Howards Workplace Reform

[-YT-]

Ok i have been working since i was fifteen. I've had my current job for about 4 yrs and wanted to know how Howards new Workplace Reforms affects me as in Sick leave and benefits etc. I heard if the reform goes threw i will lose all my benefits etc. so when i do leave my current job i will have no pay-out. Also how does this affect Superanuation? I heard that unfair dissmisal is being scrapped too? So i need some advice because ive got about $5k in benefits etc that i dont wanna lose so if the reform goes threw i was thinking about quiting and taking my payout with me :D Any Advice ? Shine some light on it plz someone???? :confused:

[spiders]

Mate in six months time we will eb doing a 40 hour week, with 2 weeks paid leave a year and be getting paid less. It wont stop at small business, howard wants us all to suffer

[Torsten]

it is interesting to note that for the purposes of every other law, 'small business' is defined as 15 or 20 employees, while the new unfair dismissal laws will apply to 'small businesses' defined as under 100 employees.

The point of unfair dismissal laws was to protect the workers, while providing flexibility to mum&dad businesses where the directors often mortgage the house to run the business and where hiring and firing is often a matter of survival rather than profit. How many mum&dad businesses are there that have 100 employees? Surely most companies with over 20 or 30 employees are no longer just businesses that put food on the table for the owner, and where the owners and staff rely on each other to survive. Redefining small business to this level is just a nasty way of undermining workers rights.

As for what happens to your entitlements, sorry I don't know, but I would assume that unless you already have a worplace agreement that sets out the details, the new law would apply and hence you would be screwed.

You might be able to approach your boss and tell him that you want a workplace agreement that secures you these entitlements. That way you might be able to keep your job and get your bonus.

Let's not forget it was the workers with their mortgages who deserted the labor party and put Howard back into power. The greatest swing towards liberal was in the group who has just been fucked over in the tax cuts, getting $6 per week, while those who swung to labour will be getting $41 per week. I only hope those idiots remember in 4 years time...

[-YT-]

bluemeanie:

Mate in six months time we will eb doing a 40 hour week, with 2 weeks paid leave a year and be getting paid less. It wont stop at small business, howard wants us all to suffer

If that happens i guess i will leave with my money and study :D which is kinda wat i really wanna do anyway, As for a workplace agreement T i'm not so hopefull, and yes i also work for a small family owned business.

[Torsten]

small businesses place much greater value on loyalty and 'on the job skills'. You might be surprised about their attitude to a contract. if you explain to them that if they don't give it to you they they will not only have to pay the entitlements, but also the training of a new staff, then they might be happy to just pay your entitlements and keep you. You have to present it to them as a win / win situation. But you better do it soon.

They might try and nail you down with a long term contract though in order to make it worth their while.

[waterdragon]

more and more of this shit is the reason so many employers are choosing to pay cash and just keep things simple. government still gets its cut when the money is spent so it's not all bad. still can't believe that many australians that voted for a gst didn't get the connection that they were voting to reduce their spending power by ten percent. wtf???

[Rev]

pay cash pay less

never been truer

what i dont get is why youd bother going full time these days with this new law

u can get sacked as easy and get sfa more benefits so u would be better off on casual for more $$$

unless u have a mortgage..

as it is i get paid $1 an hour more now for hard yakka than i did waiting tables in freo and anywhere else 3 years ago

and i was paid 3.50 an hour more as a casual sitting in my car counting bicycles go past!

given inflation id say that means im worse off

[Darklight]

Is this going to create major fuckups in the workplace by causing friction between 'competing' employees give rise to yet another class of useless workers who are better at going for interviews and setting up wonderful individual contracts than they are actually doing their jobs?

Now that many employers have to spend bucketloads of time screening employees as required by law, and potential employees have to spend six weeks applying for a single job ( try telling that to Centrelink ). we have a whole subcategory of people who are really, really good at interviews, and absolutely shithouse at doing the actual work.

These people present very very well at the panels, and create absolute hell amongst the other staff, many of whom probably had to apply for their own jobs as well during whatever bizarre organisational restructure is current that week. And they tend to be upwardly mobile cos they move around a lot; no-one is willing to admit they're a problem in case they get stuck with them.

Now employees have to spend time ( their own, not paid time )learning how to apply for their jobs and handle their super funds in order for them to be a profitable unit, if this goes through they'll have to waste more of their own time learning how best to screw every last concession they can out of their bosses or face being carrion scavengers for a 40hr week. And employers will need to learn even more lingo so they can create a balance within their own organisation re. HR, future proofing and planning, and their ability to stay in the black

I'm not employing anyone atm, but personally I'd rather have someone working for me who is able to take their basic rights for granted and can concentrate on doing what they're paid for, and being held accountable to it.

At this rate in 20 years there will be nothing employers or employees can take as a standard when putting someone on the job and the wheel will have to be reinvented every time a new staff member is recruited- at both employer and employee level.

[apothecary]

Darklight:

Is this going to create major fuckups in the workplace by causing friction between 'competing' employees give rise to yet another class of useless workers who are better at going for interviews and setting up wonderful individual contracts than they are actually doing their jobs?

Are you sure you don't work in IT?

[2b]

As an employer ,I'm all for the changes.We employ 60 staff over 2 sites, it's got to the point recently that it's so hard to fire some one that we only employ new people as a last resort , and then we use an employment agency so if they turn out to be no good we just give them back to the employment agency and they become their problem.The cost of employment via an agency is greater as you pay GST on their wages which comes as a bill once a month , but it far outways the inconvience of being forced to employ dud staff .

Good people are always in demand , when the going gets tough it's the duds that are first to go , like wise with hiring the good people are snapped up fast. In the rural areas good people are hard to come by , as soon as they show any talent they head off to the city never to return.So if i treat my good staff bad they will walk as there are so many other places looking for these types. So , i will do anything to keep my (good)staff , more pay ,better conditions, any thing to keep them.

Anyone tried to fire some one ? Last time i did i spent so much time and money on solicitors , counciling , group hugs and drama that i gave up and just put it down as a lesson to screen people more thoroughly (or use an agency).

As far as the unionist activity of last week , i can't believe the arogance of these types. Almost all that i know that work on building sites are making huge $$$ compared with the rest of the comunity , the real battlers work in child care , call centres , hospitality. And this myth about the working man battling on for huge hours not being able to spend time with the family , f@*k me i would love to work a 40 hour week with a lunch break. Almost all employers work well over the 40 hour week without all the benifits , and throw in the added stress of keeping your head above water and the fact that the buck does stop with you , you just don't knock off and go home and worry again in the morning.

Being an employer is not for everyone , but anyone can do it , you just have to have the balls to put your house and entire lifes effort on the line with the faith you will succeed . At that point you tend to see things in a differnet light.

So sometimes i entertain the idea of going back and working 40 hrs for wages and having a lunch break (not eating at your desk between calls) and leaving the stress behind , but then i wouldn't be able to spend so much of my day here

[noun]

Todays Fairfax poll makes me laugh. Howards approval rating down 10%. Reason given for the swing- proposed changes to Industrial relations. These are the same voters that took their heads off and put a pumpkin on for the last Federal election, in fairness they probably walk around with a pumpkin on 24/7.

These voters should have thought more about their vote and less about a scare campaign on interest rates. How ironic that the Unions have got a lend of the stick that the Howard Government used last election... Fear, the great emotion.

Some will be thinking now, allright putting a 1 in the coalition box for the House of Rep's was one thing...dunno if I should have done it for the Senate as well!

Now, if the media started to put a positive spin on these IR changes, maybe the new Senate would pass changes to the Media cross ownership laws...Hmm.

[Torsten]

2b, I fully understand your frustration which is why I have never hired anything other than casuals. The extra expense is worth the reduced hassle with paperwork, entitlements and sackings. Not that we've actually had sacking issues at wandjina, but I've had them in other businesses before.

The old laws were designed to help small businesses while protecting the workers from large ones. And I think that's fair enough. I guess you are in the difficult position of being halfway between small and medium business. In that group plenty of employers are profiteering from their labourers, but obviously not all. I don't think the laws could ever be made fair for this intermediate group.

The laws did little however to stop the worker abuse by large corporations because they ahd the money to pay for expensive lawyers and hence got their way pretty much whenever they wanted. So yes, the laws should probably be changed somewhat, but I don't trust the liberal government to do so with the protection of low income earners in mind.

This move to a casual work society will have some serious bad long term effects though. The lack of loyalty, lack of specialisation and expertise will result in an even less competent workforce with an even lower work ethic. Australia already has a low work ethic, which is one of the main things holding it back in terms of international trade. To make this worse will be VERY expensive for each and every citizen in the long run.

[Benzedrine]

I totally agree with the bad work ethic thing. I think I am a living example of what is to come with the new laws. I don't think I've stayed at a single job for more then 5 months in the last five years and I've worked pretty much consistently through that time. There has never been a reason to stay. Its not that I don't want to work but I can't be bothered working for miserable wages or for pathetic bosses. Once the new laws are in I bet there are gonna be more people like me who Nomad from job to job in search of greener pastures.

[-YT-]

Cheers guys i would like to thank you all for input and advice :D But sadly in the last two days i have been abused by one of my bosses and 1 Co-Worker came very close to try(i do say try because he wouldnt have succeeded) to knock me out because of workplace gossip and rumours, i made the mistake of telling the wrong person :mad: some things dam i should have listened to my Astrology forcast LOL! it said someone is working against You and will reviel themselfs soon.....well that sure was true, Maybe because im a Gemini - dam those twins im very hard to get along with i change everyday lol Anyway enough of my probs cheers for the Advice but this is definatly my last year or rather 4 long hard months....and im free fuck the workforce and being a robot, i should also get all my benefits so all is good :D

Woot

[drellion]

 

quote:

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im very hard to get along with i change everyday lol Anyway enough of my probs

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Oh...Please.....

Dont listen to him everyone, hes fine. He is calm and centred and behaved very respectfully at the last DOOF !!

Oh...but...there was that one time...at band camp...umm ... dont go there.....lol

peace, drellion

[-YT-]

Oh the memories are flooding back.....Band camp

[nabraxas]

some very insightful replies there.

thankyou T., DL, & 2B. it's good to hear a different view ov these things.

2B--i agree w/what you're saying, i can see how protection for workers can go too far.

however,

 

quote:

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you just don't knock off and go home and worry again in the morning.

 

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--IMHO that's the choice you make going into management, but these laws will reverse that situation.

workers will be going home worrying about their performance, pay, conditions, entitlements & super; especially as individual enterprise agreements become more widespread.

sure, i agree the unions that are most vocal are the ones that have the most too loose--& in some areas they have grown too powerful.

but to loose collective bargaining & the whole concept ov unfair dismissal, for folks in "small business", is too extreme.

[ 10. July 2005, 23:50: Message edited by: nabraxas ]

[Skulking Lurker]

I'm having trouble believing the level of comment that seems to be coming from every corner of society, and feverishly relayed by the media, considering that it is all speculation at this stage, because nothing of the subject has actually been released yet.