Discrimination in employment.

[geoffw]

My oldest daughter has been looking for a job in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. Her area is hospitality.

She is usually asked where she comes from. When she tells people she is Australian she is told they are not interested.

There are enough backpackers willing to work illegally for cash payments at very low rates. They don't want people who are above board and who must be paid full rates.

 

[mikezen]

I recruit for hospitality, I imagine she's been talking to restaurants, check out compass group, plenty of work, hundreds of sites, global company, always hiring, everything's above board

 

[geoffw]

I'll pass that on, thanks Mike.

She may have an office job now, which was her first preference. An emergency operation though just at the wrong time will perhaps not be well regarded.

 

[TMNT]

Discrimination based on race in every industry is an everyday thing,

People being politically correct will not admit to it or confirm it

Being a tall white male in the corporate world has been proven to be the ultimate advantage

Imagine being an Indian applying for a IT job? I wouldn't

Unfortunately it's reality, nothing more you can do is to just accept it and keep on trying

 

[Nemo30]

A few things you can do - report your/her suspicions to several government agencies

Tax office (cash in hand)
Fairwork Australia (not paying award rates)
Immigration (if employing people without an appropriate work visa)

It could just be a case of the business having a particular demographic customer base and they want someone who appeals to that demographic - everything else is above board.

 

[geoffw]

Discrimination is not a new thing. But I was surprised to see discrimination against Australians in Australia- and more so to see it expressed openly. It's more usual for people to keep their agendas hidden.

In IT I've always worked with an extremely diverse group of people. And as an employer I had a very diverse group of people.

 

[china]

As an employer, my preference is always for people over 40 and under 60. They need to speak Australian English well , be organised and efficient. Their citizenship and appearance is not important.

 

[weg]

They probably want the workers they think will be prepared to do the ***** work.

Sons very first job was one of these - weekly cleaning in a bakery removing hard doe from under benches and the ground...on his hands and knees, with scourer in hand and bucket of near boiling water with him at all times, except when cleaning the toilets.

Son only stayed as long as he did because we said he had a commitment to stay a bit longer .

The boss, a friend of ours said after he gave in his notice that it was no problem as he would find an *insert nationality* who would do the job.

It was good experience for him though, if only to let him appreciate future jobs.

 

[hobo-jo]

Just another indication that Aussie minimum wages are too high.

 

[D.T.]

Just another indication that Aussie minimum wages are too high.

They'd be fine if certain companies / nationalities didnt undercut them.

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

My oldest daughter has been looking for a job in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. Her area is hospitality.

She is usually asked where she comes from. When she tells people she is Australian she is told they are not interested.

There are enough backpackers willing to work illegally for cash payments at very low rates. They don't want people who are above board and who must be paid full rates.

because we don't want the headaches, we are trying to run a business. We want someone who is prepared to work in their heart for an 'agreed wage'.

Why take the risk, when there is a pool of labour out there that is genuinely happy to work at that 'agreed' rate. A small business is not a large company, we don't have the resources to engage specialist labour law lawyers, develop specialised 'work place contracts'.

So we hire ethnic groups that present less problems. Unfortunately 'Australian' is near the bottom of the list.

And how do you positively discriminate, by demanding competency in second languages.

Welcome to Melbourne and Sydney

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

A few things you can do - report your/her suspicions to several government agencies

Tax office (cash in hand)
Fairwork Australia (not paying award rates)
Immigration (if employing people without an appropriate work visa)

It could just be a case of the business having a particular demographic customer base and they want someone who appeals to that demographic - everything else is above board.

and that's exactly why most small businesses act the way they do.

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

Discrimination is not a new thing. But I was surprised to see discrimination against Australians in Australia- and more so to see it expressed openly. It's more usual for people to keep their agendas hidden.

In IT I've always worked with an extremely diverse group of people. And as an employer I had a very diverse group of people.

For what its worth its got nothing to do with your family historical back ground, its got to do with being 'Australian'. Hope this helps

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

They probably want the workers they think will be prepared to do the ***** work.

Sons very first job was one of these - weekly cleaning in a bakery removing hard doe from under benches and the ground...on his hands and knees, with scourer in hand and bucket of near boiling water with him at all times, except when cleaning the toilets.

Son only stayed as long as he did because we said he had a commitment to stay a bit longer .

The boss, a friend of ours said after he gave in his notice that it was no problem as he would find an *insert nationality* who would do the job.

It was good experience for him though, if only to let him appreciate future jobs.

Yes we want workers who will value that they are being paid for employment.
If they don't have skills they will get all the SH**T jobs
If they show loyalty they will be promoted.

A small business owner in general is NOT in compliance with all the laws and regulations. There are exceptions but if you look at all small businesses this will be the case, but of course no small business person is going to stick their hand up and say no I am not in compliance. They keep under the radar.

For those that start to argue, some of the 'workers' who have been in our group for 8yrs are now looking at incomes approaching $200k.

How do they achieve that?
because we offer loyal employees the opportunity to buy equity in the various businesses.

No private messages on all of this.

 

[dex]

They'd be fine if certain companies / nationalities didnt undercut them.

That's called globalization, can't do anything about it.

 

[dex]

They probably want staff who are hard working, don't take sickies and don't have an entitlement attitude. They don't want the headaches of someone who will threaten to call the union or demand to be paid minimum wage with correct overtime, super, work cover and sick leave. Australians are generally lazy in nature and want at least $20 an hour so you can't blame the employers for wanting backpackers, especially if its unskilled work.

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

They probably want staff who are hard working, don't take sickies and don't have an entitlement attitude. They don't want the headaches of someone who will threaten to call the union or demand to be paid minimum wage with correct overtime, super, work cover and sick leave. Australians are generally lazy in nature and want at least $20 an hour so you can't blame the employers for wanting backpackers, especially if its unskilled work like hospitality.

Exactly, in the office we have no public holidays, the 'boss' expects all head office employees to be in the office by afternoon on public holidays.

There is no 'fixed hours' for head office, you have your jobs, go and do them.

Yes sick leave in the organisation is significantly below national averages, overtime??? whats that???, super is paid as well as work cover.

Also how much does it cost a business for TRAINING???

The organisation will not invest in training unless we have a reasonable degree of certainty that that person will be with the organisation. That training costs money in terms of time and resources.

Luckily the orginisation is quite fortunate in that the organisation can be quite honest in the organisations promotional program.
In a nutshell, if we devote resources to you, how do we know that you will be with us in the future????

And why can the organisation be honest?
because we have a strict screening process

 

[geoffw]

My small business was a part of a franchise system- but we were responsible for our own workplace contracts. I tried hard to be compliant, and I was audited to ensure compliance. This covered food safety, workplace health and safety, and employment. There were small problems discovered by the audits but they were small enough to be given the chance to correct. In fact my shop was the best for food safety and WPHS in the food court, and compliant in all aspects of employment.

I didn't ever find the need to break laws or to pay people cash in hand.

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

My small business was a part of a franchise system- but we were responsible for our own workplace contracts. I tried hard to be compliant, and I was audited to ensure compliance. This covered food safety, workplace health and safety, and employment. There were small problems discovered by the audits but they were small enough to be given the chance to correct. In fact my shop was the best for food safety and WPHS in the food court, and compliant in all aspects of employment.

I didn't ever find the need to break laws or to pay people cash in hand.

And I have a close friend who also runs several subways.

One way to get past the system is to manually adjust the wages book. An official book that goes to 'subway', and the real book.

For example
Minimum wages $17,
Actual wages $14.

Adjust hours by 14/17. ie divide actual numbers worked by dividing 14/17

The employee will receive the 'income expected', but the hours will be less

Again welcome to Sydney and Melbourne.

For a franchisee its very hard to pay 'cash', so the above system is used.

How does the boss of a subway make some personal 'cash income'
* sell your drinks to other nearby small businesses on a cash only basis. Your pricing is quite good. So your COGS will increase (because of higher drink sales (not the cup version, only cases sold), yet the income side magically disappears. This also has the effect of reducing GST payable and tax on any net profit for the store
* function packages on a cash only basis, ie platters
*trusted staff during peak periods when the boss is there, the boss handles the cash till, doesn't ring through all the sales, the boss is the one operating the cash till, the other staff make the sandwiches.

These are only the ones I know off

 

[geoffw]

Small stuff and not worth doing IMO. I never felt the need to do. It's possible to run a business ethically and legally.

A franchisor knows exactly how much product a franchisee is buying. Anything above a small discrepancy between bread bought and sandwiches sold rings a bell.

When a store is being sold there are indicators as to performance. If a store's costs are outside a small range you know that something is wrong and the figures are dodgy.

It only takes one disgruntled employee to report an employer who doesn't pay according to the rules. And I've been threatened. And not by locals actually- the very worst was an overseas student who I found out later had been convicted of rape but who was out on appeal. The very best defence against a threat is to have done everything by the book.