Australia’s two top unionists will step down within months of each other, ending their tenure having won major labour-friendly changes to industrial law, witnessed declining union membership, and dealt with criminality in the CFMEU that led Sally McManus to temporarily leave her home state.

On Monday, the Australian Council of Trade Unions revealed its secretary, McManus, and president Michele O’Neil would exit before year’s end to “make way for a new generation of union leaders” and to “bring renewal” to the peak labour organisation.

The duo, who are the ACTU’s second-longest leadership team, will stagger their departures to manage the leadership transition, with McManus, 54, leaving at the end of August and O’Neil, 64, staying on until later this year.

In an interview to mark her planned departure, McManus said the COVID years were the most difficult time in her role, but that the CFMEU scandal took a personal toll too.

“We had threats come through the ACTU and police gave advice about personal safety and what to do, which was a shock at the time,” said McManus, who lives in Melbourne. “I’m not anonymous, so I made sure I was spending a fair bit of time not in the state, and working out of Sydney.”

“There’s no way that I imagined to be in that situation. But you know, I’ve got lots of friends that live around the country, and I thought, OK, well, time to go somewhere where the sun’s out more often.”

In her first major interview as ACTU secretary in 2017, McManus defended the CFMEU for breaking “unfair” industrial laws. But in 2024, after this masthead revealed the CFMEU had been infiltrated by organised crime, McManus demanded an end to corruption in the union. She said on Monday it should remain in administration for as long as it takes to clean up the organisation, but did not take a position on growing calls for a royal commission in Victoria.

When McManus and O’Neil depart, the ACTU’s executive council will appoint replacements who will be in the role until an election is held at the organisation’s congress next year to confirm the secretary and president.

Under their leadership, the Albanese government gave unions laws that make it easier to bargain for pay rises, cracked down on the gig economy, and made numerous labour-friendly appointments to the Fair Work Commission.

The proportion of Australians holding union membership though has fallen, from about 15 per cent when the pair started at the ACTU to around 13 per cent in 2024, which is the most recent year of data on record from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The 2024 figure is an uptick on a previous low.

While growing union membership has been a challenge, McManus said it was an aim she had from the beginning of her tenure and that there had been progress.

“I knew it would be very hard to see union growth because I’ve been a union official for 33 years and I know how hard that is,” she said. “But I know membership is growing because I can see the numbers affiliated to the ACTU which continue growing.”

McManus, who was elected to the ACTU leadership team in 2017, said stepping down ahead of the election would give the new leaders time to shape the policy agenda, but that it also came at an important time for her personally.

“[Michele and I] always knew, and have always said, we weren’t going to stand for election at our next congress, and we don’t want that congress to be a farewell party,” she said.

McManus said she had also gone deaf in one ear, which would require a cochlear implant. “So I’m going to have that operation and the rehab which you’ve got to really put time and effort into to learn to hear again,” she said.

McManus said a key focus for the unions going forward would be taking on One Nation, which she said was a threat to workers’ rights.

“We’ve definitely been thinking about that,” she said. “This will be up to a new leadership, but I think no matter who it is, One Nation will definitely be a target. AI is certainly a big challenge and will be into the future … so is billionaire influence in politics in Australia and the far right.”

ACTU president O’Neil, who was appointed in 2018, said leadership renewal was important for workers and the union movement.

“I’ve always believed you don’t own positions like these,” she said. “You have them as a custodian, and it’s a privilege, and it feels like it’s time for new people to come in. I don’t see that there’ll be any major U-turns, but there’s more and important work to do, and the new leaders will have new ideas and approaches.”

That includes continued improvements in wages, making sure work that has been “undervalued for too long”, and often done by women, is valued and paid properly, and fixing the housing crisis.

Like McManus, O’Neil said the CFMEU scandal was confronting, but that the leadership team took the right approach.

“I’m not easily intimidated, but I won’t pretend that there wasn’t moments where it was hard or unexpectedly confronting,” she said.

Once she has helped the new secretary and president to settle in, O’Neil says she is eager to take a breath and think about what is next for her.

“I’m not leaving with something in place,” she says. “I want to have some time to recover, and I also know what I’m not going to do, which is: I will not become a politician.”

For McManus, who has also ruled out running for parliament, the priority – besides her operation – will be to go bird watching.

“I definitely want to find the red goshawk. It’s quite rare, that bird,” she said. “I’ve got leave entitlements … so that allows me to have a buffer, but after that, it’s a big leap into the unknown. Obviously, I always want to contribute to make the world a better place, but I’ve got no idea what comes next.”