So this heroic RTA worker, this Stakhanov, is chained 24/7 to his job with no leave or time off of any form, and cannot find any way to nip off for a hour to renew his rego or go to the shops, other than by committing fraud?

Puleeez!

You do go over the top bloke I am heartened by it.
I spoke of construction workers contracted ones in fact.
Major road bridge construction sites.
Firms once Australian now over seas owned such as ABBY Thiess all basically owned by two international groups.
A ten or twelve hour day is worked.
AND lock down weekends are planed,that is long weekends knowns as RDO,s
But near jobs end or stress periods running late on project or a needed part of it.
Say finish a bridge so material can be transported over it, road gravel.
All days are worked.
At such times, consider the stress on all, better bosses than I see SM,privately invite their teams to take a Sicky one at a time.
It is not all combat out there.
Not every Sicky is a day out bludging on the boss.
It is not all warfare out there.
I highlight, warn SM is not alone, some want workers to be slaves see only the bad.
A good worker can be of real worth and can need to be with his/her kids or family while not sick, do we flog them for that.
Look, true, tell me what SM is trying to say if not workers are bad.
I think ending by law the need for other than offenders to produce a certificate unless the boss pays, not us,is an answer.
Separate to this offenders should be managed , not every one.
And some,skiving of in the offices should stop throwing stones.

Everyone expects reward for effort & so it should be. The customer puts up the money & the company pays the employee or so it should be. Because we have such insane numbers of public servants the Govt fleeces everyone else to secure the public service vote. So, the company has to pay more for idiotic permits & licenses, more tax etc. The worker then needs more to pay for his ever increasing Govt fees. before you know what's happening the customer can not afford australian workers anymore. The company sells out or goes offshore & presto, the unions are happy because now they can whinge & bitch & dream workers exploitation.
The worker is expected to work harder then gets sick & gets accused of having too many sickies. Meanwhile the bureaucrats in Govt take three months stress leave. for what no-one knows but they get it anyway. So you see a rather simplistic view of what's going on but factual nevertheless

Call me old fashioned, but I was brought up to believe that fraud was wrong.

Chucking a sickie is essentially taking a day's PAID leave over and above your leave entitlements on the basis of deliberately falsified documents.

That people accept this petty crime as normal is the reason that the trust relationship breaks down.

"That people accept this petty crime as normal is the reason that the trust relationship breaks down."

Shadow Minister I was also brought up to believe that fraud was wrong. I don't misuse sickies but if you think worker sickies are the reason the trust relationship breaks down you are missing a big part of the picture.

Bosses who cry poor when it comes to reward for effort for employee's while taking massive bonuses for themselves (did anyone mention politician pay rises). Managers who don't live by their own rules are a massive part of the breakdown of trust. There will be those who abuse the system regardless of the behaviour of management but in my view the far bigger fraud and breakdown of trust comes when those with the nominal power abuse it and that's all too common.

R0bert

We Shadow Minister are all an open book.
We can try to hide but in our written word.
In our body language.
We can be seen for what we are/think/and even other truths about us.
The thread has many heads.
One is 60 million dollars, we need not spend.
We, tax payers, pay that.
Lets look, with out the dark idea workers are lessor things, or that every Sicky is fraud.
Lets even leave your poorly hidden wish to fire me up, because you know I am Labor and Unionist.
Some illness will be bad enough for a doctor, certificate no problem there.
In country Australia a relationship exists between boss and workers more often good than bad.
A national system, not unlike some in place now, 3 single days a year without certificate.
More than 2 together needs one.
A performance monitoring program for constant unexplained over users.
We could cut that 60 million by half.
You seem less happy than usual, hope its nothing bad.
Be honest, have you ever seen a very sick worker continue to be at work? even been a bit concerned about your liability if he she died there?