So the lawful remuneration for employees is tough on the employers. So adjust prices to recoup. Whether it's the employer through reducing remuneration or the customers paying too little for the service who rip off the employees who do the actual work they would remain ripped off - and the laws backed by the union specify that they don't be ripped off and that's what an employer complaining about the laws is seeking.

If the employees' work standards are inadequate then hire the right people and inspire them to be part of the team instead of whining about their remuneration. Something my father, who worked for a company that valued its staff, told me as a kid was that if you go into a chain store and the place is a mess and the staff are sullen and unhelpful the problem will be the management. This showed up in my own local Coles when the management changed and everything started looking up.

A hindrance to serious retail business is the pervasive culture of el cheapo with customers propagandised socially into forever seeking "a bit off" when the endless "bits off" add up to peanuts at the checkout. That's the "market economy" at work against decent service.

In the recent bad old days at my own local Coles store they would watch the queues like a hawk and checkouts would be closed the moment they didn't leave shoppers standing around long enough.

As I hate shopping with a passion I switched to an IGA where at the first sign of delays they'd call for another checkout to be opened. The bill would be a couple of bucks higher, no more. Also they didn't fill the room with ugly amplified Yank yowling and caterwauling but that's another issue. The new Coles doesn't either.

Inspire a team, pay them properly without complaining, and Bob's yer uncle.

I've always been negative towards Bakers Delight.
It was their ad's I disliked, always using their own staff to promote their business.
I got the impression they were cheapskates when it came to spending however I assumed they would still try to charge you $5+ for a pie.
And probably extra for the sauce too; which I think should honestly be a criminal offense in this country.

Is that right Butch, when it comes to law breaking "IT'S NONE OF (MY) BUSINESS." Well I think not, it is all of our business.

As for your "get with the times", nonsense its appears you want to set the agenda for the times. Nothing new with your bleating as an employer about workers wages and conditions. It is you who wants to return to the bad old days of exploitation of others, including children, with your send em' down the coal mines attitude.
As for your nonsense about "WITH ZERO INCOME MYSELF" you factor that into your profit margin with your pricing. If your customers accept your business model, and I assume they do, you make a handsome profit, I am not denying you the right to do that. However you give no consideration to other peoples, employees, their right to quality of life, the notion that holidays form part of that concept, does not ring any bells with you. You see your employees in the same light as your mincing machine, something to be used simply for your own benefit. At the end of the day, Christmas Day, there would have been a nice roast "turkey" on your table, and so it should be, but do not deny the workers, a day off to have the enjoyment of a roast "chook" on their table. and so it should be.

On the delights of 'Barkers Delight' I note the principles have not done too badly, with Roger and Lesley Gillespie having a personal wealth of $150 million (BRW Rich List), they are certainly not on the bread line.

Hi Foxy, Coles, Woolworths, McDonalds, 7-Eleven, Caltex, Baker's Delight. do we see a commonality among these? It would not be they employee mainly children, migrants and women, vulnerable members of society who are the most open to exploitation, and some believe we need no laws to protect these people.
i recall the laughable rubbish that Howard went on with, with his worker bashing 'Work Choices'. According to Howard it was all going to be fair and equal. Take this scenario, we are in the managers office in a non union business. On one side of the desk is the migrant lady, Maria the cleaner, on the other side is the factory manager, HR manager and production supervisor. Maria has just been given her pre-prepared 'Individual Workplace Agreement' and told to sign. According to Howard "negotiations" would then be taking place before Maria signs the draconian agreement! It was laughable. This 'Bakers Delight' mob are using some such agreement. Oh! they love it, it may have been "negotiated" with 15 year old Cheryl at the Webeather store in 2006 under Howard's legislation.

so answer my question Paul, why the extra holidays, and why not trade one for say Easter Saturday as an example. What is unfair about that?

As for making comparisons with the Howard era, you forget one VERY IMPORTANT FACT, the country was booming and anyone who wanted a job had one. Those day have gone thanks to Gillard mainly.

Hi ttbn; "are not all that bright, and they are not much good at their jobs" not correct! Some of the brightest people I have met, have hardly spent any time inside a school room. You might be surprised at how good some people are at their job. Put a street sweeper on one side of the street, and you on the other, and say go, I would bet the street sweeper would do a better, and more efferent job that you would. I am sure that at your job, if you have a job, you would do it better, than I would.

Hi Hassy, as usual you are too far off to the right to be roped into any kind of reasonable thinking what so ever.

Hi AC, we don't purchase much of the commercial doughy kapok offered as bread by the likes of 'Bakers Delight', instead we rely on my partners traditional 'Rewena' and fry breads, she prepares at home. As part of her fund raising she flogs it off at $15 a loaf, and $35 a basket, and under our workplace agreement she gets nothing and wears all the costs.