How generous are Australian working conditions

[jpblue1000]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

Australia is an extremely rich country and can easily afford the rates and lifestyle we enjoy, if these resources are handled responsibly but the wealth is held by the privileged few.

the greed of multinational companies must be hauled in and govco forced to actually serve the needs of it's constituents and not the "global" multinationals.

Hear hear.

JP

[Lukeyson]

I work for the government, and I think the conditions there are pretty generous, and I am not complaining.
Not as generous as the Toyota conditions in that other thread, but that seems excessive.

[JC]

Public service used to be the highest paying "middling" jobs, but are now outpaid by the lowest labourers at some building sites (sydney's new foreshore thing, for example). Wages are too high in many cases, and if they keep going, industries will keep disappearing to cheaper locales. The world is small in this modern age - in some cases, getting stuff from overseas can be quicker than getting it across our vast country. Not to mention cheaper too.

Case in point - a sleep apnoea machine, made in Sydney, is cheaper to source from the US via ebay (AUD$1500 including delivery back to Oz) than it is to buy at an Australian retail outlet ($2500, and you have to go to them to get it). Tell me how that is not wrong.

[ratter]

love how Abbott gets the blame, he has been in the job for 10 minutes and all previous existing problem become his fault.

[nstg8a]

Many examples like that one, I bought some gym equipment, made in caloundra, but I purchased it through an over seas site for $1300 us including freight. When I realised it was made here in qld I emailed the manufacturer to see if they would be cheaper. Nope, $700 dearer, and they point blank rejected even price matching.
I do not understand this at all. Obviously they would be making money selling to their distributors, obviously the distributors have their margin in that $1300 as well as freight... Hell the distributors probably paid significantly less than 1k for it, and the manufacturer is making a profit at that price... Yet they refused to even price match.

And they wonder why people have abandoned the whole 'buy Australian made'

[sico]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

How long or how hard you work generally means nothing unfortunately.

Ain't that the truth.

What's the point of working hard with that being the case then?

[ratter]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

Many examples like that one, I bought some gym equipment, made in caloundra, but I purchased it through an over seas site for $1300 us including freight. When I realised it was made here in qld I emailed the manufacturer to see if they would be cheaper. Nope, $700 dearer, and they point blank rejected even price matching.
I do not understand this at all. Obviously they would be making money selling to their distributors, obviously the distributors have their margin in that $1300 as well as freight... Hell the distributors probably paid significantly less than 1k for it, and the manufacturer is making a profit at that price... Yet they refused to even price match.

And they wonder why people have abandoned the whole 'buy Australian made'

not saying it's the case in your situation, but many manufacturers agree to sell their product at the retail price so as their distributors will not be under cut.

[nstg8a]

I'm sure that's the case, still makes it hard to buy local.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by jpblue1000

What are you talking about? the graph is about purchasing parity nothing to do with exchange rates. Nothing...the article actually states that, converting each currency into USD at any given time for convenience against the same benchmark. And has nothing to do with 1999 and the euro, of which most listed countries don't use it only 3 do.
Think of it as the big mac index!

JP

Forget the Big Mac index....

Since it's a car forum I'll add my 2c (in AUD of course)

Petrol in the US $3.78 a gallon
Petrol in Aus $6.50 a gallon.

and that's being conservative...

[zilo]

Originally Posted by ratter

love how Abbott gets the blame, he has been in the job for 10 minutes and all previous existing problem become his fault.

Sure mate, 10 minutes, and 3 years of lies innuendo and obstruction at all costs to get the status of the top job.

We shouls be building more Territories for world exposrt from geelong he tols us at the peoples forum in Geelong.

How out of touch with reality can one person be?

[ute83]

Originally Posted by zilo

Forget the Big Mac index....

Since it's a car forum I'll add my 2c (in AUD of course)

Petrol in the US $3.78 a gallon
Petrol in Aus $6.50 a gallon.

and that's being conservative...

Do those figures take into account the difference between the US gallon and the imperial gallon?

[jpblue1000]

Originally Posted by zilo

Forget the Big Mac index....

Since it's a car forum I'll add my 2c (in AUD of course)

Petrol in the US $3.78 a gallon
Petrol in Aus $6.50 a gallon.

and that's being conservative...

And that's why its a purchasing power parity index. Yes the unit price for things is more in Australia but so is the unit price for earnings. When a 'basket' of similar/same goods is purchased on both sides of the pond who pays thr larger percentage of their income.
A perfect relevant to me example.
returned from the Uk 18 months ago after living there for along time.
I was earning 60,000 pounds, Im now earning 120,000 dollars, twice as many monetary units. In the U'k I could buy a bottle of cola for 2 pounds, here it is about 4 dollars so as a percentage of my income it remains the same my purchasing power is equivalent.
So the use of a 'basket' of goods, probably similar to the CPI 'basket' spreads the impact of local conditions, policies for subsidies, shortages, gluts etc so that the index isn't skewed too far because of a local anomaly.
For example 'Gas' in the USA may not be as heavily taxed or perhaps its even subsidised making it cheaper as a percentage of income, but when combined with fruit, tissues, electricity, t-shirts, and gym memberships it equalises into the PPP index. Making relative comparison easier, not perfect but generally good enough to assess trends, and track change.

JP

[cheap]

Originally Posted by zilo

Sure mate, 10 minutes, and 3 years of lies innuendo and obstruction at all costs to get the status of the top job.

We shouls be building more Territories for world exposrt from geelong he tols us at the peoples forum in Geelong.

How out of touch with reality can one person be?

There was an election and the majority of Australians voted to throw the previous bunch of genius out - get over it.

[ratter]

?????

[ILLaViTaR]

Originally Posted by Barraxr8

So you voted for Tony Abbott ?

Originally Posted by GREGL

So you no longer work for Maccas ?

So the clone wars are about to begin?

[2011G6E]

The "generous" conditions that are in place at SPC Ardmona cost them less than 1% of thier operating costs last year. Most of the "allowances" the media mentioned hadn't even been paid to anyone in the previous year.

Going through our enterprise bargaining at the moment at work...and the business seems hell bent on reducing the number of days off we have in an eight week cycle, and cutting out a week of holidays per year, as well as removing other conditions. No fricking idea how this is going to get past the "no disadvantage" clauses in the law where you supposedly can't be worse off than your last agreement, but they're trying it on...

If you can keep a workforce just on the edge of supporting themselves, and worried constantly about being replaced, it makes for a much more pliable and obedient worker...

[zilo]

Originally Posted by cheap

There was an election and the majority of Australians voted to throw the previous bunch of genius out - get over it.

It was the majority of seats, not the majority of Australians.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by ute83

Do those figures take into account the difference between the US gallon and the imperial gallon?

Yes.

And even though I just paid AUD1.62 I rounded it to $1.60.

[nstg8a]

All this political talk (and I think it was religious) will get this thread closed if were not careful....

[irish2]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Hmm

http://www.theland.com.au/news/agric...px?storypage=0



I too am salaried, no such thing as RDO's, penalty rates or overtime - we get leave loading once a year though. If we work more than the required 38hrs a week we can "bank" our hours and take a flexi day once we have enough to take a day off, but you're only allowed a max of 2 per month.

Hmm, seems like you can have RDO's to me...

[ratter]

most trade sector RDO's are from an accumulation of excess hours worked on a regular basis in the previous weeks.

[nstg8a]

Yeah when I worked at veridian glass we did 40 hrs a week to cover the rdo.
I always let mine build up and get paid out.

[buggerlugs]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/busine...-1226820940889

[cheap]

Originally Posted by zilo

It was the majority of seats, not the majority of Australians.

Majority... that would be the same mob who secured a staggering 7 seats on their own , every other seat they won was because of preferences. An obvious endorcement by the majority of Australians

[monte.b]

Dear brothers and comrades ,all our great working conditions in this country were fought for and won by trade unions ,by the members of these unions ,now we have a bunch of gangsters running these said unions and a lot of people are opting out of the union movement because of this ,trouble is if there is no union movement anymore ,we are all on our own to take whatever the bosses offer us ,and this is what is happening now ,we will become the white slaves of asia it was written ,maybe its true

[zilo]

Originally Posted by monte.b

Dear brothers and comrades ,all our great working conditions in this country were fought for and won by trade unions ,by the members of these unions ,now we have a bunch of gangsters running these said unions and a lot of people are opting out of the union movement because of this ,trouble is if there is no union movement anymore ,we are all on our own to take whatever the bosses offer us ,and this is what is happening now ,we will become the white slaves of asia it was written ,maybe its true

Why not pay the $75 bucks and register a business name so you too can be a "boss"....errrr...comrade ?

[2011G6E]

I've always found it foolish to even begin to try and make direct comparisons between wages in different countries...they're all completely different circumstances and economies.

Take Asia...in a lot of Asian countries, a skilled factory worker will make a wage that we decry as "slave wages", yet in that country, it is actually quite a good wage and he can support his family on it easily. However, from our perspective, it appears pitiful. To them however, it would be "a good living wage".

We look at the USA and their minimum wage and say how poor it is, and so did I until we went over there and paid an equivalent of about 78 cents a liter for petrol, food was cheap, and generally prices...from our point of view...were ridiculously low.
Look at what we pay apprentices here...our son started a hairdressers apprenticeship and was getting $6 an hour...that was the industry standard. No wonder he left and is now on his way through uni to become a teacher.

Trying to directly compare wages between countries with vastly different economies is never going to give you any sort of sensible answer without a lot of "adjustments" to try and even things out...

[prydey]

the concept of 'living within ones means' seems extremely rare and foreign these days.

all too often i see young people move out of home, and think they can start their lives at the same level of standard that they just moved out of. they don't stop to think that it took their parents 30-40-50 years to get to that point in their life.

big houses, multiple cars, credit cards, must have everything now, all the latest gadgets, one big tv isn't enough, need a cinema size screen in every room, keep up with the trends, follow the Jones' etc etc. it all amounts to masses of debt/mortgage etc and then they expect wages that will help them to be able to afford it somehow.

its all back to front.

the cost of living goes up because spending goes up. people then demand more money 'to live' as they don't want to have to change their standard or alter their lifestyle. its never their fault, but their bosses fault for making them work for a pittance.

of course, i am being rather 'general' and not 'all' are like this, but its just a scenario that is all too common. financial stress then creates health issues and that can lead to all sorts of issues.

live within your means. everybody wins.

[buggerlugs]

I dedicate this song to your post Prydey ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygajUPSRTFM

[poppa smurf]

ah! yes "live within your mean's", "crawl before you walk!".......great analogies that keep getting hauled out everytime a worker goes hat in hand to his boss.

exactly what is "ones means", what comparison are we making, gina Reinhardts "means" or the little feller who lives in Elizabeth on a base wage, ................who sets the "standard" for "ones means"

if we take a persons current income as a "means test" then who has the right to set that "income".......surely the person who is doing the actual work has a little bit of a say in it, a fair balance has to be struck between worth of toil and a reasonable income for the employer/owner what is "reasonable".

what about training and skill level, ....gotta be worth more surely, then what about the fellers who give up their life chasing the almighty quid in the mines, $100,000 plus, disgusting, shouldn't be allowed, going to send the country broke ..............generally unskilled except driving a truck but in reality the pay is poor.

given they are working 84 hours per week and usually 3 weeks without a break under conditions that could be called third world.

these people spend 12 hours per day, 7 days per week in these machines, live on the site forsaking family, friends and life in general, should they be happy on a lot less pay simply to "crawl before you walk" whilst the multinationals are reaping millions in reward every year by simply investing, why doesn't Australia "invest" in Australia instead of selling it off wholesale.

I have been on all sides of the workforce and seen, with great clarity the "goings on" and thought process of the people behind it all.

I have been a general hand, a driver, an owner driver, an operator then a boss and finally an employer, settling back to being a self owned, self run business owner.

my wife and I made many sacrifices, financially and physically to place our son in such a position that he did not have to go through the journey that we had made in order to attain that which we enjoy.

my parents did the same, we strive to make our kids life better than we had it, that is parenting.

my son now enjoys overseas holidays, a luxury house and motor vehicles, boats, caravans.......in short he is living the dream........disgusting isn't it.

well no, to get to this stage he had to work hard at school, attend university, then complete out of uni studies and ongoing training on top of that he works two jobs, runs his own business at night, and is a part time fiery.

I still say Australia is a fantastic country, a lucky country, a rich country with wealth for all IF WE SHARE IT evenly and stop sending it overseas.

stop the sell it off, dig it up and ship it off mentality, get the trade balance correct and the terms of trade correct and give us all a "fair bloody go".

I seen a shipload of logs heading out of WA recently, there is work there for a value adding industry, why doesn't the powers that be implement this instead of the adhock approach they have now, dollar now, couldn't care less about the future attitude has to stop.