Take a deep breath please Ginx, you have much to contribute but the anger is not part of it.
Not hard to know rehctub was butcher back to front and not hard to see you are concerned at your wages costs.
Do not however let your concerns about social welfare mixed yup with low skilled or paid workers.
I left school at 12 years and ten months, to work full time, unskilled, barely able to read unable to write, some say nothing has changed.
I burnt charcoal, loaded trucks with bagged spuds yes ran in and out of butcher shops with meat by products.
I never left a job the boss did not ask me to stay in, and I was always low income, my skills improved faster than my wages.
Unskilled? skilled enough to work in a job no one wants but not enough to eat well?
Not enough to ever buy a home? trade off? why? with current levels of employment a worker with drive or help can get his foot on that ladder,starting from ground get in just years the skills to drive a huge truck in a mine and earn $100.000 a year.
My lolly pop men and women are in danger every second, the factory floor is a road cars wiz past inch's away at mad speeds they get no sick leave no annual leave no public holidays.
They earn those wages and some spend them in your butcher shop,
I am forever grateful we no longer have a federal government who forgot Aussie battlers are human beings.

I have a problem with the terms skilled & unskilled. I know many people who have no trade or academic background & yet they are the ones who contribute enormously by performing so-called "menial tasks". I also have experienced the insulting & abysmal performance of those who have "the papers". The past 30 years there has been this emphasis on education but this has not produced the result needed. It has only produced a folly portrayal. Can someone explain why so many people with their exceptional resumés (witten by someone else) are unable to live up to their resumé ?
Many T.A.F.E certificates are handed out based purely on the recipient's competence "at the time of completion" of training. Now that fills every employer with confidence. Well, it doesn't appear to worry the largest employer in the country, the Public Service. Just imagine if the public Service was dependent on performance & competence. There would be an unbelieveable shortage of applicants.

With all due respect you are missing my point.

I do not hate unskilled workers nor do I think they don't deserve to be paid, however, if you read my post you will note that I feel the government should share the burden with regards to wages because if they loose their jobs the government (or tax payers) will have to pay them the dole anyway.

You people just don't see the big picture.

If big business stops employing we will all suffer. Skilled or unskilled alike.

By the way. From your post I assume you are mostly labor supporters.
I wonder how the aged feel now having been put through hell only to find that they government has given 165million to Iraq

Rehctub

"If big business stops employing we will all suffer."

If business (does it have to be big?) stops employing, then it is out of business.

Refusing to pay a basic liveable wage to workers is tantamount to business being subsidised by workers. If a business can't work out its costs and profits to the level that it cannot pay a liveable income, then it doesn't deserve to be in business.

AWA's eliminated a range of basic rights to workers of all levels, but particularly those in menial jobs.

Everyone has a right to a roof over one's head and food on the table, if people are working in conditions that mean they cannot afford basic necessities, then those workers are being exploited to the benefit of the employer.

How do you justify the exorbitant salaries pulled in by executive staff, when low level workers (the people who actually produce the service or product) can't even pay for rent? A little less greed from the top and everyone would benefit.

"Take a deep breath please Ginx, you have much to contribute but the anger is not part of it." (Quote:Belly)

Don't patronize me Bellers, there's a good boy. I know I knocked your schnozzle out of joint because you took a shot at me whilst purporting to be my 'friend';- but you are flogging your resentment to death here.
I don't need lessons in behaviour from someone who bobs and weaves around another poster to show the capacity to 'get on' with him, when you are clearly at opposite ends of the scale from Butcher. You prove nothing, but it is amusing to see!

Now;.. you and I can get bogged down in your petty shots, and my response to them, OR we can discuss the topic?

It's up to you.

(Btw:-you are NOT Butcher's PR.man; he is clearly able to take care of himself, so speak for yourself,-not him!)
______________________

"You people just don't see the big picture." (Quote:Butcher).

Well know...,that one is squarely in the eye of the beer holder isn't it? From my vantage point it is YOU who are failing to see the bigger picture.

You seem to see a contract of employ only from how it affects you. Conditions of employ are the domain of ALL employer/employee's.

Thankfully all of them do not think like you, and thankfully the exploitation of workers is now not as easy as it was under the Howard Regime.

rehctub: "if you read my post you will note that I feel the government should share the burden with regards to wages because if they loose their jobs the government (or tax payers) will have to pay them the dole anyway."

So rehctub is really chasing a government subsidy to cover the difference between what he wants to pay 'unskilled' workers and the minimum wage. I'm always amused when so-called business people seek to suck off the public teat in order, ultimately to increase their profits.

If my business couldn't sustain its lowest paid workers at an agreed minimum award rate, then I'd have to look seriously at whether I should be in business at all.