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have a miserable christmas...

porteroo

Wide-ranging changes to industrial relations laws around casual work have sparked concerns among union groups, with fears precarious workers will be further disadvantaged.

The federal government’s much-anticipated IR legislation hasn’t been properly introduced to the parliament yet, or even been seen in full by anyone, but it’s already setting the stage for a brutal fight in the last Canberra sitting week of 2020.

Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter will reveal the sprawling omnibus bill to parliament later this week, but the government is gradually rolling out its workplace changes day by day.

On Sunday it released plans to allow merged unions such as the CFMMEU to de-merge; Monday was the scene for proposed changes that Mr Porter said would give casuals greater protections and ability to transition to permanent employment.

“These are significant reforms which together will solve the problem of uncertainty, provide better avenues for job security, remove the burden of double-dipping claims and recognise employee choice,” Mr Porter said.

He said the new laws will also create “very strict rules” for casual conversion, so casuals who work regular shift patterns can move – if desired – to part-time or full-time employment after 12 months.

But Labor’s shadow industrial relations minister Tony Burke warned it was an “attack on casuals”.

“Don’t buy the government’s spin on what they’re doing with industrial relations with today’s announcement,” he said.

“Today is one of the biggest gaps you’ll ever see between announcement and delivery. The government announces as though they’re helping casuals – what they’re actually doing is taking rights away from casuals.”


Labor still hasn’t seen the legislation but when you look closely at the reports it seems this is another example where the spin of the government announcement is the opposite of the delivery.

— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) December 6, 2020

 

 

Mr Burke complained Labor “don’t have the full legislation yet” but said it was concerned casuals would lose rights to complain about employers who failed to pass on full entitlements.

“The rights that casuals have won over the last couple of years in the courts will be taken away by legislation to be introduced to this parliament. At the end of this, casuals will have fewer rights,” he said.

“What’s worse, employers who break the law will no longer suffer a penalty … casuals lose their rights and employers walk away without any penalty.”

The Australian Council of Trade Unions claimed the Coalition’s proposal was a concession “to the most radical elements of the business lobby”. ACTU secretary Sally McManus claimed the changes would actually make it harder for casuals to convert to permanent work.

“This proposal takes rights off casual workers, some of the hardest hit people during the pandemic,” she said.

“It gives employers what they have asked for, that ability to legally label someone a casual, even if they are hired for a permanent, ongoing job.”

“This is a huge, missed opportunity to begin to make jobs more secure and turn around the number of causal and insecure jobs. Instead, this proposal will entrench casual work.”

But Mr Porter said the bill came after 150 hours of consultation with business and union groups.

 

(Gus note: When reading this Gus became more sarcastic than a floor polish — and his twisted mind believed that the bill came after 149 hours of consultation with businesses and about one hour with union groups...)


The legislation will also address concerns from the government about so-called “double-dipping”, where employers might have to pay sick leave and other leave as well as the 25 per cent casual loading meant to compensate for those benefits.

This comes after a recent controversial workplace judgment in the Federal Court. Labour-hire company Workpac was found to owe entitlements such as holiday pay, plus the 25 per cent loading, to workers classed as casuals who worked regular and predictable shifts.

The government’s proposal will ensure employers do not have to pay such entitlements twice. Mr Porter said the bill was aimed at preventing “confusion” among employers who were unclear about what entitlements they needed to pay.

“We cannot do nothing when we have a situation where employers are delaying making hiring decisions because of ongoing confusion about the legal status of casual employment,” Mr Porter said.

Double-dipping “is a huge concern”, Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox told Sky News on Monday.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/12/07/federal-government-industrial-reform/

 

 

not worth being shot for stealing some...

 

It can be hard to hear your mum thinks the Earth is flat. But saving a loved one from conspiracy theories is possible...

…

"We need a more nuanced way of regarding conspiracy theorists," she [Kasey] said.

"That these people behind the conspiracy theories are people that we love and that something has happened to them and that there's a real tragedy here, not just for them, but also for all the people who love them, whose relationships with them have been fundamentally changed because of it."

As the world waits for a breakthrough in the pandemic, Kasey is holding on to her own far-fetched belief.

"My only hope is that when the vaccine frees us from coronavirus, it will also free us from the worst of the conspiracy theories and I will get my mum back. That's my hope," she said.

"Look, I think it's unlikely, but I have to think like that because the alternative is unbearable."


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-06/mum-thinks-the-earth-is-flat-saving-family-conspiracy-theories/12935984

Gus:
I personally favour the flat-earth theorists ahead of the religious mobs any day…

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

Now, conspiracies are usually secret. We fossick below the carpets and inside the garbage bins of history to find these… But the one we usually don’t see are the one which are in the open. By this I mean agreements made by politicians (kings or despots) which are matter of fact designed to "rule our life”. And we have little to say about these decisions. 

The techniques of dictating rules of living to a people are not new. Religions have done it for years and these were used by rulers, kings and despots to bamboozle populations into submission. If the brainwashing wasn’t enough, guns would also be used to instil fear in the populaces. This is how colonialism worked: you believe in our god or we shoot you. You work like slave for us or we shoot you. We steal your spices or we shoot you. And let us rape your women in the meantime... Pretty straight forward. Some “oppressed people”, like Germany in the 1930s, found quick ways to get out of this lunacy — with another lunacy which we did not like. 

So, the world powers, now in Covid-19 tatters, became subservient to the USA as the leading light of a new dawn of civilisation, after D-Day. Soon some people realised that this was like selling their soul to the devil. It’s time to revisit Faust. 

Meanwhile some other countries had gone different routes. Russia and China with communism and the Arabs with a couple of systems, one being a fiefdom ruled by the king (Saudi Arabia) and one ruled by a religious democracy (Persia/Iran). Then there are the "opportunists", like Turkey presently.

The main point was that men (mostly men, 99.9% — economists and politicians) decided to control the economies of the world through trade, but also using something which came with "exclusivity — the insidious controls of enterprises through patents — including the patented US dollar that became the trading value of stuff, once the gold standard had bitten the dust.
Presently, there is talk of a “great reset” for the “world” economy, considering that it has been tattered by a pandemic, the treatment of which was nearly as bad as war.

The IMF CEO, Kristalina Georgieva, is thus talking lovely simplistic shit while trying to create a positive outlook. Yes, getting out of the hole is like climbing a mountain with high and lows towards the summit. It’s childish crap and not worthy of the monumental figure she cuts amongst her peers of deluded economists, plus a smiling curtsy at the end of her tirade for the stupids. 


Her CV is nonetheless impressive:

Kristalina Georgieva

IMF Managing Director

Kristalina Georgieva currently serves as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, a position she was selected for on September 25, 2019 and has served as since October 1, 2019.

Before joining the Fund, Ms. Georgieva was CEO of the World Bank from January 2017 to September 2019, during which time she also served as Interim President of the World Bank Group for three months.

Previously, Ms. Georgieva helped shape the agenda of the European Union while serving as European Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources. In this capacity she oversaw the EU’s €161 billion (US $175bn) budget and 33,000 staff, as well as the EU’s response to the Euro Area debt crisis and the 2015 refugee crisis. Before that, she was Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, managing one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid budgets.

Ms. Georgieva began her career in public service at the World Bank as an environmental economist in 1993. After serving for 17 years, and in many senior positions, including Director for Sustainable Development, Director for the Russian Federation, Director for Environment, and Director for Environment and Social Development for the East Asia and Pacific Region, her career culminated in her appointment as Vice President and Corporate Secretary in 2008. In this role, she served as the interlocutor between the World Bank Group’s senior management, its Board of Directors, and its shareholder countries.

Ms. Georgieva serves on many international panels including as co-Chair of the Global Commission on Adaptation, and as co-chair of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing. She has authored and co-authored over 100 publications on environmental and economic policy, including textbooks on macro- and microeconomics.

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1953, Ms. Georgieva holds a Ph.D in Economic Science and a M.A. in Political Economy and Sociology from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia, where she was an Associate Professor between 1977 and 1993. During her academic career, she was visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 2010, she was named “European of the Year” and “Commissioner of the Year” by European Voice in recognition for her leadership in the EU’s response to humanitarian crises. In October 2020, she received the Atlantic Council’s Distinguished International Leadership Award in acknowledgement of exceptional and distinctive contributions during her career of public service.

———————

So what’s wrong with this? Basically, trying to turn everything human into a flat-earth economic theory... You mean someone like Kristalina — appearing as dumb as a lovely cupcake — is concocting a new old recipe to fill coffers of the rich?

We artists are privileged. We can charge as much as we like for our work and get away with it. For example, you demand $550 for a painted canvas and you're starving. A client comes along and offers you a loaf of bread. You take it. This is the bane of not being attached to a religious entity, say like Michelangelo. He would tell the pope of the day: "this painting is going to cost you heaps!”... “Don’t worry about the cost” would reply the Pope. “As long as we glorify god to the max with images, gold and statues, we’ll get more customers — bums on seats — with generous donations for them to buy a place in heaven, through indulgences"… "So Mr Angelo, make it bombastically glorious and we have a deal! But make it fast! The damn Protestants are on our heels…”

The world economic system is more complex than selling a few paintings to the Pope, but works on the same principle of supply and demand. And despite the flattening of the earth and climbing mountains, the system is full of incongruities and “exceptions” designed to make sure the poor get stuffed and the despots get well-armed. The IMF hoards the fifth largest store of gold in the world AND MANIPULATES THE PRICE OF GOLD as much as it can. The Russians cottoned on and bought as much as they could, knowing that GOLD has been UNDERVALUED, while the US dollars are worth not being shot for stealing some.

So the IMF CEO, Kristalina Georgieva, is fondly remembering the days when her outfit, the IMF, was created to make sure everyone had a loaf of bread, while someone can still buy guns, cheap...

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwGQBR2NOeE&feature=youtu.be

scomo to rob workers...

 

Labor, unions and the Morrison government have clashed repeatedly in an escalating row over proposed industrial relations changes that are the most significant since WorkChoices.

Labor has seized on the opportunity for a political contest on its preferred ground of workers’ rights, accusing the government of giving frontline workers a Christmas gift of pay cuts in a bid to shore up Australian businesses.


The government argues employers need additional powers, including scope to seek cuts to take-home pay and increased flexibility of part-time work, to recover from the pandemic.

The omnibus industrial relations bill introduced on Wednesday has already been labelled the “worst since WorkChoices” by Australian unions, which accuse the government of granting “extreme” employer demands after formal consultations had concluded.

How Australia’s industrial relations bill will affect you and your workplaceRead more

The release of the bill sets up a major fight on labour market deregulation, the third rail of politics for conservatives since John Howard’s loss in 2007.

Labor is backing the unions’ view that it is unacceptable to allow workplace pay deals that fail the “better off overall test” (Boot).

In question time, the opposition targeted Scott Morrison and attorney general, Christian Porter, with questions highlighting their inability to guarantee no worker will be worse off as a result of the changes.

The most contentious proposal, first revealed by Guardian Australia on Tuesday, is to allow employers two years to apply for pay deals that do not meet the Boot, which stipulates deals must improve on minimum conditions in the award.

Rather than the existing test of “exceptional circumstances”, employers will be able to register agreements that leave workers worse off if the Fair Work Commission agrees they are “appropriate” in “all the circumstances” – a test that includes consideration of the impact of Covid-19. All agreements still require majority employee approval.

At a press conference in Canberra, Porter accused unions of a “substantial overstatement” of the “slight change” allowing employers to circumvent the Boot.

The provision would be used by a business that is “suffering and needs to do something and change something because of the Covid pandemic”, such as marine tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef, he said.

Porter suggested the provisions would be used by businesses in “particularly distressed areas” – despite the fact there is no minimum threshold for employers to show the impact of Covid-19 on their businesses.

Porter said an agreement that did not meet the Boot will only last for two years, after which the employer or employee can apply for it to be terminated.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/09/nasty-act-from-a-nasty-government-labor-and-unions-go-in-to-bat-for-workers-rights

 

 

Read from top.

keep on pedalling...

Tamed Estate: IR changes good for workers. Really? The fine print is buried.


By MICHAEL TANNER | On 11 December 2020


With workplace reform winging its way towards the Senate, the mainstream media’s coverage of the changes was predictably unbalanced.


Plenty of talk about casual workers “earning a new right”; that they “must be offered a permanent role”; that they “will get the offer” of permanent work; that they have “options for permanency” and so on on.

Buried in the fine print was the fact that the options all seem to be on the employers’ side – that “employers may not make an offer”; that employers can “block the conversion” to permanency on reasonable grounds; that employers have “an escape hatch” and so on.

After describing a “newfound co-operation led by Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter and ACTU secretary Sally McManus”, The Australian‘s editorial proceeded to spend 600 words spelling out the potential benefits of proposed workplace reforms and Porter’s point of view.

It offered a mere 14 words spelling out arguments against the proposed reforms – “Ms McManus has said the ACTU does not support the changes for casual workers.”

Further, despite referring to the potential for “conversion from casual to permanent employment”, it makes no mention of the fact that employees can block this conversion if they have “reasonable grounds”  – incredibly vague terminology.

The Sydney Morning Herald was no better, promoting the proposed legislation as a boost for workers – they were earning a “new right”. In the opening paragraph, the paper heralded the fact that casual workers “must” be offered a permanent role. The disclaimer that such a change could be blocked on “reasonable grounds” was buried in the 11th paragraph.

...


As economist Jim Stanford in The Conversation noted, if passed, the bill will further skew the already lopsided balance of power towards employers.

 

Read more:

https://johnmenadue.com/tamed-estate-ir-changes-good-for-workers-really-...

 

 

merry xxxxx and a happy new yyyyy...

legalese

Greetings Recipients 


I wanted to send some sort of Christmas greeting to my friends and relatives, but it is difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. 


So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on her advice I wish to say the following: 


Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the summer solstice holiday practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. 


I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated new year.


In recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2021, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that Australia is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual or gender preference of the wishees. 

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:


This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.


Best Regards ( without prejudice ) 


Name withheld ( Privacy Act ).