Jeff Lawrence took office as Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) on 21 August 2007.
 
He has served the Australian union movement for 30 years, including as head of one of Australia’s largest unions – the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) and more than ten years as a senior member of the ACTU Executive, its governing body.
 
In 2006 Jeff Lawrence participated in an ACTU overseas delegation that developed the union movement’s industrial relations policy alternative to the Howard Government’s WorkChoices laws.
 
On becoming ACTU Secretary, Mr Lawrence has vowed to do everything he can to make sure that all Australians have proper rights in their workplace and that employees are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
 
Mr Lawrence has qualifications in Arts/Law (Hons) from Sydney University.
 
He was born in 1952 in Newcastle. His father Barry was a panel beater and auto mechanic and his mother Elaine a typist and stenographer.
 
As head of the LHMU, a union with more than 130,000 members in the service, contract, childcare, aged care and health industries, Mr Lawrence’s leadership reversed the decline in membership, achieving modest growth against the wider trend.
 
In 1999, Mr Lawrence participated in the ACTU Unions@work report that has been credited with helping increase union membership by adopting new organising techniques and modernisation strategies for unions.