Thread: What little Johnny is Doing to YOU

I'm afraid i agree with Inc here. Being in publishing and having to employ sales people, i have lost count of how many times salesman we have employed have tried this crap of unfair dismissal on us and it has worked out cheaper to pay the extra few grand they say they want for commission etc to get it over and done with.

I have been very reluctant to employ anyone on anything other than a sub-contractor basis for years now... this will make life and stress a lot easier for small businesses. I only have 4 employees and when one decides to be a ***** because they want more money and try to ruin our clientele in the process we have our hands tied. Had one dick recently who figured he had become invaluable and tried demanding 3 times what i was currently paying him figuring i'd have to bend as we couldn't afford to lose him... but then the c*cky bastard figured he'd give me an ultimatum attached to a resignation letter... agree to my terms by the end of the week or my resignation will take affect... so i accepted his resignation and had someone new within a week. :roll:

i don't agree with everything he is changing, but we are long overdue for small businesses to have some rights as well. :?

I do believe that we have to keep a safety net but have never had it so good since going to workplace agreements. Thsi does not mean however that the company will look after you or keep these standards once minimums have been abolished. I do strongly believe that there has to be a justification for sacking someone and it has to be proved to an unbiased party. Imagine you have a disagreement with your supervisor who is your friend also over Land Rovers & Toyotas, he likes Toyotas, you prove him wrong, he sacks you case closed. This may be extreme but I have seen similar. Iam not a unionist, although I was a union rep for a few years for the right reasons. Largely now I condemn unions as they are a waste of space as they are politically and powerbase motivated. Most organisers could not give a stuff about their members and just want power and overpaid jobs for actually causing members to lose pay. Most senior organisers are of a particular breed and have not worked a day in their lives. Their policy of protecting their members while stopping other persons going about their lawfull business and hindering them making a crust is utter intimidation. I have worked in the mining industry for the last 16 odd years and as we were surface workers and low paid at the time, we would go to a union meeting arriving to see all the Jumbo and air leg miners with their boats and caravans laoded up to go to Esperance for the weekend and immediately new we were off for at least 3 days. No wthis was fine for the underground workers who could make most of it up in a days overtime, but for us surface workers we could never make it up. Most of the time the strikes were for trivial matters that they new could not be dealt with until the following Monday. Yet when we needed help in an industrial dispute they would not help as in thaose days the vote took us all out underground/pit /surface. Since entering work place agreements the pay rate has gotten dramatically better as have employment conditions. The downside is and I know as I went through it last year, is that you can be brought to task over minor issues, inadequate training or very incomplete procedures and even though you are only doing what you have been taugh or shown if some one has another agenda you have no representation and it is extremely difficult to fight as management will always back their managers. You are on your own this I guarantee. Even if you are right and other supervisors and personnel agree with you they will not speak out as it is look out for number one mentality that exists now. You think people are friends and have been for a decade plus but when it comes to it they will look out for their image. Believe me in this type of circumstance most people become spineless jellyfish and look out for themselves, even if you have gone into bat for them previously. I can see unions making a come back in the next few years unless some protections are kept. It is all well and good to say I am OK, but all you need is a personality conflict or a hidden agenda.

41 years in the work force and I've never been involved with union. I've been retrenched a couple of times I've never recieved a redundancy, working with small companies, I've gone on next week into another job.

Holiday allowance is always something for nothing, but in the wage negotiation any way as part of a package. I've always, for 32 of those years had a company car and air con before any union made it compulsory as part of the package and super well before unions made it compulsory.

I've always negotiated my wage and always exceeded well above average "award rates".

Unions played a part bringing kids out of the coal mines, but in todays society only the sheep need a goat to lead them.

The "Bosses" higher you, pay your wages yet are asked not to have any say or rights on how they treat staff, I say they have all the right.

I'm sick of "workers" slamming the biggies in town for being rich, but they never started rich, they are achievers unlike those that want demands for more, better just for the sake unionism.

I know off a company in Newcastle that was having union problems, closed down, put all the caucasions out of work, and hired "ethnics" glad to have a job for good award wages.

Any way there my thoughts, I work for my self now, I think I'll demand shift penalties (what a crock), overtime ( fair claim) morning tea, dinner allowance etc

Well I'm no great fan of the new policies being sung by "Johnny and the Jokers". Sure there is reform needed as Inc and others have said BUT that does not mean we need to have a wholesale erosion of worker's rights.

I left my last job primarily because I was doing a lot of unpaid and unrecognised overtime; which is bullsh*t.

Sure productivity is crucial to maintain profitability and therefore the economy and employment BUT a balance must be found.

There's an old saying "Work to live, not live to work". Very apt I reckon.


On the upside, I understand that the new IR policy does allow each employee a free jar of vaseline for application prior to bending over and getting f****d :!:

After reading the above posts i can see how some of the laws etc need changing but i still feel some of the changes are a bit on the drastic side. Matt