Yabby I am afraid you are wrong, first the majority of WA workers by far, are not unionist.
Reo tinto and others activly stopped that.
And let me asure you, you select people far above the normal to put in front of us.
I once had a news letter on every lunch room table,it was mine drafted in my time.
It shouted in discust at some very real idiots in WA unions, the fat fool in braces is only one.
Mate consider this, you do know this came from rechtubs back packer thread fear and loathing against some who while much needed earn in his words not enought to pay tax.
So do not hunt for anti union grubby stuff address these facts, butcher wants to reduce already low paid wages, not your boom town ones, know please market forces not unions bring those rates.
And know for every unionist 3 non unionists ride on their backs, wanting and demanding those wages take the big money away and would you live in a donga so far from home, be honest mate!
I truly, honestly, have been shocked to walk in to a room going to ask for 4% pay rises for each of 3 years,a group wish, then seen management open the talks with an offer of 5% for each of 4!
Do not forget unions do not have guns
In some jobs workers are very short supply

Belly, it is you who will not debate.

So belly, OUG and any others who love to hate me, simply answer one question.

What is wrong with a system that rewards workers for working Weekends and public holidays, reimburses employers for their extra wage loadings and charges shoppers/diners who choose to shop/dine on these days for the privilege?

To me it's a 'win win' scenario.

Belly, I note you keep referring to the markets.

Now, I want you to be very honest here.

Do you honestly think those market stand operators pay the correct pay rates on Sundays and public holidays? Remember, even family members are not exempt from fair work Aust laws.

Do you think these operators all have the correct work cover arrangements in place?

Do you think that fresh veg you see on Sunday was picked by people who were paid the correct wage rates under the fair work act? If so, how can they sell so cheaply. After all, you say that increased wages are built in to the price. How can this be?

Now if you can't, or won't answer these question, then you must be bias.

Now I want everyone to remember, I am simply suggesting a 'win win' scenario here.

*Yabby I am afraid you are wrong, first the majority of WA workers by far, are not unionist.*

Belly, you are out of touch with what is going on in your old
industry. Union thuggery is back. Even Martin Ferguson, who is
in touch with what is happening, admits that there is a problem.

On some of these large projects, you only need a handful of
crane drivers or similar to pull out and the whole circus comes
to a stop. Companies like Woodside, who we depend on for our
future welfare in this country, are having a gun put to their heads.
Cough up or else. That is not negotiation, that is standover tactics.

You have a similar situation at the Victorian desal plant site.
If companies wanted any kind of industrial peace, they had little
choice but to give in. All that builders can do is to pass on those
costs to the taxpayer, who coughs up of course.

Just don't give me this bulldust of greedy companies and the
poor workers. Some of these guys are making huge money, standover
tactics by your union mates if back. We all lose.

I'm beginning to think that what I see as 'resentment' of employees is actually just old-fashioned values. Much of what you say, rehctub, harks back to the days when employees had some sort of loyalty to their employers - when they were grateful for the opportunity to work and grateful for the opportunity to take home a little yellow envelope with some cash in it.

Sadly [and I actually do mean sadly], that isn't the way it works anymore. For some time, we've had an employee's job market. Teenagers entering the work scene expect employers to be grateful for their efforts, rather than being grateful that employers give them a chance. If they don't like the boss, they can find another job relatively easily [in many cases]. When I started working, which wasn't that long ago, the opposite was the case. I spent my three months' probation in constant fear that I'd be sacked and unable to find another job. I stuck with my first employer from the age of 14 until the age of 22, when I finished uni and naturally moved on. By the time I finished up, the usual length of employment for new staff was somewhere around 6 months, before they chucked tantrums and moved on.

IR laws DO tie bosses' hands when it comes to rewarding good staff and punishing the bad. Sadly, though, they ARE laws. Penalty rates are [rightly or wrongly] here to stay. I don't think it's fair to punish the customer for that. Perhaps your energy would be better spent petitioning to overturn the shopping centres' right to mandate Sunday trading, rather than taking a Gerry Harvey approach of making life less affordable for consumers to maintain [or regain] your own prosperity.

This thread was born out of rechtubs unhappiness with back packers working in Australia,and his dislike of wages in general.
I spoke of weekend and public holiday surcharges in southern states.
And that I found no wrong in it.
He said it was not legal in QLD and started this thread.
Again I have nothing against such charges,but the thread now insults unions/workers/wages/and penalty rates.
Almost all in WA a xenophobic state,displeased with wise men from the east,an insult thrown more often than Queenslanders use cockroach, at the rest of Australia earning too much money and flying home to spend it.
I could,without effort troll on about bad bosses but why twist and turn the subject.
Fact is laws are laws and often very often head hunters from our biggest groups are hunting others plant operators and blue collar trades people, just like steak market demand is high.
Are we hiding from both threads intent?
Ferguson, yes brother of dear old Andrew, has lead the CFMEU in NSW till he left to stand for and fail to get an upper house seat.
Still he has his collection of dead communist shirts to show of Che forever Andy? good riddance.

It is actually quite simple rehctub.

>>What is wrong with a system that rewards workers for working Weekends and public holidays, reimburses employers for their extra wage loadings and charges shoppers/diners who choose to shop/dine on these days for the privilege?<<

The last part of this is what is "wrong" with your picture.

Raising prices might - in some places, and in some circumstances - reduce traffic, thus revenue, thus profit. In which case there will be fewer workers being rewarded, and the employers will not be "reimbursed".

In these places, and in these circumstances, the business owner should not be prevented from setting his prices to meet the market. It is not the concept of the surcharge that is wrong. Just your insistence that it should be "mandatory".

How would you police it, by the way? If I refused to raise my prices in line with your "mandatory surcharge", how would you find out, and how would you punish me?

But more to the point, why would you want to?