Howard Forces Workers onto Independent Work contracts.

It's alright for those people who are earning a Salary, the ones who make all the money. But for the vast majority of us who are on wages, these new Independent Employee Contracts are not a good thing, and thats probably the most polite way I could have written it.

People are going to work at a job with no job security, holiday's when the boss tells them to take time off (without pay). They will receive no pay for Public Holidays and when they leave their job, they will leave with nothing. No Long Service Leave or Superannuation and No Redundancy payments.

Eventually we are going to have have very few people on Permanent, fully entitled employment. We will have Casual, Full Time Casual, Part time Casual employees all without the benefits and Conditions our Fathers and Grandfathers worked so hard for.

Below are just some of the Benefits that people will be throwing away bit by bit, piece by peice...

• Long Service Leave
• Redundancy payments
• Accumulative Sick Leave
• Sick Leave and Sickness benefits
• Superannuation (unless you pay it out of your own pocket of course)
• Holiday Pay and Holiday Leave Loading
• Public Holiday's
• Penalty Rates for working Overtime and working Sunday's and weekends

And these are only the Award Wage Benefits I can think of just off the top of my head. I haven't even started on Work place Safety, Working Conditions or even Unfair Dismissal.

Quotes from ACTU News

The Prime Minister would have us believe that industrial relations is the most pressing economic issue facing the nation. He argues that the changes will create more jobs, lift productivity and boost wages. This is an exceptionally feeble argument, lacking substance and credibility.

Australia is currently in its 14th consecutive year of economic growth - a historically significant period of economic expansion, low inflation,
productivity growth and low unemployment.

Employers are not going to let their workers keep all these Benefits, not when they don't have too. And why would they when they can just as easily get someone else to do the job?

In the USA, the richest Nation in the world they don't get Four weeks holiday a year like we do in Australia, they are lucky if they get Two!! Let alone a extra couple of hundred for Holiday Leave Loading. In fact the whole culture of Tipping in the US is because the Minimum Federal wage is so low that people have to rely on Tips if they want to live anywhere above a mere subsistence level! ...

The current advertising campaign undertaken by the Unions is to make people aware of just how unfair and how much of a backward step these new Independent Employee Contracts are. It will reduce the average living Standard of the Lower Income bracket substantially.

But of Course the Howard Government will try to tell the public different. With it's spending over 20 million dollars of the Taxpayers money to Advertise, (read spin) and sell, these Draconian and completely unfair Laws. Which in itself is a disgrace, imagine what 20 million dollars could do if it were invested into Schools or Hospitals rather than Advertising Executives pockets. Like John Singleton hasn't got enough money.

Here's the thing, if you want to be an Independent Contractor then good for you, it can be a good thing. But it should not be up to our Government to Force all the lower Wage earners in our country into situations where they have no Rights, No Benefits and no bloody money in their pockets.