Thread: Our latest scheme for getting casual Workers

Originally Posted by Chucaro

How many years of your life you have been working for other companies in the manufacture industry and not as business owner or manager?
It is not unusual, it very rare at least in my over 50 years working in different states in Australia and OS.
Greed is a human fault and it take over human values and ethics and it reflect in how the working class it is treated.

Actually I have been working for over 40 years, 20 of which was as an employee and 20 as a small business owner.

If business's do not value their good employees they will struggle to survive. that was true in the good times and even more so in the harder times.

I also have worked and lived in 3 states over that time. You seem to think that you have to be wearing a blue singlet to ACTUALLY work. Might want to get up with the times, we are not all shearers anymore. I would suspect that many managers and business owners would also see themselves as hard workers and heaven forbid, some business owners might thiunk they should be rewarded for the hours they put in as well as a return on their investment. In 20 years I have not had 1 employee who was willing to put his home on the line to support the business but I have had several who thought they were worth more than they were.

It cuts BOTH ways. Employers need employees and employees need employers. Time to cut the class war crap.

nugge t, I have been working as maintenance fitter up to when I was 30 years old then as a service manager for a big international agricultural machinery company, and later as a business owner.
Yes I was wearing a blue singlet for few years, working 6 days a week 8 hours a day as a maintenance fitter, then sleep 5 hours and work another 8 hours cleaning TAA planes in Mascot airport to make a secure future to my family here in Australia.
I know what it is working for a corporation exposed to asbestos and Toluene and not been told the dangers about it, I was a disposable object that did not know English enough to be aware of that, "when he get sick, we get another one" So do not judge or have an opinion of a person that you do not his/her past.
I can telling you by my experience that employers for many companies are like a ball bearing, they have a number easy to put in the bin and get another one.
You can see that many of the companies do not care for what people can bring to the company if it will cost a bit more money, a typical example is here in Australia were a large pool of unemployed over 50 years old people cannot get a job because there are over qualified or to old.
You operate a small business and value your workers as an asset and a must for operate the business in a sustainable way, big corporations different.

Originally Posted by UncleHo

Many years ago I worked for a now defunct vehicle manufacturer in Sydney, when it had one of it's many staff downsizes, (one division of this company also employed Brian Hjelm as well, and both he and I can give you first hand knowledge of it's management's practices), I did eventually go to another major Australian owned (at the time) spare parts manufacturer as a phone order/sale person, when I returned home to Qld, I was approached by the management of my local * store to come and work with them as a phone order operator,the wages (gross) that I was offered was well below that of my take home in NSW was, even at single man's tax rate,I said NO, and showed the manager my last couple of my old pay slips, his answer, "we don't even pay managers that!" which I answered "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys"

Kev, same here. I left GM-H because of a new manager who was a jumped up wog ***** replacing a true gentleman and came home to sort out my recently deceased father's messy estate. I applied for jobs here of similar classification and was offered about 70-75% of the base rate I had been receiving and also had a company car, unrestricted private use. As happened to you, I showed a GM-H salary slip to the Company Secretary, the interviewer, of an medium engineering company and was told he didn't get that.

Originally Posted by Chucaro

nugge t, I have been working as maintenance fitter up to when I was 30 years old then as a service manager for a big international agricultural machinery company, and later as a business owner.
Yes I was wearing a blue singlet for few years, working 6 days a week 8 hours a day as a maintenance fitter, then sleep 5 hours and work another 8 hours cleaning TAA planes in Mascot airport to make a secure future to my family here in Australia.
I know what it is working for a corporation exposed to asbestos and Toluene and not been told the dangers about it, I was a disposable object that did not know English enough to be aware of that, "when he get sick, we get another one" So do not judge or have an opinion of a person that you do not his/her past.
I can telling you by my experience that employers for many companies are like a ball bearing, they have a number easy to put in the bin and get another one.
You can see that many of the companies do not care for what people can bring to the company if it will cost a bit more money, a typical example is here in Australia were a large pool of unemployed over 50 years old people cannot get a job because there are over qualified or to old.
You operate a small business and value your workers as an asset and a must for operate the business in a sustainable way, big corporations different.

Ditto.

Things have changed a bit in last 20 -30 years, so I say again...

"It cuts BOTH ways. Employers need employees and employees need employers. Time to cut the class war crap. "

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Kev, same here. I left GM-H because of a new manager who was a jumped up wog ***** replacing a true gentleman and came home to sort out my recently deceased father's messy estate. I applied for jobs here of similar classification and was offered about 70-75% of the base rate I had been receiving and also had a company car, unrestricted private use. As happened to you, I showed a GM-H salary slip to the Company Secretary, the interviewer, of an medium engineering company and was told he didn't get that.

At risk of crossing threads, maybe this was part of the problem with GMH's viability, not what was being offered in the open market in Qld.

I am not saying you were not worth every cent, but if I increase the price of my products too much, they become too expensive and customers find another alternative that is less expensive.

Brian and Uncle ho, both of you remind me my very first job in Australia t Zeltan, NSW assembly Morris 1100, my wages were $43.50 per week.
I lasted 4 days and got a job as maintenance fitter for $65.00 clean working OT on Saturdays.
What a fantastic time was then at the end of 1969,jobs were for the taken in blackboards outside of the factories. I was able to say only good money, thank you and how much? among few words but I used to select 4 or more jobs offers and take the best paid
GM Holden was in Pagewood and used to live in Hillsadale (about 1/2 km from the plant) but I never ask for a job there, the conditions were very bad compared to other places.

Originally Posted by nugge t

Actually I have been working for over 40 years, 20 of which was as an employee and 20 as a small business owner.

If business's do not value their good employees they will struggle to survive. that was true in the good times and even more so in the harder times.

I also have worked and lived in 3 states over that time. You seem to think that you have to be wearing a blue singlet to ACTUALLY work. Might want to get up with the times, we are not all shearers anymore. I would suspect that many managers and business owners would also see themselves as hard workers and heaven forbid, some business owners might thiunk they should be rewarded for the hours they put in as well as a return on their investment. In 20 years I have not had 1 employee who was willing to put his home on the line to support the business but I have had several who thought they were worth more than they were.

It cuts BOTH ways. Employers need employees and employees need employers. Time to cut the class war crap.

When you asked them to put "their home on the line" did you offer part ownership?
Having seen both sides I don't want my kids coping the stress of bad times when business turns sour and the house is on the line, parents had to sell to avoid bankruptcy.
Hell yes I have a fairly decent mortgage but I know what I am worth and if my job disappeared I would work my butt off to find another good job. Between 18-20 I went through 3 different jobs and moved/upskilled around inside my current employer to a great job.

Originally Posted by nugge t

Time to cut the class war crap.

both sides are victims, to some degree, by how industrial relations are handled in australia.

the whole bargaining system is adversarial by nature and little will change till that does.

i have only been in the workforce for a little over 45 years and my major observation has been that the one big difference between the workplace then and what is the landscape now, is the growth in the % of returns paid to management.

i have been bagged numerous times for bringing it up but one of the major factors that firms have trouble continuing to be profitable in australia is the % of returns that is now consumed by management.

a quick look at the stats is an eye opener....

there is a lot of $35000 a year jobs in a 1 million $ bonus....

the recent pacific brands saga being the perfect example of how the game is played imho

only now are we starting to see some action, miniscule as it is, in this department.

bag away...