I've only "worked" for fair remuneration - if it wasn't I left and found another job. That's not counting voluntary stuff for community and environmental groups, but that's not what you're talking about, is it?

Come pelican please do not say that.
I am union till death.
Have traveled 6 hours for two members 6 to come home and stopped twice to see night shift traffic controllers.
OK yes some forget it is not about a car a salary and self promotion, even in my home the AWU.
But lets start to try to help.
Thinker 2 is getting advice, let me get in the way of some of it.
His wife will be sacked or persecuted if she asks her boss why.
FACT do not.
A single person joins a union for protection, not a dream of workers rights.
Too many[ and it hurts]do not get it,
My advice stands if she is in the union get them involved but be careful!judge your official, can you trust him/her,calm ex brothers I would put my life in the hands of all but a few AWU ones.
Act independently, go to the ombudsman, request in confidence, tell no one you have done this.
Not even your union.
Once unions had the solidarity to protect you mine still has, but remember hers can not get fair wages.
Her industry has no heart no intent to care its about money nothing else.
one in three are under paid some even paid under existing agreements/awards as kitchen hands or cleaners, fear controls most be aware protect your self but act.

Please don't take offence Belly. I know there are hard working union reps like you pounding the pavement and ensuring complaints are acted apon.

As you know I am pro-union and a member of my union. But not just for the sake of it, unions also need a kick up the bottom at times and reminded they work on behalf of members, not just another top heavy organisation intent on empire building and rorting the system with unreasonable claims when they have power and ignoring 'real' issues.

Many unionists now are using the route as a career step or inroad into the ALP and that in itself is not a bad thing - many people no matter their background might aspire to politics. Unions cannot be truly independent if they are affiliated with a political party, particularly one that purports to be pro-workers but acts very differently in policy and action. I almost did not join the union when I changed jobs recently as a protest that much of the union fees go to support a political party rather than back into the union to assist members or to reduce fees.

Despite the historical context regards the ALP, worker rights should not be at the behest of any one political party. Unions do their best work when they can confidently negotiate and interact with Conservatives, neo-liberals, Nationals, social democrats, public servants, corporations, Greens, socialists and independents.