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Examples of negative policies for small business and the community

Management of Paid Parental Leave

There are two options for the payment of PPL. One is to pay the eligible person direct from Centrelink and the

other is to add a layer of complexity and forcing employers to take payment from Centrelink and then pay the employee. To assist in the process the Department of Human Services developed an Employer Toolkit that is 48 pages long and includes 4 pages of CSV and XML code to assist in the payment process. We were told by the Minister who developed this process that it would ‘only take 5 minutes’.

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Compulsory flexible work arrangements

The proposal from the ACTU is for employees to select their own hours of work. This is obviously unworkable when a business deals with customers in a retail, hospitality or a service industry.

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Management of Domestic Violence situations for employees

There is a proposal that employees involved in a DV situation be able to claim up to 10 days pay to help them manage. This fails to take into account the situation faced by the employer. It also makes a small business employer a victim of someone else’s terrible situation. There

are better ways of helping people but the ideologues want DV to be in the industrial relations system. This is a fail of workplace relations and welfare support. It creates more victims and does not actually confront the real issue.

 

Lower Sunday penalty rates have been in place in agreements negotiated by the retail union for over 7 years

This “penalty Rate’ campaign has been a sham from its inception. The fact is that the retail union negotiated lower Sunday rates for workers in the biggest retailers and fast food outlets over 7 years ago. One enterprise agreement between Coles and the union caused over 60% of

workers to receive less than award wages. The extension of union powers over all workplaces through centralised industrial

system Australia is in a great position. Our economy is one of the best in the world. Our business and employment conditions are world class. There are always areas where improvements must be made. But by giving an unrepresentative organisation (unions) a say over the running of every business in Australia will be an end to a good economy and will create much higher unemployment.

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The high court decision to allow workers to be paid holiday pay twice when they are casuals

A recent high court decision has seen a scenario develop whereby business people may need to pay up to 6 years worth of extra pay to casual employees. This is doubling dipping and will cause bankruptcies among small and medium businesses.

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