Jeff, good piece. As the experienced Union member that you are I would have thought you'd know by now that employers want to maximise profit - that is what they are in the game to do. Paying workers as little as possible whilst maximising their own income helps to achieve this goal. This is how it has always been and how it will always remain. These struggles will continue infinitum.

130 awards for 10 000 000 people working.

This has all the flexibility of a straight jacket.

No wonder full time jobs are falling away. This has probably more to do with fair work than the GFC.

If I was hiring for a non standard job I certainly wouldn't take any one one, but would hire a contractor.

Rather then "modern" awards, unions seemingly want to take us back
to the dark ages of the 60s, in a changing world.

So learn the hard way. I certainly would not start another business
in Australia, but take it offshore.

But you clearly think that Australians will thrive without employers,
so be it. Job creation schemes will be the next proposed solution!

Ah whatever lol, I simply don't care anymore. Some are just too
thick to learn.

Yep Yabby has it.

Keep the wages low so we can compete with offshore companies. In fact we should lower them further to barely subsistence level similar to that enjoyed by workers overseas.

There will be all these cheap goods to buy but no-one left other than CEOs and directors with enough money to buy them.

Yabby despite wages in Western countries being higher companies are still enjoying generous profits - sometimes profits can be obscene if they are gained at the cost of everything else. Society is not just a profit margin or an economy.

Bikesusenofuel - with all due respect, of course employers want to maximize profits, they are not part of some benevolent society and in addition have taken risks.

The workers risk is in their choice of employer and of course the type of work they do, they can simply down tools and seek another job in an instant if it suits them

An employer has to get funds to start a company, for a small business it's probably borrowed against the family home - if all goes wrong he loses everything, unlike the worker who just toddles off.

The larger employer is beholden to investors to maximize profit, that's called business.

Workers good - Employers bad. So the unions have a presumed attitude that employers are evil, trying to "rip off the workers", thus instilling the "class war" mentality.

That's a great starting position, so not only do you have all the risk and stress of starting and running a company, a bunch of intimidating bullies can come and disrupt your workplace at will.

Jeff talks about evening things up when he really seems to mean utter and total control.

Employers will not invest in this climate, and this will all end up a mess - we'll have huge unions, with no jobs demanding the government with our taxes, create employment .. sounds like socialism (by stealth)

I was in a union when I was young and watched them destroy the workplace by incessant demands and overbearing work practices. Yes they did some good for the workers, but there was never an attitude of fairness or give and take, it was open bloody warfare to get as much as possible and then some more.

Pelican

A lot of people wants to paint all employers as big business, making millions in profit, when in fact more then 70% of workers are employed by small business and a lot of the big business are not doing very well.

The writer said "Awards will protect important matters like minimum wages and penalties for working unsociable hours", and make the conclusion that employer should pay out of their own pocket for this.

Sorry, it is not the 50s, communism is dead and the world does not work that way. Most restaurants are not making millions, and by forcing them to pay higher wages, a lot of them will either close, hire less staff, or charge the customer more.

All this will mean is that there are less restaurants, less people employed and we pay more for going out to eat, so we go out less. That means everyone loses.

Pacific brand is another example, underwear made in China cost less than 1/2 the cost than made in Australia. Pacific brand did consult with the government about this, it did not work, so they took their business and the jobs overseas, and everyone loses.

What Fairwork Australia is Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard attempt to repay the unions for getting them elected. The union paid the ALP millions add ran ad campaigns to get Kevin Rudd elected, in return Kevin and Julia will bring in Union friendly laws. In the meantime, people who took the risk to start business suffers, workers loses their job, inflation goes up (lower national output), but the ALP and unions increase their membership.

It does not matter how many time you put Workchoice to try to bring emotive support to you (lack of a) argument. Law that will destroys jobs and make us pay more for things should always be opposed