eKourier April 2019

NEV’S NOTES

Nev enjoyed expressing his ideas in this section of the Kourier. These little gems have been appreciated by many in KSS. We will continue to publish his ideas that we have in stock. Enjoy! J obs, jobs, jobs, they say, those politicians. They know that if there are a lot of people out of work they will not get re-elected. And GOVERNMENT LIKES EMPLOYMENT BUT HATE EMPLOYERS NEVS NOTES There are Wrongful Dismissal Rules that make getting rid of an unsatisfactory employee difficult. Staff dismissal can be a painful, wasteful and undignified process

yet they do everything they can to load costs and burdens on to employers. With so few parliamentarians who have ever had real jobs, let alone owned and run a successful business, there is little understanding of what it’s like to start, to own, to manage a successful business. Being in business is about the most challenging and satisfying thing a person can do. Running a business is fraught with commercial and financial challenges, with satisfying customers, with keeping up with the latest developments, with training and retaining good people. And then there are countless, and often confusing and silly regulations, licenses and permits to abide by. Business has enough problems without all this, but the bureaucrats and politicians include in their plethora of regulations many that deter and impede employing people to help operate and grow your business. There are minimum wage law and awards, that interfere with how staff and bosses may determine their working relationship to their mutual advantage. There is Four Weeks Holiday Pay that an employer must provide for, regardless of whether the employee wants to take that number of holidays or not. There is Payroll Tax — a sure deterrent to employment and a cost to employers (and, of course, to customers, who it is ultimately passed on to). Workers Compensation Insurance; Long-service leave; Superannuation; these are costs that must be built into the cost of hiring staff. The cost of hiring can add 50% to the workers wages for the employer to pay.

to go through. Even if there is dishon- esty, unreliability or disruptive behaviour, a Wrongful Dismissal Claim can be painful and expensive, so employers hire staff reluctantly. I know small business people, trades-people, who refuse to employ staff because of these burdens, even though their business could well use extra people. “If you can’t fire, don’t hire,” is a useful dictum to remember. common-sense (and thus unnecessary) or a mess of time- and money-sapping red tape that make simple jobs, like changing a light globe or climbing a ladder, a major chore. Thus governments put employment- sapping burdens on the work-place and employers that deter them from hiring. It is just as well that the wonderful sense of purpose, satisfaction and pride (and perhaps profit) that running an enterprise affords a businessman or woman sometimes does outweigh the disincen- tives imposed by The State. There are a plethora of Occupational Health and Safety Laws that are either I would like to emphasise that most people, most staff, most employees are good workers, honest and keen to do their best. They respond well to respect and to training, to inclusion in the decision-making ‘

process. But a few bad eggs, a few union-influenced employees, the odd resentful Team Member, can spoil it for everyone. And when the rules and regulations get known by employees it can turn a few marginal workers into “rent-seekers” looking for a free ride for a while. The bureaucrats who impose and police the regulations are a cost to tax-payers, and so taxes get soaked up with bureaucracies doing work that is actually destructive to employ- ment, and destructive to productivity and to the affordability of the product or service that the employer wants to provide to his customers. There are more employees than there are employers, and they vote, so it is likely that the burden on employers will grow and grow. Few Politicians (especially in the Labor Party in Australia) have ever had a real job, let alone run a business, so they have never felt the dumb, irksome and insulting burden that is imposed on employers. It is just as well that the wonderful sense of purpose, satisfaction and pride (and perhaps profit) that running an enterprise affords a businessman or woman sometimes does outweigh the disincentives imposed by The State.

‘

February 3rd, 2011

19 Kennards Kourier April 2019