2 December 2006

Your rights at work

| johnboy
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Loadedog has a funny and informative piece on the “Your Rights At Work” rally held on Thursday.

More than a touch of the damp squib there, but good on the Variodrivers for having a go.

Having worked on common law agreements most of my working life (with the exception of a few months on an EBA that royally screwed us, thanks union!) I can’t admit to being too fussed. The crowd numbers would seem to indicate that the workers of Canberra are roughly in agreement (or possibly chained to their desks by draconan AWAs).

I any event it’s nice to see Loadedog making friends with the constabulary.

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equalitarian10:11 pm 04 Dec 06

Failure to acknowledge there are real people in the equation is the prob.
Statisics merely justify a point of view.
If a multi national CEO gets a payout of $$XXX mill as a failure piss off – what is the employee wage/condition deficit that has enabled that payout?
Unfairness is not all legalities and politics.
It is a real, personal experience that breeds resentment.
If you have it good, great – go for it. No prejudice and happy trails.
But if shit comes along, make sure there are people who can lend you a spanner to get your life back on track.

Interesting that public service workers are more likely to be union members too.

Workplace protection and unions are not aimed at those who can take care of themselves, but provide a safety net for the more vulnerable. Eg. Jane Blain has been working in reception at the same small business for 30 years, has now got older and had a few sick days, so they sack her the day before Christmas.
Not everyone finds it as easy as you might to get another job. And teenagers in their first jobs will be vulnerable too. As will those with new babies/family responsibilities.

I’d rather have a fair system than a dog-eat-dog fight for what you can get type system.

Absent Diane3:33 pm 04 Dec 06

private sector is much more sink or swim.. where as public sector is much more float or swim… and I daresay there are more australians working private than public.

These laws make it even tougher for some in the private sector with very little benefit.. whereas I can’t see it affecting the public service very much at all… because there is that level of protection.

I don’t often agree with AD, but in this case he is correct. The public service is not representative of the real world in that it provides fairly high pay rates for what is often not a lot of work. In addition, you get unusually high levels of other benefits, such as leave and workplace flexibility, as well as a whole range of recourse actions when things don’t go your way.

Perhaps calling the service “not the real world” is inaccurate – unrepresentative of working Australia is perhaps a fairer description.

Absent Diane – how is the public service not the real world?

you would seem to be quite adequately compensated for your self-loathing VY

I just got a got a new job, taking a pay rise of 62k per year. I don’t have a union representing me, nor do I want one.

What concerns me most is how the union mentality discourages people from taking responsibility for their careers. I used to be a union delegate once, which I why I hate them so much now.

Employment rates in this country are a complete furphy. In 2001 the Howard government instructed the ABS to redefine “employed” as working 1 hour per week or more. (The standard definition in Europe is somewhere between 10 – 15 hours or more).

Almost all of the new jobs created since then have been casual or part-time and it is these people who have the most to lose under the new IR laws.

Those who take an I’m alright Jack approach here are just a sad reflection on the nation that Johnny has built.

Absent Diane3:05 pm 03 Dec 06

You have made my point JB.. we currently do have it better.. so why give that up? To me that is ridiculous.

Perhaps employers do need greater protection from staff who are rorting the system.. but these changes are extreme.

“is it just me, or are the comments getting a little personal around here of late?”

Yea I guess I shouldn’t have said that about public servants its just been a bloody long day here. And one of my pet hates is the size of our govt.

When the unemployment rates get back closer to “normal”, these laws will bite. Right now they are balanced by a labour shortage, so their effects are tempered as employers have to actually behave themselves to get and keep staff. When the advantage is back with employers, just watch the fun start.

is it just me, or are the comments getting a little personal around here of late?

The other thing is this full employment period might just last a hell of a lot longer because of the new laws.

I have actually seen it first hand how my business shafts some people. Well take advantage really some people just havnt got it in them to demand more money or not actually demand but ask for more. In this industry a lot of the time you usually don’t get anything unless you ask. If you don’t ask the boss must think your perfectly happy on your current wage.

IN this time of nearly full employment the full effects of these IR laws are not beng seen.
In world comparison terms they are incredibly harsh.

They dont affect me at this time, but I don’t support them.

In my industry its allays been Individual contracts and its a rough old world out there. Back in about 1998 from memory we received pay cuts of around 1000US a month of which we were informed via email.
Now the thing is that sounds harsh but in the end it was down for business reasons and its better taking a pay cut then loosing your job.
But on the other side in the last 18 months or so we have received pay rises in some cases exceeding 100%. And this is all performance based as well as competition driven by other companies head hunting

There’s no mucking around in this industry every body from the top down knows their job and knows what has to be done and we just get on with it. If we were in a union wages would be lower for a lot of us because we would be held back.

Its the way I like it. On the other hand I can see were this might be a tad uncomfortable for some public servants probably the ones that sit at there desk feeling guilty because they haven’t actually got job that is doing something productive and meaningful.

But then again what do I know.

depends if their “real world experience” had included working in countries with less employee protections than we have even under the new laws and realised the world as they knew it didn’t end AD.

But, as usual, everyone who disagrees with you is worthless I see.

Absent Diane5:20 pm 02 Dec 06

the problem is that the majority of canberrans don’t have any real world experience (the public service is not the real world).. so they have nothing to guauge it on. Anyone with any sense of decency would oppose the laws… on principle even if they are comfortable in their position..

Industrial relations…**YAWN****

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