Australians have for over 120 years prided themselves as a people who believe in a "fair go". Early suppression of workers rights through such British laws as the 'Master and Servant Act', were progressively cast aside in the latter part of the ninetieth centaury, alas not without a struggle, but the oppression of workers did give way to a fairer and somewhat more egalitarian society. The entitlements of workers were respected and enforced under law, with a basic wage, and later such things as sick pay, paid holidays etc became the norm for the majority of workers. The first national "Basic Wage" was established in Australia in 1907.

In 2021 it could be said many workers are once more being subjected to a new form of the 200 year old Master and Servant Act! Casualization, dubious work contracts, claims of being self employed, you name it, some employers are attempting to teardown the hard won rights Australian workers have fought to achieve over the past century and a half. There is an ongoing fight with casualization of many jobs that should be recognised as permanent, with the appropriate permanent benefits.

Now a new threat has emerged to kill workers entitlements, its the so called gig economy (A labour market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs.) The ride share industry, the pizza delivery business, to name but two typically exploited operations in this gig economy. Workers in these industries operated by giant multi-national corporations are "contracted" to work for a piece rate payment, always a pittance, and with no legal or industrial protection. Labor has called out this gross exploitation of vulnerable workers, and has put forward a proposal to deal with this blatant exploitation. The word from the employer representative Innes Willox, "(the Labor proposal) risks interrupting the growth of the gig economy and all the benefits to the community that flow from it”, and from the LNP government, workers are offered their grossly unfair Industrial Relations Omnibus Bill.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/10/gig-economy-workers-labors-plan-to-boost-job-security-pay-and-entitlements

Australian workers are only underpaid because our Public Servants are overpaid !
This gross imbalance will haunt us economically until the gap is narrower !

Come off the raw prawn Paul.

We have the highest minimum wage in the world.

Draconian dismissal laws, so if an employer is unlucky enough to hire some dead head bludger he has to pay a fortune in go away money to get rid of them.

The employer is expected to train the worker at the employers expense, & you reckon the worker is oppressed.

With all these union forced oppressive hugely expensive conditions the employer had no choice but to fight back, if he was to develop a productive work force & be able to actually make any profit. Casualisation of the workforce was the obvious & logical response to excessive regulation.

I know profit is a dirty word to you, but without a profit there can be no job. Have you ever thought of working with the employer, rather than against. I have had a couple of instances where working together was good for everyone.

In the marine tourist industry where costs are basically fixed regardless of passenger numbers, I had a system where if passenger numbers numbers went up by 5% for 3 consecutive months, an extra 5% went into the wages kitty. If as usual the existing staff could handle the extra numbers, all got the 5% increase in wages, a little less if extra staff was required.

In a manufacturing business where turnover increase do not so closely equate to increased profit, the system was a 5% increase in wages for each $250,000 in turnover maintained for 3 months.

I had no problem with unions, or bludgers. As the staff realised the bludgers were bludging on them, not the company, they convinced any who did not pull their weight to move on quite quickly, with no input from me.

believe in a "fair go"
Paul1405,
Try tell the Public Service Union about that & see what their answer is !

Whatever is happening to workers is all explained in my post on Neo-Feudalism, which was sneered at by the usual 'progressive' numpties. It's not the fault of the government or the opposition, both of whom are yet to wake up to what is happening; nor is it the fault of employers. Start reading and thinking. It's probably too late to stop what is coming, but there's no point in blaming the wrong things and the wrong people.

What's up Hassy, read my post and seen red, now chocking on your $10 pizza in the back of that cheap Uber ride home from a lazy day down at gods waiting room, playing the pokies with taxpayer dollars? I'm talking about honest hardworking Australians who are being ripped off by billion dollar multi-nationals who exploit decent workers through a sham system of so called "self employed contracts", not even paid the minimum wage. This is third world exploitation, if your going to come at that, well I'd have your aged pension reduced to the same level as paid in India. BTW, when you were in the air killer squad, were you paid whilst undergoing so called training? I bet you were, a waste of taxpayers money!

Indy, you failed at the menial level of the pubic service, sacked for poor performance with the mop and bucket, was it not, been dirty on the PS ever since. I bet you run to the nearest public servant at 'Centrelink' for a whinge, if your old age welfare is five cents short, or ten seconds late.