Unions say SA election crucial to workers

Nick Xenophon's return to the South Australian political fray could result in issues important to working people being forgotten leading into the March state election, SA Unions say.

State secretary Joe Szakacs says voters are being faced with an unprecedented three-way contest making the next election the most crucial for many years.

Mr Xenophon recently quit the Senate to stand for the South Australian lower house and will run candidates in up to 20 seats with a view to securing the balance of power in the next parliament.

Mr Szakacs said the Labor government would come under careful scrutiny in the lead-up to the election and the Liberal opposition was already pursuing an anti-worker agenda.

But he said Mr Xenophon had also voted against workers' right in the past, including the move to cut penalty rates.

"He will have some work to do to prove whose side he's really on," Mr Szakacs said.

"Will he side with big business and the banks or working people?"

SA Unions on Wednesday also released the union movement's demands ahead of the election, including increased penalties for offences related to workplace deaths, a commitment to public sector job numbers and penalty rates and a promise of no more privatisation of public services.