Thread: Spotlight

"but always seem to have the best houses, new cars and are always on o/s holidays. They do not generally work harder than anyone else."

Kinda makes you wonder why more people don't take it up. You've convinced me.

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How many more people will prefer to go on the dole rather than be forced to work under these conditions, and I don’t blame them.

Australian companies have also moved of shore to China, Malaysia, Indonesia and India and you can thank Paul Keating for starting the exodus by making it easier for Australian companies to shut down here and bring in cheap foreign products without have to pay the protection that was there before Keating got in.

Oh that’s right, we have to live in a world where there is a level playing field, so for us to be part of that level playing field, we too will have to except working for a bowl of rice a day

The unions could still try and organise boycotts and work to rules and the likes, but they don’t. Their executives are all to busy trying to get positions in the labour party rather than looking after the rank and file.

And at this stage, unless there is a major change in the labour party, I’ll still be voting for Howard at the next elections, rice bowl or not.

What the country needs, is a new third political party, to keep the others honest.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

The worst aspect of americanisation in my view is not economic policies but that we now have adopted the american practice of "if something goes wrong, someone else must be responsible - sue them!", which was alien to Australia forty years ago, or even twenty years ago.

John

The problem with this is that we are becoming a Nanny state where we need the Government to sanitise everything. If we were truely like the US in this regard we would be better off. You can pretty much do what you please, but if you hurt someone else they sue you. I would prefer that to "Well you can't do that cause we may get sued" mentality that exists now.

Put the onus back on the indvidual rather than the state, then, just maybe, we could have some of our closed 4wd tracks back.

Originally Posted by ericpicc

Well I'm a small business owner and we pay above award wages and the such, but we also have a good working relationship with our employees and they know where they stand.
All I know is the new laws helped us in the way if someone is a bad apple, and you do get them, you can deal with it.
You would think in this day and age that you would try to hold onto a job and not rip the employer or customers off for your own greed.
Now we have a better control, and it's amazing how people tow the line better.
We consider ourselves like a big familiy and try to opperate as one, it's just in the past, we had people who hid behind the laws and took us to the cleaners and we weren't the ones in the wrong in the first place.
We employed people as part time to combat those problems, but now with the new laws we have increased a lot of people to full time, so it does actually worked in employees favour as well.

We are 22 people all up so it all has to work like a well oiled machine.
Now if we only had a law to stop women from bitching about each other it would be even better.

Not everyone can have a Boss with a heart though.

Would you rather see the odd bad apple take a little longer to get rid of, or, the majority of workers loose entitlements and job security? I know what I would prefer, as you as a boss can insure yourself against the bad apple, but loss of job security effects the whole economy, as people are less likely to spend if they think they may not have a job tomorrow.

But it is also not just the economic ramifications of something like this, what about the social outcomes of workchoices, the gap between the classes will become larger and there will be more and more people that have to resort to either living on the dole or breaking the law just to survive.

This is always going to be a rather touchy issue, just like the journalistic credability issue. I am not saying there are not business'es that are struggling to survive, but this is not the employees main concern, but the company owners. It seems to me most business owners believe they work harder than anyone else, while this may be true in some cases it is not in the majority. I have seen people come from running a business into a production plant and last a day, a week, a month and then quit because they have never done real physical work.
I am by no means hanging crap on any business owners at all, most get to where they are by hard work, like everyone else. They do take more risks however.
I know plenty of business owners around here, (my partner may as well have run one for the last 10 years, but was only getting paid minimum wages). Most of these owners go o/s at least once a year etc etc.
I do not begrudge anyone doing well, but when they are making good profits and then want to decrease conditions for their own employees, that is just not right or fair. Generally just go to a chamber of commerce meeting and go for a walk through the carpark. Generally I am not talking about owner operator businesses but those that employee 5 plus people.
These IR laws may be great from a business perspective but are left open to too much abuse, look at some of the recent attempted sackings and reasons behind them. Greater profits is not a valid reason. I agree dead wood needs to be able to be gotten rid of, but not at the expense of someone who is doing their job, but a boss does not like.

Oh **** like a crow, now you've got me started !

I HATE words like "level playing field" and "free trade agreement" which are neither level nor free, but rather heaviliy in favour of only one of the parties involved.

I FEAR the situation where we develop (like in the USA) a class of "working poor". There's nothing more fundamentally WRONG than hard working people not being adequately rewarded for same.

I DETEST politicians who are always telling us what's good for us... as if they are still somehow in touch with reality when by the bulk of their decisions it's quite clear that they are not.

And the widespread corporate mantra that "too much profit is never enough" is indefensible. We see large corporations like the Commonwealth Bank (as just one example among many) continually "downsizing" (another loaded word) their workforces to increase that already MASSIVE bottom line. They would have us beleive that its in the interests of shareholders. But would they be concerned for the well being of you and me with perhaps a few $1,000 in shares ? No - but coiincidentally the CEO's and board members get paid a portionof their salary in shares so it's certainly in their interests to screw hell out of their employees and customers.

I could go on and on and on, but no doubt someone else will want to take over the soapbox.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

I could go on and on and on, but no doubt someone else will want to take over the soapbox.

You don’t hear any of us telling you to stop Vlad.

So If you’ve got more to say. don’t stop now.

Cheers and well put.

I have been self employed all my life. If someone says I will pay you x amount of dollars for a job and I dont like it I just walk away or tell them where to go depending on what mood I am in if I dont like the rate being offered.
What I dont understand is why people accept jobs for such low rates/bad conditions. If enough people stood up for reasonable pay and conditions then the employers would have to offer resonable rates. It may take a while but it will happen.
Everyone deserves a fair rate of pay if they put in an effort to be good at their jobs.


I also dont understand why people have to make a trip to Bunnings like a day out. Unfortunately I need to buy from them occasionly. The prices are only good if you dont know what they should be, they sell alot of poor quality products and the service is disgusting.