Ready said:
Liverpool, in your plastic components example: were the 20+ workers who were laid off able to find employment with a competitor? Did they possess complementary skills or were they able to acquire other skills through training that then allowed them to find employment with remuneration similar to what they received for making the plastic things?
In any case, it is the casualised and underemployed workforce employed in the service sector who will bear the brunt of the workplace changes.
Ready,
I don't think I would be degrading any production-workers reading this thread, to say that the majority I have worked with at this company, and other companies since, are not the most educated individuals out there.
Many dropped-out of high-school, and many have no ambition to further their careers either.
They are happy to have a position where they have no responsibility....they clock-in, do what they are told, receive their pay-checks, and clock-out.
With this type of background, the 20+ workers....some would have been able to find employment as a production-worker elsewhere, as that is all many of them knew what to do....so they had the experience.
I was able to get them all enrolled in a course...can't remember the name of it now...think it was through Aussie-Training" or it might have been the Batman TAFE...but they all got a certificate in production/machionery, which I thought was good.
Least they all had something to show prospective employers to go along with their resume...their experience...and I was more than happy to be a reference for them as well.
Some got jobs with more pay...some got jobs with less pay...and some got no jobs at all.
A handful of them were in their 50's and 60's....so they would have found it hard to get employment elsewhere.
However, having said that, what I have experienced in the last few years has been an increase in hiring people from the "grey hair brigade", as they are reliable and are usually very good workers.
As I have stated before, it is very hard to find good employees, especially when it comes to positions, like production work....as anyone with ambition won't hang around, and many that do hang around don't give a stuff abut their work, and purely don't care, fullstop....so if it means hiring someone in their 50's with a good attitude, work ethic, and is reliable....over some 20 year old who is lazy, shows no initiative, and is "sick" every second day....then I know who I would hire!
I agree with Nitro.....if you show an employer that you are a good, hard worker....then you will always have a job.
Any manager out there who sacks good workers, unless they REALLY have to, is just a poor manager, in my opinion...and just using their power as an ego trip.
That's why the unions, using the new IR laws as a scapegoat for any employee who gets fired, sacked, etc....is a joke.
Yes, there will be some poor managers out there who will sack people indiscriminately....I'm not denying that....but even under the 'old' system, I have been able to 'push' people out who were troublemakers, or had the wrong attitude.
All the new IR laws have done is make it a bit easier for employers to do this...but at the end of the day, if someone sacks you for no reason, then they aren't worth working for to begin with....and no good manager will sack good workers, whether they are casual, part-time, or full-timers.
Simple as that.