I need to vent!

[Sinnertwin]

I'm in the wrong profession

[griffin]

yes that is true that some unskilled are getting paid more then teachers,police etc.. but if you were to work on a weekend or a public holiday then they should be well paid for giving up time with their families. a lot of the unskilled make a lot of their extra pay by doing that so they can afford to live a little bit more comfortable.

Just a query, not a criticism - if someone only works on the weekend because it is at higher rates, shouldn't they just get paid normal rate because they aren't "giving up time with families" since they have 5 other days to spend with them.
Wouldn't it be fairer to be paid as "overtime", ONLY IF it is a person who works the 5 weekdays AND the weekend (which keeps them away from their families, or personal free time)?
That way, there is only the one penalty rate all week, paid to people who work more than 5 consecutive days in a week. We are becoming a 7-day society, so why have different pay rates to different days? If two people work 5 days a week, and one does Mon-Fri, while the other does Thur-Mon - wouldn't it be fair to pay them the same money for doing the same amount of work? Bump up the regular hourly rate to offset the reduction of the higher weekend rates, and just pay overtime for anyone doing more than 5 consecutive days in a week (if they don't end up with a 2-day "weekend" somewhere in the week). And then after-hours earns the regular penalty of being night rate.
The last place I worked at would have 5-day rosters, but people would earn more because they worked on a Saturday or Sunday, despite doing the same 40 hours and having a "weekend" somewhere in the week.
Some people may target a weekend job because it pays more, just to cover the high cost-of-living (with a family & house to pay off)... but others do it because they are young or single and it earns enough to not work the rest of the week. So if you get paid more for the exact same work (just because it is a different day of the week), shouldn't preference go to people who need it more?

[SMHFConvoy]

I wouldn't believe everything Abbott and Hockey say. The SPC thing is a lie.

As for the Labor Govt, Gillard got more things through the senate than any other PM.

[iamirondude]

Just a query, not a criticism - if someone only works on the weekend because it is at higher rates, shouldn't they just get paid normal rate because they aren't "giving up time with families" since they have 5 other days to spend with them.
Wouldn't it be fairer to be paid as "overtime", ONLY IF it is a person who works the 5 weekdays AND the weekend (which keeps them away from their families, or personal free time)?
That way, there is only the one penalty rate all week, paid to people who work more than 5 consecutive days in a week. We are becoming a 7-day society, so why have different pay rates to different days? If two people work 5 days a week, and one does Mon-Fri, while the other does Thur-Mon - wouldn't it be fair to pay them the same money for doing the same amount of work? Bump up the regular hourly rate to offset the reduction of the higher weekend rates, and just pay overtime for anyone doing more than 5 consecutive days in a week (if they don't end up with a 2-day "weekend" somewhere in the week). And then after-hours earns the regular penalty of being night rate.
The last place I worked at would have 5-day rosters, but people would earn more because they worked on a Saturday or Sunday, despite doing the same 40 hours and having a "weekend" somewhere in the week.
Some people may target a weekend job because it pays more, just to cover the high cost-of-living (with a family & house to pay off)... but others do it because they are young or single and it earns enough to not work the rest of the week. So if you get paid more for the exact same work (just because it is a different day of the week), shouldn't preference go to people who need it more?

if you work only on the weekends, no it should be at normal rates until you go over your 8hrs. if you work say thurs to mon it to should be at normal rates. i mean that if you go outside your normal work hrs(eg 9 to 5 or 6 2 etc etc) i know of places that pay you overtime after 8 hrs and others pay it after you've done your 38hrs but if your on-call then you should be getting double time as it's outside of normal working hrs eg 2am in the morning.

[iamirondude]

I wouldn't believe everything Abbott and Hockey say. The SPC thing is a lie.

As for the Labor Govt, Gillard got more things through the senate than any other PM.

i really hope they save SPC. they've let too many aussie owned companies fall to the foreign raiders. maybe if they didn't get rid of the tariffs on imports then maybe they would stood a chance. all of the countries that we've signed free trade agreements still have all of their tariffs and subsidy's still in place when they were suppose to abolish them.

[Megatran]

i really hope they save SPC. they've let too many aussie owned companies fall to the foreign raiders.

Uhmmm .......... Coca Cola Amatil acquired SPC Ardmona some years ago dude.

[iamirondude]

i did not know that. if that's the case coca-cola should bail them out. it's not like they're short of money.

[Skullcruncher]

i did not know that. if that's the case coca-cola should bail them out. it's not like they're short of money.

And they are actually already profitable… both sides will be exaggerating the details but I wouldn’t be surprised if a good chunk of the workforce hasn’t been there for 20+years and are on $100K plus.

The old bag who sits behind me right now – been with the company 30 plus years and useless as a bag of potatoes. She blatantly has said she staying until she retires as no other jobs will pay her this well.

[iamirondude]

that just reminded me of this old bloke i use to work with. he whinged and bitch how he wasn't making any bonuses so the bosses scrap it. so from then on we never went over quota and when the boss complain we just said" bring back the bonus and we'll go back to what we were pushing out daily." the thing was for most of us, we needed the bonus to prop our pays up as there was no overtime or crap like that.

[griffin]

It's cheaper for a business to have an incentive scheme (productivity bonus) and overtime than hiring extra workers at the base rate (which means training, allowances, Superannuation)... so I don't know why they complain about it. (other than being greedy of course)

My previous employer would only pay 150% all day on public holidays, which is smaller rate than if it was a full day of overtime on a non-public holiday day (first 3 hours at 150%, then 200% from then on). They claimed that it was really 250% on public holidays, but the full-time employees would earn the normal rate (100%) by NOT working... so that doesn't count when you consider the sacrifice of working on a public holiday (away from the family who are all off as well, or just to have the time for yourself). You should be paid more than the Overtime rate, not less.
That was hardly fair... but when a corporate giant like one of the major supermarket chains has so much power at EBA time, the workers and Union end up having to agree to it or risk being replaced by 3rd party contract labor (like most supermarket warehouses now... and they have much worse rates and employment conditions).


Also, when you think about it, a normal overtime rate of 150% (time and a half) isn't as much as you may think for a full-time employee... especially on the night shift, because only one of several elements of your wage earns the extra 50%. Your "ordinary" working hours earns you 9% in Superannuation... but the overtime doesn't (unless you have it in your employment agreement). Plus, only your "ordinary" hours earns you entitlements like Annual Leave, Sick Leave and Long Service Leave - each of those adds up to a worthwhile dollar value. So if you worked out your entire hourly rate with all those entitlements and your Super payments, you are not getting "time and a half" of what you earn during your normal hours. Your entire ordinary rate is more like 115-120% of your hourly rate (and more if you have allowances, like shift allowance or laundry allowance, etc)... but overtime is just based on your hourly rate, so probably only ends up getting you about 130% of your entire hourly rate (as the Superannuation and Entitlements don't apply during overtime).
Small business and employees have little to no power, and yet are ignored in favour of the big corporations when they get into trouble. Those Corporations and big businesses are greedy enough, and have the power to do what they want... the adversarial employment system needs to change, to incorporate neutral mediators in any employment contract or group agreement - so that it is fair, and not "technically legal" based on whoever is in power to change the laws in favour of one side or the other.