Let's face it, in many industries, IR laws are a joke.

I have recently been working as a casual butcher and, having been a butcher for 35 odd years, I just happen to be very good at it.

I have now found out, ( the hard way) that in order to be fairly paid, a good worker has to slow his/ her pace to that of the slowest worker, and that's a joke.

To elaborate, I did what was considered a full days work, in just 5&1/2 hours, yet, instead of being paid for THE DAYS WORK I got paid for the 5&1/2 hours that I worked.

So, I have concluded that my skills are wasted and I need to slow my productivity way down, because the butcher who can't do half of what I do, and, takes a lot longer to do it, gets paid more than me because it takes him longer.

Go figure!

Perhaps this is the link to our reduction in productivity, esspecially with the likes of unfair dismissal, whereby slower workers usually set the pace as they pretty much know that they are unsackable, esspecially in larger firms.

That surprises me rehctub.

It is some time since I was in meat works country, if any meat works still exist. However back then a quoter system ruled, as you would know. Very few actual production workers were still on the premises by lunch time. They had done their tally, & gone off to the pub.

This is of course one of the reasons we have very few abattoirs still operating today. If the system you are now working under had prevailed in the 60 & 70s, perhaps we would still have them thriving, & supporting country towns, as they once did.

The 60 & 70 the abattoir system was tally system. For both kill tally and boning tally. How can anyone do a days work in five and a half hours if you are not on a tally system.
Live export shut down hoards of abattoir in those days.

Rehctub,

Your experience supports the argument that pay should not be standardised, but based on individual performance, or quota as Hasbeen has reminded us it used to be this way. When incentives are offered, this also lifts performance too.

I know of one very successful businessman who uses this system in a different industry. He sets annual quotas and pays generous annual bonuses based on how far the set quota is exceeded. As he also employs married women he introduced flexible working hours. His results have been incredible. He hasn't lost one employee to another firm in his industry since he started the company years ago, but gained some of the better ones from his competitors. His office is the smallest in the building, and he is always available to every staff member at any time, and always asks they use only his first name.

To encourage rapport, he occasionally surprises them by paying for a fun weekend project such as skydiving, rock wall climbing, canoeing races etc.

I once paid him a visit in the evening, and was surprised to see people still working. He explained that because he'd introduced flexi hours, they were making up for coming in late. They didn't have to, but they had their eye on that year end bonus.

This man trusted his staff to do their best, take pride in their work and their company, and it has paid off handsomely for them all- boss and staff, in the happiest and most enthusiastic work environment I've ever encountered.

I have observed that competent part time workers often do more in 5 or 6 hours than those who stay at work for 10 hours a day. To many measure hours at work with productivity. Nothing could be further than the truth. In mining many spend hours waiting around for others to complete tasks before they can do their own jobs. It really is a very inefficient industry. A young fellow who boards with me has spent 8 hours at mine sites waiting to do 2 hours work. He has been paid for the whole 10 hours. This is not uncommon.

Has been, this was a butcher shop, not an abettor, besides, that system only worked with tally boning, whereas most abbs today work on chain boning.

Now I am a fast bonner, I can bone four bodies an hour, I can also bone 60+ chooks an hour, yet, under the current system you generally only get paid for the days work, even though you may have done up to two days work of another.

Perhaps we need a system that pays a basic hourly rate, lower than today's, then performance bonuses on top, as that would be very fair.

I say this because today's rates are set at what is considered an industry standard, which means poor workers get over paid and, given the UFD laws, they are often protected and they know it.
The main problem with today's system is the slowest workers often sets the pace.

Of cause, productivity can't be rewarded in all industries, however, in those where it can be, productivity, along with general work standards would be greatly improved if the better worker was rewarded accordingly.