McManus and O'Neil to step down after passing 47 new workers' rights into law
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) announced that both its secretary and president will step down. The departure ends the longest-serving ACTU leadership pairing since 1969.
Sally McManus will leave the secretary role at the end of August. Michele O’Neil will remain as president until later in 2026 to support the handover.
McManus was elected ACTU secretary in 2017, while O’Neil became president in 2018. Together they became the first all-female ACTU leadership team in the organisation’s 99-year history, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
For HR leaders and managers, the ACTU leadership transition matters. Under McManus and O’Neil, employers navigated new delegate rights, multi-employer bargaining and secure work obligations – each a direct product of ACTU-backed reform. Whoever leads next will shape how aggressively those gains are built upon.
What the ACTU leadership secured for Australian workers
During their tenure, the Albanese Government passed 47 new rights for working Australians into law, according to the ACTU. Those reforms spanned collective bargaining, secure jobs legislation and measures aimed at narrowing the gender pay gap.
Union membership grew for the first time in decades under their watch, the ACTU said. The pair also secured JobKeeper payments during the COVID-19 pandemic, which reached workers, households and small businesses.
McManus reflected on the decade-long role. ‘When I took on this role, workers’ rights were under attack and workplace laws desperately needed fixing,’ she said. ‘Unions are now growing and workers have extensive new rights that they can use to begin winning the pay rises and fairness at work they deserve.’
O’Neil said the wins achieved were collective, not individual. ‘Having the opportunity with our movement to campaign for and win change has been the honour of my life,’ she said. ‘Workers today are safer, have better rights, and more secure jobs.’
What comes next for the ACTU leadership
The ACTU’s union affiliates will determine the next ACTU leadership team. The ACTU Executive will initially fill the vacancies on a casual basis. A formal election will follow at the 2027 Congress, which also marks the ACTU’s centenary.
Albanese described the pair as “two giants of the labour movement” in a statement issued on 27 July 2026. He noted the announcement came days after both leaders contributed to the 50th Australian Labor Party National Conference.
The transition arrives amid active workplace reform. Australia’s minimum wage rose 4.75% following the Fair Work Commission’s June 2026 Annual Wage Review, a decision that affected around 21% of the Australian workforce.
McManus and O’Neil leave with union density on an upward trend. The reversal follows decades of declining membership. Whoever succeeds them will inherit both the momentum and the scrutiny that comes with it.
HR practitioners should watch the succession for signals on bargaining posture and the scale of future wage claims. The incoming team’s stance on secure work and delegate rights expansion will also bear watching. Those priorities will flow directly into enterprise agreement negotiations and workforce planning cycles.
For people managers, the shift is a reminder that union strategy and workforce policy change with leadership. The identity and priorities of the incoming ACTU leadership will have direct consequences for how workplace laws develop over the next term.
