Australia's worst Prime Minister poll!

I can relate to that.

 

Where do I send a resume?

 

Sydney.

In todays political climate we are not allowed to discriminate, BUT, and there is always a BUT, no harm in mentioning in your resume that your mode of transport is via Ducati.

 

That's nice.

Should we talk about the magic that is Fair Work Australia?

Where the government has the power to invent its own terms and conditions for employees, that supersedes any previous EBA's or entrenched negotiated arrangements?

Case in point.. a business I used to work for hauled all the staff into the lunchroom to go thru the 'new & improved' Fair Work Australia redundancy provisions to their employment entitlements.

Moved from 4 weeks notice + 4 weeks/yr + 1wk/yr extra for 45yo+ all uncapped to 12 weeks maximum for up to 9 years service, which actually falls after 10 years because the company has been accruing Long Service Leave.

Then the redundancies start, at the 'new & improved' severance packages. Which ended up at the IR conciliators, who proved beyond doubt that the 'new & improved' conditions are now law, and it is to the company's discretion as to whether they pay more than this.

So someone with 10 years' service who has been told the business is to restructure, hangs around for a cheque that might be as much as a year's wages, shows up with 3 months' income, and people wonder why they are pished off with the world?

Uncle Kevin was no patron saint of the worker. But the blind dumbfooks will keep voting Labor, thinking they are being looked after.

 

Wait until Gillard get her hands on it.

 

+1!!

Keep a lookout for my resume too mate!

I love your grandfathers trust account too.

 

Karen........has it stopped armed holdups........nope, the legislation weakened the country

 

Clearly you have never had anything to do with the costs of running and maintaining a waterjet. In the meantime get on the other side of the fence and employ some people and run your own business for while and just see how easy it is.

 

Damn

Can I work from home?

 

LOL ..... I have a rough idea of how careful you need to be, and the costs to run a water cutter .. You personally showed me years ago. It aint easy , right ?


I didnt say it would be easy for either employers or employees , thats probably why its called work. (oh god , I'm sounding like bloody Malcolm Frazer)

What I am deeply concerned about is some politician (from any party) making extreme changes in the name of effeciency or whatever that substantially change a reasonably balanced situation.
Give someone a means to suddenly and extremely get an advantage and yes they will make good profits (or huge wages). The down side is some people only see their world and will run with anything and to hell with the rest of the world.

If Julia Gillard said you and all other manufacturing business's could legally pay people $5 an hour would you do it ?
I dont think any business would make big profits , , business's are competitive , , , so prices would drop and drop and drop ......... all you'd get would be is an incredibly small margin for error.
We are doing far better than countries like America right now , they have their very very low mininum wage and it didnt offer any kind of preventative or safety net when their economy fell over. It just meant they couldnt go any lower , , , leaving the employer and employee nowhere to go.

I remember JH saying we need to be more like America's wages system when he was trying to bring Work Choices in .......... do we as employers or employees want to be in Americans shoes right now ?? Really ? ... Honestly ?

 

We have run out of political parties to choose from !

I believe what you are saying about Labor and Fair Work Australia ...... I dont think most Australian bothered to go into much detail after they knew their weekly wages were not going to to be cut severely. Low wages dont build up much long service $$$ and it is yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeears away so most, including me.

 

Unfortunately there are going to be winners and losers in all circumstances... I think long-term employees WERE the sacrifices in this case; since Gen X-Y are job-swappers, it's 'current' conditions they're interested in, not some distant future. Long-service leave will go the way of the dinosaur I believe (except for public servants of course!) since it will be irrelevant to the majority.

 

WTF 15 dollars an hour! thats what my teenage cousin makes by stacking shelves at his local Coles.

And you get 17-20 per hour working at KFC......

 

Who is this left wing leso Christine Wallace?

 

Really???

why did i go to law school?

 

To learn how to be a cleaner?

 

errr. no. to earn $16.00 p/h, that's why.

 

She's writing a book about JG so what else do you expect. It was a union move and I think from memory only 15-20% of the work force belong to unions and most of them are public servants so most will see through this.

 

another error of judgement.

 

........yep , , another reason why I quit. I didn't bother complaining , , , if you complain and get a huge pay rise (LOL $5 an hour in my world) then you start thinking "I've been ripped off" for years after.

The "If you dont like it , leave" is a fair enough rule. To be fair employers should not complain when employees just unexpectedly go.

It will be hard for employers to get skilled employees anywhere in the $15 - $20 range , , , why spend years doing an apprenticeship to get less than a kid assembling burgers. The handful that are willing to do this quite often have plans to own their own business ... quite often competing against the guy that taught them.

A job used to be more than an hourly rate , it included security , it included long service leave , it included being able to learn from the guy working with you , it included mateship , it was being able to be proud to have made whatever it was producing , , , , , ,

Then individual contracts came along ..... compete against the next guy.

When everything but the base pay rate is gone then any $17 an hour business must compete with ALL other $17 an hour business's on the employees perception of "how difficult is that job going to be?"

 

gone are the days some want a 'job for life'. If I get 2 years from an employee I'm happy.

But I have core staff that have been around over 10 years, and they are very well paid because they are very good.

 

Hardly a poll when only 30 folk vote - ve must get more into ze group - sorry having a porsche moment............

 

OK, I'm going back a few years but at 15 and crashing my car in the early 80's I had to work Saturdays and Sundays for $3.50/hour no time and a half no double time just a flat rate. I worked my backside off to pay my parents back the $1200 the car cost them. I used to work Saturday nights baby sitting the bosses children to get an extra $10 and then went straight to work in his garage on the Sunday morning.

As I had a job I was the only person in my family who was then able to go on and get some tertiary education as I could fund it myself. Life's hard at times Paul but trust me mate the harder you work the luckier you get. You need opportunities and I guess I was lucky doors have continued to open but I know I have worked hard.

EDIT. As it relates to another thread of topic at this time, I come from a broken home and one thing most people forget is the children. They are always the biggest loosers. As such no matter what happens I will NEVER put my children through what I went through.