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The Forum > General Discussion > Unions call for secure jobs, too little, too late, you can't say you were not warned.

Unions call for secure jobs, too little, too late, you can't say you were not warned.

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FACT not fudge old mate!thought my insight was very near unbiased and that it put some of the blame on my side, however you from your maybe several? butcher shops hardly have insight in to over all industrial relations, we need to address the super issue, people starting a worklife today, may very well never get the pension, age 70 is a target they may never each, my answer is super paid on every dolar earned,casuals to get an extra one percent, a fund that can be trusted, to be set up, as they have multiple employers a life long fee free one, one day every one may need to live without a pension, and most of us do not want to work till 70
Posted by Belly, Saturday, 9 June 2018 7:40:45 AM
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Butch not only has the faults he has the solutions before anyone else can have a say.
I think this story goes back to butchers being paid butchers wages for sweeping the floor.
You employ someone for eight hours on one wage, your idea was to have multiple wage structures throughout the day. That is where casual or part time came from. Plus the over servicing sector wanting lower wages. Some businesses just do not have a life as a business.
Unions will have a resurgence because of exploitation of workers which the laws have failed to protect. Would higher rates for casual’s force employers back to lower paid full time workers. It would cause rationalization of businesses built on casual employees only.
The only ones that need hourly work times are persons under the 20year age group. All others must be full time. Workers need stability in the workforce as a future builder.
We do not need the attitude of if you want more hours get an extra job, the working day is eight hours.
Posted by doog, Saturday, 9 June 2018 8:43:57 AM
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You miss one major point doog, that to be a worker, first you need a job. It is all well & good to tell us that workers need full time jobs, & stability, don't we all.

It is all well & good to state you ideal working conditions, & pay rates you would like to get. This has only one problem, unless an employer can make a profit paying those rates, there is no job at all to be had.

Running boats in the Whitsundays I had 2 large high speed catamarans, a 60 Ft ferry, a 96 Ft barge, a 60 Ft imitation submarine coral viewing boat, a 30 Ft game boat, plus a few sundry glass bottom boats & other craft.

The 2 big boats ran 6 days with a day off for maintenance each week, & had 3 full time crews to manage this. The main crew on each did the weekends, & with penalty rates skippers & engineers in the early 80s earned over $1100 a week, more than I did for six & a half days on average running the show.

The big boats owed the company about $1800 a day each in fixed overheads just sitting there, before a crew & fuel added about another $1000. On the underwater observatory run it required 148 full fares to cover a days costs.

During a downturn we could not get anything like this, & the outer reef trip was also running 4 days at a loss. To avoid the company going broke I dropped all weekend runs, so only 10 crew days required, & a huge saving in fuel. Now of course I needed only 2 crews.

I got them all together & gave them the choice. There would be no weekend high penalty rate work for any. I could sack one complete crew no longer needed, or I would give them all 4 days a week work, which would include 2 on the ferry for the relief crew, & let them decide. They chose the 4 day week. They chose the 4 day week.

Continued.
Posted by Hasbeen, Saturday, 9 June 2018 11:16:24 AM
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Continued.
The barge crew were doing it tough, both had mortgages & were getting no overtime or weekend work penalty rates at all.

Beaches wash away in the strong tides of the reef. A resort island wanted to hire the barge & a front end loader to bring theirs back from the point to the resort, but could not afford the $1500 a day for weekend daily hire. They offered me $750 a day.

I put it to the barge crew that I could pay week day rates, with usual penalties for 3 week ends work, if they were interested. They jumped at it. The company barely covered costs, but the boys kept their mortgage payments up.

You have to realise doog, most of us like the blokes we work with, but companies are not charities, or cash cows, [except for government bureaucrats & union bosses]. Jobs can only be paid for by profits. No profits, no job. It would be nice if we could all get what we would like, but demanding too much just means no jobs to be had.

That company got something wrong a couple of years after I left, & went broke. The boats were sold & moved away. No jobs for many of those blokes in the area now.

Companies are not charities funded by the taxpayer doog. Make the cost of your labour too high for companies to pay, & still make a profit, & the companies will simply disappear, not out of spite, but because they go broke. Then we can all sit around & remember how good it was once, as we eat our bowl of lentil soup
Posted by Hasbeen, Saturday, 9 June 2018 11:18:59 AM
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Finding the thread hard yaka, it is hard to find answer if we can one one hand find small business needs protection, but ignore the truth a worker is in fact a one man/woman business, IF our economy needs low wages, insecure jobs, to thrive it is not worth saving
Posted by Belly, Saturday, 9 June 2018 3:02:07 PM
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You're right Belly, it's most likely not worth saving, well at least for the sake of the worker, as more and more businesses are turning to automated system, and ironically being rewarded for their efforts by way of government incentives. It's just a pity similar incentives didn't apply to employing, in fact, if you employ too many you get taxed extra for your efforts. One reason behind contract/labour hire.

You see people think employers need staff, but they are wrong. Employers need the work done and, if there is an alternative whereby the work gets done, the likes of sick leave and other forms of leave are eliminated, and the machine does as it's told, no if, buts or maybes. As development forges ahead in this field, machines that were once out of range for many, are now becoming a real alternative.

Luckily I have great staff, but, as an employer you get what you give, and my guys, while expecting a fair days pay for a fair days work, actually provide the fair days work, before they get paid.

Doog, all I can say to you is dream on, because the full time job you talk of is long gone, never to return as the machine, which has been developed out of necessity is taking over, while the likes of labour hire and contractors are filling the voids. The past two to three decades have made history by changing employment forever. So we had best get used to it. Continued
Posted by rehctub, Saturday, 9 June 2018 7:53:46 PM
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