Fair Work Australia? Still going strong!

Ever since conservatives smelt blood in the Canberra air they have been racheting up complaints about Fair Work Australia (FWA), with a bring back WorkChoices subtext.

Well as far as I’m concerned the bl@@dy thing isn’t broken and an Abbott-led Coalition can’t be trusted anywhere near industrial relations policy.

Why do I think Fair Work Australia is getting a bad rap?

See this FWA press release on 7th September 2011 for starters……

“The operators of a Gold Coast shooting range have been fined a total of $30,000 for asking employees to sign an Individual Flexibility Arrangement (IFA) removing their penalty rates.

Australian Shooting Academy Pty Ltd, which operates a public indoor shooting range at Centro Surfers Paradise shopping centre, has been penalised $25,000.

Company director and part-owner Michael Joseph Murphy, who manages the shooting range, has been fined a further $5000.

Australian Shooting Academy was also ordered to pay compensation of $7146 to one worker.

The fines and compensation order, imposed in the Federal Court in Brisbane, are the result of a prosecution by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

They were imposed by Justice John Logan after Mr Murphy admitted he was involved in Australian Shooting Academy breaching workplace laws in 2010 when asking six employees to sign an IFA.

The IFA removed their entitlement to Modern Award penalty rates for overtime, weekend and public holiday work. Five of the six employees ultimately signed the IFA.

However, the adverse action, coercion, undue pressure and duress provisions of workplace laws were breached when one of the employees signed only after he was threatened that there would be no work for him if he did not sign.

Further, the adverse action provisions of workplace laws were breached when the one employee who refused to sign the IFA was subsequently given no further work. This worker was the subject of the Court’s compensation order.

It is the first time the Fair Work Ombudsman has taken legal action over alleged contraventions relating to IFAs.

It is unlawful for employers to force employees to agree to an IFA and it is unlawful to make an IFA a condition of employment.”

And this one on the same day…..

“The Fair Work Ombudsman is prosecuting the owner-operator of a Sydney truck company, alleging he was involved in sham contracting activity and underpaying a worker more than $13,000.

Facing court is Sydney man John Mineeff, who owned and operated Fairfield-based company Villtruck Pty Ltd, before it went into liquidation last year. Villtruck was involved in purchasing, repairing and selling second-hand trucks.

It is alleged Mr Mineeff was centrally involved in his company breaching the sham contracting provisions of workplace laws in relation to an employee who performed panel beating and vehicle detailing duties.

It is alleged the employee, aged in his 30s, was dismissed in early 2009 and immediately re-hired as an independent contractor.

However, it is alleged the employee’s correct classification was as an employee because he continued to perform substantially the same duties at his employer’s direction.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson says under the sham contracting provisions of workplace laws, it is unlawful to dismiss an employee in order to engage them as an independent contractor to perform the same duties. “It is also unlawful to misrepresent an employment relationship as an independent contracting arrangement,” Mr Wilson said.

Mr Mineeff was allegedly also involved in underpaying the employee $13,592 in annual leave entitlements and breaching workplace laws relating to keeping employment records and issuing pay slips.

Fair Work inspectors investigated after the employee lodged a complaint.

The Fair Work Ombudsman cannot prosecute Villtruck because the company is in liquidation.

Mr Mineeff was allegedly involved in multiple breaches of workplace laws. He faces maximum penalties ranging from $1100 to $6600 per breach.”

And yet again…..

Court fines couple over underpayment of security officers

2 Sep 2011

The operators of a NSW security company have been fined for their involvement in failing to back-pay 22 underpaid workers.

WA’s Rottnest workers get $24,000 back-pay

31 Aug 2011

The Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered more than $24,000 back-pay for workers on Rottnest Island as part of an education and compliance campaign.

Almost $55,000 back-pay for regional Tasmanian workers

26 Aug 2011

A number of workers in regional Tasmania have been back-paid a total of $54,700 following intervention by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Deniliquin sales assistant back-paid $6400

22 Aug 2011

A sales assistant at Deniliquin in regional NSW has been back-paid a total of $6400 following intervention by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Let Teh Rabbit, Erica Abetz, Poodle Pyne, Don Argus and the rest of the Serfdom Rules1 mob decide policy? We’d hafta have a death wish!

1 Voices from Working Australia: Findings from the ACTU Working Australia Census 2011

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

An I cans spellz and knows grammar musing: In a local newspaper this gem appeared recently - the girls appeared to be rifling through teachers' draws looking for money. Draws? Ooopps! Repeats afta meez. D*R*A*W*E*R*S . A noun not a verb. An item of furniture usually found in a desk or cupboard, not an action. Around my house draws is also slang for an item of clothing the two-legged people first pull on in the morning, so at first reading I wondered if the school teacher was Miss Moneypants. (Big thanks to Rex the German Shepherd's Dad for this tip)

A snail mail musing: My little canine friend Veronica Lake tells me that many of the good folk living in Cox Street, Yamba, are about to revolt. They are insensed that a letter sent by post to Clarence Valley Council remains unanswered after two months and an email reminder (that the road surface at the eastern and western ends of their street is breaking up) received a cursory response. #COUNCIL FAIL

A false claims & poor punctuation musing: Hear that the Pacific Hotel at Yamba is beginning to get phone calls about its advert in the Coastal Views community newspaper on 5 August 2011. With so many absurdly false advertising claims attached - and the phantom apostrophe distracting the eye - the entire piece is an exercise in how not to attract patrons to a pub.

A reminder that the love/loyalty goes both ways musing: July 2011: A man has died while trying to rescue his dog from water at Lake Cathie on the New South Wales mid-north coast. The dog got caught in a rip as it frolicked off the beach, south of Port Macquarie yesterday afternoon. His 42-year-old owner, from Bellbird in the Hunter region, plunged into the sea when he realised his pet was in trouble but soon got into difficulty himself. A surfer managed to drag the man to shore and attempts were made to revive him but he was declared dead at the scene. It is understood the dog survived.

An Underdogs Rule musing: Loukanikos the doughty Greek canine shows the world how it's done - try your best to shout your protest but don't bite if you can help it. See him in action at YouTube. He even has a dedicated Facebook site.

Local meat co-op brings home the gravy

A win for local meat co-op

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin said she is very pleased that her lobbying on behalf of the Northern Co-operative Meat Company has paid off.
The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Joe Ludwig has come up with a $25.8 million package to support the meat processing industry with the implementation of the new Australian Export Meat Inspection System (AEMIS).
“I have been lobbying the Minister this year on behalf of the Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd and the meat industry in general, calling for a funding package to cover the extra market access costs, such as additional meat inspectors.
 “The General Manager of Northern Co-operative Meat Company, Garry Burridge, who is also head of Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), has done a great job in his advocacy.  He put up the strong industry arguments.
“I was able to champion his just cause for the local workers and all involved in the meat processing industry.
“The minister has agreed with me that the meat processing industry needs extra support to change over to the new meat inspection system which starts in October.
“The package accepted by the AMIC is for $25.8 million in rebates for the industry. 
“Persistence had paid off.  I knew it was hard to lobby on this, particularly when a scheme had been agreed to that would cut out at a certain point.
“I’ll be speaking on this in Parliament when the legislative instruments for the new certification system, along with the new fee structure, are introduced.
 “Minister Ludwig once he’d made the decision was keen to tell me. 
“I have now invited the Minister to come to the electorate again and visit the meatworks,” Ms Saffin said.
[Janelle Saffin MP for Page Media Release 5 September 2011]

U.S. Embassy in Canberra brings forth a LOL

The do you know the truth or do you read Telegraph gets the thumbs up:

Reference ID 09CANBERRA335
Origin U.S. Embassy Canberra, Australia
Cable time Fri, 3 Apr 2009 00:41 UTC
Classification CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN

“The Murdoch-owned tabloid, "The Daily Telegraph", Sydney's largest selling newspaper…often an accurate gauge of what Labor's core working-class voters are thinking.”

Haven’t laughed so hard in weeks.

What do they teach in journalism 101 these days?

Remember the days when newspaper reporters told their readers the important bits of information about their stories? Well, could someone please remind some of the young newshounds at The Daily Examiner that its readers are not happy. This reader turned to the back page of today's paper to read about a football match played in Grafton yesterday (yesterday's paper had a pre-game report that took up the best part of a page).

The heading was "Uni Shield hopes are over", so I thought, "Gee, now I'll read the detailed account of the game."

But, what a shocker! The all-important piece of information, the final score, was nowhere to be seen.

The Great ABC Switch Off Threatens

Never thought that we’d see the day when The Great ABC Switch Off became a subject for discussion in our home.

At 9.30pm last night it happened ten minutes into “At Home With Julia”, so disgusted were we with a program which mocked the Prime Minister’s private life and cruelly held her non-politician life partner up to national ridicule.

There are some places media shouldn’t go and the intimacies of a public figure’s home life is one of those areas.

ABC1, ABC Executive Producer Debbie Lee, Quail TV Executive Producers Rick Kalowski and Greg Quail, Writers Amanda Bishop, Rick Kalowski and Phil Lloyd, Director Erin White, Series Producer Carol Hughes and ALP legal counsel Mr Anton Denby SC (yeah, we get the lol) all made a huge error of judgement as far as we’re concerned.

What on earth was Australia’s public broadcaster thinking?

Anony-mice

Yamba

*GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com for consideration.

The Daily Examiner couldn't or wouldn't name company directors responsible for the illegal destruction of pristine natural habitat - why?

On 7 September 2011 The Daily Examiner reported:

A COMPANY which illegally cleared 38 hectares of native vegetation and may have displaced several koalas on a Halfway Creek property was fined $200,000 in the Land and Environment Court in Sydney on Thursday.

Judge Shaehan found Graymarshall Pty Ltd had breached the Native Vegetation Act by completely clearing six areas of the 170ha property of white mahogany, tallowwood and red mahogany.

One company director was found to have participated in the clearing, which was done on the instructions of both directors using a D6 bulldozer and a D65 excavator.

Neither director was named in the judgement.

Now, I have no idea if the company’s directors were not named in The Daily Examiner article because the newspaper knew their names and declined to publish or if it was too apathetic to search the public record – either way the Clarence Valley community is entitled to know all relevant facts surrounding Director-General of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water v Graymarshall Pty Ltd (No.2) [2011] NSWLEC 149 (1 September 2011).

The judgment in this case clearly stated that:

One director of the defendant participated in the clearing, done on the instructions of both directors, and under their supervision, using a D6 bulldozer and a D65 excavator….

I agree with the prosecutor's submission that the offence should be considered to be of high objective gravity.

This is what is previously stated about the company structure in Graymarshall Pty Ltd v Director-General of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water [2010] NSWLEC 54 in relation to the same illegal clearing matter:

Annexed to Mr Beaumont’s affidavit was a company search dated 15 March 2010, which listed Mr Murray Gray and Mr Darrin Marshall as the sole directors and shareholders Graymarshall. Mr Darrin Marshall is also listed as the company secretary. No other evidence concerning the company was, however, given. [my bolding]

Clarence Valley Shire Council Environment, Economic & Community Committee Tuesday, 9 March 2010 Inspections states:

Development Application SUB2009/0026 was lodged on 22 June 2009 by Peterson Consulting Group on behalf of the owners D. Marshall and M. Gray (Graymarshall Pty Ltd) for subdivision of land (boundary adjustment).

The applicant is seeking approval for boundary adjustments between 5 existing lots (Lots 20, 53, 54 and 105 DP751368 & Lot 3 DP816313) to reconfigure the lots to create 4 lots of 40 ha and one lot 195.6 ha in size.

The boundary adjustment will result in the creation of an additional three (3) dwelling entitlements.

The lots are located at the end of Gilmores Lane approximately 7.5 km south of Halfway Creek and 4 km west of Kungala. The lots are zoned 1(a) General Rural under the Ulmarra Local Environmental Plan (the LEP). Together the lots comprise approximately 356 hectares……

By letter dated 11 March 2009, Council was notified by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) that it was investigating potential illegal clearing of native vegetation on Lots 20, 53, 54 and 105 DP751368. At the time of writing this report, DECCW had not concluded investigations though the Department has advised Council that a direction to carry out remedial works was to be issued pursuant to Section 38 of the Native Vegetation Act 2003 for the revegetation of approximately 50 hectares of land on the lots.

This was extracted from ASIC's database at AEST 08:25:57 on 07/09/2011 and shows the only recorded change in company detalis since 2008:

Name GRAYMARSHALL PTY LTD
ACN 132 679 719
ABN 60 132 679 719
Type Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Registration Date 11/08/2008
Next Review Date 11/08/2012
Status Strike-Off Action In Progress
Locality of Registered Office Coffs Harbour NSW 2450
Jurisdiction Australian Securities & Investments Commission
31/08/2011 6010 Application For Voluntary Deregistration of a Company

It took me all of fifteen minutes to search for, download and open files relating to this destruction of an estimated 38ha of pristine habitat (including part or all of a 2ha section listed as an Endangered Ecological Community under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995) in the Halfway Creek area and, it is very evident who the company owners/directors were during the relevant period.

It took me only a few minutes more to ascertain that two businessmen with identical names are listed in the Coffs Harbour local government area – one an earthmover and excavator, the other a medical specialist. These two men may or may not be the same Gray and Marshall.

I’m still wondering why the newspaper didn’t bother to identify the company directors in question. It is very quick to name and shame drink drivers and others coming before the local courts on the NSW North Coast. I would have thought environmental vandalism perpetrators should also be similarly shamed.