{"id":152,"date":"2005-06-28T20:56:06","date_gmt":"2005-06-28T20:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2005\/06\/28\/can_education_r\/"},"modified":"2005-06-28T20:56:06","modified_gmt":"2005-06-28T20:56:06","slug":"can_education_r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"Can education replace the law?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government’s proposal to remove unfair dismissal provisions
\nfor companies with less than 100 employees certainly has a lot of people
\ntalking.<\/p>\n

\nThis segment <\/a>
\non ABC radio’s pm program tonight discusses
\nthe possibility that Tasmania may become the pathfinder for the rest
\nof Australia in the battleground over the issue. <\/p>\n

[T]he Australian State with perhaps the most at stake
\nis Tasmania, where the vast majority of companies have fewer than 100
\nemployees. <\/blockquote >\n

We can understand it from the employer’s point of vies. chriscurnow.com
\nhas a lot of sympathy for people who mortgage their houses and sign
\naway the rights to their firstborn children in order to set up their
\nown small business. It’s hard work and it although it has its privileges,
\nthe constant battle to keep cash flowing in the door is mostly heart-wrenching.<\/p>\n

However, we are saddened by the attitude of employers who feel that
\nunfair dismissal is their enemy,<\/p>\n

In the words of Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry<\/a> Chief Executive
\nDamon Thomas<\/p>\n

Businesses we’re talking about a very wary of hiring new people.
\nIn fact, it’s an unfortunate truism that at the small business end in
\nTasmania you actually get people saying I won’t hire those people, I
\ndo need them, but I won’t hire them because one day I might have to
\nfire them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is no doubt this is the attitude of many small businesses and
\nit is<\/em> hard being a small business person. But it also hard
\nbeing a low paid worker with a mortgage and a family to support. <\/p>\n

Don’t faint but Unions Tasmania<\/a> secretary, Simon Cocker,
\ndoesn’t agree:<\/p>\n

Here we’re facing the very real prospect that these medium
\nsize enterprises will be able to say to their workers, "here’s
\nyour AWA, if you don’t like it, walk", and that worker has got
\nno comeback.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How can we ever get these two sides to agree?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well we don’t give much hope to TCCI’s answer<\/p>\n

If you don’t treat your workforce properly, you’ll have no
\nmotivation, you’ll have less productivity, and at the end of the day,
\nyou’re the loser, as well as the worker.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer, Tim Jeanes states the obvious:<\/p>\n

But that’s just words. I mean, realistically, what can we
\nput in place?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which Thomas replies:<\/p>\n

Well, one part of it will be, or could be, a proper coordinated
\neducation and promotions campaign about that very issue, and that’s
\none thing that our chamber has actually put to the Federal Government
\n\u2013 a proposal for a small, but significant, pilot program to be
\nrun in Tasmania whereby every employer in the State would receive a
\nproper guide on how to hire, how to treat, how to deal with your employees,
\nproper workplace practices, and offer that on an annual basis to make
\nsure that people were up to date with how you get the best productivity
\nout of your workforce, and how your workforce gets the best out of you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh, that’s just great. Perhaps we could do the same with car thieves.
\nLet’s remove the laws against car theft and implement an education program
\nto show these people the effects stealing cars is going to have on their
\nlives.<\/p>\n

Many, many employers know about keeping their staff motivated, but
\na lot don’t. They have just started up their businesses and their HR
\nskills are not great. Why should they be? They didn’t go into business
\nto be HR managers. But unfortunately like it or not, that’s one of the
\nthings they have to be.<\/p>\n

This is the central issue about unfair dismissal. It’s not that employers
\ndon’t have the ability to fire underperforming employees, they don’t
\nhave the skills to manage underperformance.<\/p>\n

Instead of arguing for relaxation of unfair dismissal, peak employer
\nbodies like TCCI and the Australian
\nChamber of Commerce and Industry<\/a> should be arguing for more support
\nfor employers in this vital area, Imagine how more productive Australia
\ncould be if we improved the management of performance in small business.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, chriscurnow.com believes that both sides in this debate
\nare too blinded be either idealogy or downright fear to be able to see
\nthe other’s side of the fence.<\/p>\n

The government is blinded by the idealogical view that employers are
\nputting up the money and they should be able to do what they want.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the Opposition Labor Party is too bound up in trying
\nto make find a political handle on this issue.<\/p>\n

Both the peak employer and union bodies are a bit closer to the action
\nand see the real fears of their members. <\/p>\n

Australia crys out for a leader who will bring these two groups together
\nrather than driving them apart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal government’s proposal to remove unfair dismissal provisions for companies with less than 100 employees certainly has a lot of people talking. This segment on ABC radio’s pm program tonight discusses the possibility that Tasmania may become the pathfinder for the rest of Australia in the battleground over the issue. [T]he Australian State with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}