Ora Tzo posted:

I supposed the Libs squeezing in would do a lot of damage internally to them as well as to the whole public.
Right?

quote:

http://www.news.com.au/finance/econ...0e1a13a7f664106
Russell Zimmerman from the Australian Retailers Association said the wage rise was double what his members were hoping for, and far higher than many could afford.

“This is a big problem for the industry and unfortunately I think retailers will have to look at their payrolls and may well have to decide whether they can reduce hours even further,” Mr Zimmerman said.

open24hours posted:

Well that didn't take long.

Anidav posted:

The comments section thou!

"this will be for all the white males soon, well.. in the public sector anyway, since they are primarily employing women or people from other countries as their methods of selection (diversity > productivity), as opposed to merit. sigh.. born too late to experience fairness."

SynthOrange posted:

So how long before Abbott's leader again?

norp posted:

Essential: 51/49 to LNP

quote:

Coles could be forced to renegotiate pay deal with thousands of workers after Fair Work ruling
By the National Reporting Team's Sam Clark, Josie Taylor and Dan Oakes

A Coles worker has won a David and Goliath battle against his employer and one of Australia's most powerful unions, potentially forcing the supermarket giant to renegotiate wages and conditions of thousands of employees.

Duncan Hart, a student who works part-time at a Coles supermarket in Brisbane, took action in the Fair Work Commission last year.

He claimed the enterprise bargaining agreement between Coles and his union, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), left thousands of workers worse-off than they would be under the award, and was therefore invalid.

In a decision published on Tuesday morning, the Fair Work Commission sided with Mr Hart and ruled that the Coles EBA, which covers some 77,000 employees, failed what is known as the better off overall test (BOOT).

Mr Hart said the decision was a victory not just for Coles employees, but for retail workers more broadly.

"It shows that you can't just cut penalty rates, increase the overall base rate and actually still say that people are better off overall," Mr Hart said.

"There will be people who work those unsociable hours who will be worse-off and that's what we saw with the Coles agreement and it was tens of thousands of Coles workers that were worse-off."

The commission gave Coles 10 days to remedy the failings in the EBA before it quashed its original approval of the workplace agreement.

The decision could force Coles to renegotiate wages and conditions for its workforce of 77,000 employees.

The Coles agreement in question, which was approved by the Fair Work Commission in July last year, mandated a higher hourly base rate for supermarket workers, but cut penalty rates for weekends and nights.

Mr Hart argued that this left a substantial proportion of the Coles workforce worse-off than if they were paid under the existing award.

For a workplace agreement to be legal, all employees must be made better off when an agreement is compared to the award.

Supermarket overvalued some benefit to employees: commission

Coles argued before the commission that a series of other employee benefits contained in the workplace agreement outweighed any loss in penalty rates.

These benefits included blood donor leave, emergency services leave and an extra five minutes for meal breaks when employees worked shifts of more than four hours.

However, the commission ruled that Coles had overvalued these benefits when weighed against the cuts to penalty rates.

"Overall we consider the provisions in the agreement to be beneficial for employees but the level of benefit is not large," the commissioners ruled.

"We are not satisfied that a consideration of all benefits and detriments under the agreement results in each employee and each prospective employee being better off overall under the agreement compared to the award.

"It follows that we are not satisfied that the agreement passes the BOOT."

Coles have been given until June 10 to respond to the decision.

A Coles spokesman said in a statement that the company's workplace agreements had delivered wage rises above inflation for more than a decade.

"Coles' current agreement was approved by the Fair Work Commission in 2015. It delivered an average increase of 3 per cent in base rates, maintained penalty rates from the previous agreement and brought six complex agreements into a simple, easy-to-understand document," the statement said.

Decision could have wide ramifications for retail sector

Professor John Howe, workplace law expert at the University of Melbourne, said that today's decision would increase scrutiny of similar workplace deals that come before the commission in the future.

"The full bench has sent a clear signal to members of the commission and parties to enterprise agreements that it is not enough that a majority of employees support the agreement — the interests of those employees likely to be most adversely affected by the agreement have to be taken into account." he said.

"We're also going to see greater public scrutiny of pay deals between the SDA and other major food chains like Woolworths and McDonalds."

Woolworths is in the final stages of negotiating a new workplace agreement with the SDA.

Union deal branded 'atrocious'

In a statement the SDA's national secretary Gerard Dwyer said today's decision related to a small number of workers.

"The decision today recognises that while some changes need to be made, the agreement as a whole is solid," he said.

"This was always a technical debate about a small cohort of workers who may have inadvertently missed out on the significant improvements that the vast majority of Coles workers would have secured under this agreement."

However Mr Hart, a union member since 2006, disputed Mr Dwyer's assessment of the decision and said that tens of thousands Coles workers had been left worse-off by the deal.

"I think that what the SDA have done in this case has been pretty atrocious, there's no real other way to describe it," Mr Hart said.

quote:

Barnaby Joyce isn't backing away from controversial comments linking Labor's live export ban to a surge in asylum seeker boats.

The deputy prime minister believes his comments were grounded by fact, pointing to threats by a senior Indonesian minister last year to release a "human tsunami" of asylum seekers in response to pressure from Canberra over the Bali nine executions.

"People can argue with me all they want but it's going to be really hard to argue with a senior Indonesian minister," Mr Joyce told AAP on Tuesday.

The Nationals leader said he never intended - and didn't create - a diplomatic incident with Jakarta.

But he believes there's been an overreaction to the comments.

"You can argue about the causation issue, but you can't argue about the correlation."

gay picnic defence posted:

Meh, I'm not sure Labor getting in is in their best interests anyway, having them in power when the housing market eventually crashes would permanently destroy any credibility they had. They still haven't lived down their reputation as being worse economic managers than the tories so another event would just reinforce that perception. Maybe in 2019 or whenever they'll have found someone who can go down Bernie Sanders' path and actually engage with and excite people.

quote:

Protester awarded $13,400 after police officer made up charge at Martin Place rally
May 31, 2016 - 4:06PM
Rachel Olding


Several NSW Police officers have been savaged in court for allegedly grabbing the breasts and neck of an anti-Reclaim Australia protester, then covering their actions up by deleting evidence, making up a false charge against her, lying under oath and attacking her in court.

Simone Renae White, 41, a social worker, attended Martin Place last July for a counter rally to the Reclaim Australia demonstration.

She was arrested by Senior Constable John Wasko who alleged Ms White had assaulted him in the execution of his duty.

He said that, as a line of police were shepherding a line of protesters through Martin Place, Ms White turned back at him with her elbow up.

However, after a year-long court battle, a magistrate has thrown out the charge and taken the unusual step of forcing the police to pay Ms White's legal costs because their arrest, investigation and subsequent prosecution were so improper.

Ms White said that one police officer had groped her breasts and another, Senior Constable Wasko, had grabbed her neck as they walked behind her.

She turned around to take a photo of the officer who she believed had indecently assaulted her by grabbing her breasts.

However, Senior Constable Wasko grabbed and arrested her. Her phone was taken by another officer who appeared to delete the photo, magistrate Geoffrey Bradd found in the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

The police case against Ms White relied entirely on Senior Constable Wasko's testimony and contained no footage from CCTV cameras in Martin Place nor police officers who were filming the rally.

When Ms White's legal team subpoenaed police for the footage, it showed Ms White being pushed and shoved in the back by Senior Constable Wasko as the protesters walked through Martin Place.

The footage showed Ms White taking a photo of an officer on her phone, proving that her evidence was deleted by police.

She is seen holding a water bottle in one hand, making the allegation of raising her elbow at Senior Constable Wasko "inconsistent", Mr Bradd found.

The alleged indecent assault was not captured on camera but Mr Bradd said "the evidence strongly indicates" it happened.

Medical records showed bruising on her breasts and neck pain.

When Ms White gave evidence during a hearing, a prosecutor repeatedly accused her of lying.

Her barrister, Phillip Boulten, SC, told the court on Tuesday that police had "escaped any form of investigation for perverting the course of justice".

"The only reason why [the photo] would be deleted would be to make it more difficult for the complainant to say something in court," he said.

Mr Bradd ruled that the investigation was "unreasonable and improper" and ordered the police to pay her $13,400 in legal costs.

Outside court, Ms White said she was just relieved it was over.

Her solicitor, Lydia Shelly, said police treated a protester as a criminal.

"The court confirmed today that my client is not a criminal. It has taken her nearly 12 months of litigation to prove that," she said.

"This decision sends a very clear message to the police. It is not a criminal offence to protest nor is it an offence to film police if you are not hindering their duties. The NSW public expect more from NSW Police."

Police have been contacted for comment.

StealthBus posted:

I'm so proud of my wife and her terrible handwriting.
Postal Vote Fuckery

adamantium|wang posted:

Death to the SDA.

adamantium|wang posted:

Death to the SDA.

adamantium|wang posted:

Death to the SDA.

Zenithe posted:

My job falls under what the SDA is supposed to cover, but is there a group I should really join that isn't a complete garbage fire of a union?

Recoome posted:

This is a video where a UPF guy actually tries to sell National Socialism.

https://www.facebook.com/unitedpatriotsfront/videos/290986667902459/

adamantium|wang posted:

Ora Tzo posted:

Well Labor got in as the GFC happened, and that didn't sting them badly. If the Libs stay in there will be a catastrophe regarding the Australian health system and it won't be pleasant for many.
Also with the dominance of the Labor right and the Labor left right behind them, I don't see how they could get more populist.

Starshark posted:

I want Ruddbucks again.

quote:

NOAA predictions for the Western Australia (WA) are about as severe as they get: there is a 60% probability of the most severe bleaching (“Alert 2”) for all of April 2016.

In comparison, the Great Barrier Reef on Australia’s east coast has a 60% probability of milder bleaching (“Alert 1”) for most of March 2016 – obviously still a major concern, but not as severe as for the west.

Anidav posted:

I just noticed this edgelord on the UPF website

I AM DARKNESS!

Recoome posted:

probably a morbidly obese goon

e:

HOLY poo poo

Recoome posted:

adamantium|wang posted:

Death to the SDA.