Holy fuck! An update!
Yeah, so it looks like that lofty goal I had of a column per week has been blown out of the water. On reflection that's not so surprising, given that I'm working just under ten hours a day four days a week and the fifth day I'm at university. Add in study, sleep, an oncoming cold and the occasional bout of mindless self-indulgence, I haven't really
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You should be okay for while though with your AWA it's usually for a couple of years.
Also - people got flustered about AWA's when they first came out... Australia has ALWAYS had them... they were called EBA's Enterprise bargaining agreements!
I remember when the bus strike was on back in 2001. there were 4 driving companies... Path, Swan, Southern Coast and Connex. Only Swan didn't go out on strike for better conditions. The reason. Swan when they took over the southern route had called all their workers in and negotiated a deal.... Their deal was... They would be paid XX% above what ever the going rate was across the board, they worked a 5 day shift to be negotiated to their leisure, that rate was regardless of what day you worked (with exception of public holidays) so John opted for mon-fri from 9-5 cause that suited his life style. While Stu chose to work from Thurs-Mon cause he wanted his days off in the middle of the week. By raising the over all rate and not having to pay penalties left right and centre, the staff who were working weekdays were happy and those who normally worked the penalties weren't any worse off because they were able to get more hours.
Meanwhile - we couldn't provide any time table information because the other three bastard companies were on strike! Suffice to say, Swan took over Connex when it went belly up, and the staff there - at first were concerned, but they ended up liking the agreement.
I remember also when SPC was going belly up big time - it was a closed shop deal. The bosses when to the union and said, if you can get your members (ie everyone) to take a 30% pay cut for a year, we will put it in writing to feed this back as capital to the company and get the business back in the black and they would get a bonus at the end of the year.
Union: What if they don't
SPC: We will have to lay staff off to get the money that way.
The union went back to it's members and told them...
Union: Management says take a 30% pay cut or get laid off.
Suffice to say the staff went on strike.
One guy who really needed his job went and made an appointment with the managing director and asked why they were doing this. The manager explained what they had said in the meeting to the union leaders.
The guy went back on the floor (with the manager this time) and told them exactly what had been originally planned.
The result was it was the first time that the staff told a union to fuck off kicked them out of the building completely and they created an EBA and the company was true to it's word. 12 months later, SPC was back on it's feet, all staff were retained (and some new ones taken on) and they got their bonus.
I believe unions etc have their place, but shit they have to learn to act in moderation... if you swing wildly to the right of course your opposition is going to go the exact same distance in the OPPOSITE direction (Pick the person who has been raised by a moderate union leader :D)
okay rant over!
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Basically yes, that's all well and good, but then you have the AWA which a friend of mine, let's call him Barlski, has been given. This agreement wasn't negotiable, there was no discussion and he was pushed into signing it for fear of being fired otherwise which, since he was a contractor at the time, was perfectly legal.
So yeah, totally, an AWA which cannot be negotiated or changed in any way shape or form and which you are pressured into signing and which gives you performance-based incentives when roughly half of your work is dependent on the speed of remote operators is just a simply fantastic concept. Yeah, that's an individually negotiated contract that's better for employer and employee.
Pardon me while I go have a sarcasm fit in the corner.
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Well that sucks... but was the AWA negotiated at all by Barlski's company union? I know our ones are in consultation.
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At all.
The company had decided that this is what they were going to offer, hope you like it.
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