The Situation At Work...

[The Apostle]

I noticed on a previous thread that there is a lot of Union types on here. I've got this problem to do with my work...

I currently work fulltime for a company in the manufacturing industry. Today the company I work for gave a letter to 5 casual employees (not me!) offering fulltime employment with the fulltime rate of...$16.50!!! Down from the casual rate of $21 odd dollars an hour.

Surely this is not right!?

Does anyone know what award we'd/i'd be under???

Also, last year they made an announcement that during overtime on Saturday they wouldn't pay you for the morning tea break (meaning you'd lose 20 minutes of double time).

Anyone help?

[smithy]

I noticed on a previous thread that there is a lot of Union types on here. I've got this problem to do with my work...

I currently work fulltime for a company in the manufacturing industry. Today the company I work for gave a letter to 5 casual employees (not me!) offering fulltime employment with the fulltime rate of...$16.50!!! Down from the casual rate of $21 odd dollars an hour.

Surely this is not right!?

Does anyone know what award we'd/i'd be under???

Also, last year they made an announcement that during overtime on Saturday they wouldn't pay you for the morning tea break (meaning you'd lose 20 minutes of double time).

Anyone help?

I'd say 20% of $21 is about $16.50 so that sounds about right.
Not sure if that is the award rate though.
Not sure why people expect to be paid for breaks either.

[Darth Vader]

plenty of people will know more about this stuff than me but for what it is worth, a full time employee gets all the goodies like annual leave, sick leave etc. Casual employees get bugger all which is why they get paid more per hour.

[Strawb]

Sounds about right for the position and where you live. Funny thing I find is Adelaide pays less than Melbourne in wages I looked into moving back and doing a higher position job than I am in now but I was dropping easily $20,000 per year.

[The Apostle]

I'd also add that:

A) Everyone else in the factory is earning $2 more an hour or more.
B) During the week we get paid for that 20 minute morning tea break.
C) They paid you for that Saturday morning tea break for longer than i've been there (i've been there nearly 10 years).

[Strawb]

I'd also add that:

A) Everyone else in the factory is earning $2 more an hour or more.
B) During the week we get paid for that 20 minute morning tea break.
C) They paid you for that Saturday morning tea break for longer than i've been there (i've been there nearly 10 years).

Talk to your union then I would not agree to it unless I was on the same wage.

[overloaded]

that is carp wage. how old are you? 16

[dedja]

I'd also add that:

A) Everyone else in the factory is earning $2 more an hour or more.
B) During the week we get paid for that 20 minute morning tea break.
C) They paid you for that Saturday morning tea break for longer than i've been there (i've been there nearly 10 years).

If you've been there 10 years then under certain awards you can be classed as a permanent employee.

I'd followup with the appropriate union to get some advice before making a decision if I were you.

As all awards are different it's hard to give specific advice.

[LMA]

I noticed on a previous thread that there is a lot of Union types on here. I've got this problem to do with my work...

I currently work fulltime for a company in the manufacturing industry. Today the company I work for gave a letter to 5 casual employees (not me!) offering fulltime employment with the fulltime rate of...$16.50!!! Down from the casual rate of $21 odd dollars an hour.

Surely this is not right!?

Does anyone know what award we'd/i'd be under???

Also, last year they made an announcement that during overtime on Saturday they wouldn't pay you for the morning tea break (meaning you'd lose 20 minutes of double time).

Anyone help?

I suspect it is a non-union site, if so talk to an appropriate person on site and see if they can get a copy of the enterprise agreement, there you might find a clause in it stipulating that when offered full time positions you start off on a 3month probationary rate, regardless of length of service, which would be lower than the normal rate of others. This is what happened at my old work until we got it removed in future EBA negotiations. However if that's not the case I'd get in contact with the AMWU, you might be able to meet with a rep outside of work so that your management doesn't black ball you or another worker for raising concerns to a union.
As for the award rate, these type of industries the minimum award hourly rate is very sub standard and most companies will pay above that so $16.50 is probably about right. Have a look on fairwork.gov.au there is a list of awards and agreements on there

[Barto]

The most important thing is though.. are you the best lookin' guy in the factory?