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Keywords: Workplace

  • AUSTRALIA

    The unique labour conditions of millennials

    • Sonia Nair
    • 28 November 2016
    11 Comments

    Belonging to a generation where I was constantly told I could do anything I set my mind to, I was carted off to every class imaginable as a young child - art class, violin class, music theory class, English literature tutoring and so forth. But the advent of unparalleled choices that was constantly peddled to me did not coincide with an increase in the spaces that are available for young people to excel, or much less be employed, in the fields of their choice.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Increasing retirement age will cost the budget

    • Michele Gierck
    • 06 May 2015
    6 Comments

    Treasurer Joe Hockey is keen for us to work as long as possible. The government’s aim is to keep the hands of ageing workers and would be retirees out of its pension pot. There are many benefits associated with maintaining older people in the workforce, but it can be expensive to take, for example, the reality of dementia into account when designing jobs and workplaces.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Ritual procrastination as part of the grieving process

    • Jim Pilmer
    • 05 December 2014
    10 Comments

    Personal grief, complicated by group dynamics, is a volatile mixture. Phillip Hughes' death reminds us that personal stories highlight the huge variety of needs and perceptions surrounding a death in the workplace. When do we tidy the desk of the colleague who won't be back? There is a time, but maybe it's not yet. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rise of the corporate cowboys

    • Tony Smith
    • 29 September 2014
    7 Comments

    Unfortunately, when people pin their hopes for a just and fair society to a corporation, they can be sadly disappointed. A spate of deaths around the country suggests that many corporations have plenty of power to influence governments to produce policies and legislation convenient for their operations, but fail to take responsibility for their bad outcomes, which include deaths in workplaces.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Letting Australian industry die promotes workplace slavery elsewhere

    • Michael Mullins
    • 26 May 2014
    9 Comments

    The Australian Government needs to be less cavalier and reticent to subsidise local manufacturers, who are obliged to be transparent about their work practices and bear the costs of this. When our politicians praise workplace efficiency in other countries, they are promoting manufacturing processes that often exploit workers.

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  • MEDIA

    Lady legend of Jesuit Publications

    • Morag Fraser
    • 14 May 2014
    2 Comments

    Jesuit Publications was a robust workplace, with characters enough to fill a Trollope novel. Geraldine was one of the characters, but she was also an essential ingredient in the glue that kept us together. One morning she arrived, a little overheated from the long tram ride in, and checked herself in one of the mirrored pillars. I heard the shriek from upstairs. 'I've come all the way to work, in the tram, in my black petticoat. I forgot to put on my skirt!'

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Workplace safety issues in South Korean ferry disaster

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 29 April 2014
    6 Comments

    It would be unfeeling and presumptuous to speculate on the causes of the disaster. But it may be helpful to enumerate the questions that have been asked, as they disclose a pattern. In travel by ship, as in many other enterprises, there are two sets of interests: the operational interests of those who provide the service, and the interests of those who benefit from the service. Companies ideally take both seriously, but they stand in tension.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Rebuilding humanity after workplace horror

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 04 April 2013
    3 Comments

    Stéphanie loses her legs in a workplace accident. Alain is a single father who becomes her confidante. Their sexual encounters are shown to restore and affirm her dignity; they highlight the physicality of the act, particularly how Stéphanie's confidence in her own changed body flourishes through it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How to handle workplace bullies

    • Luke Williams
    • 28 August 2012
    20 Comments

    The Federal Workplace Bullying Inquiry has been told Australian workers are getting soft. There may be a fine line between robust performance management and workplace bullying, but international surveys have repeatedly shown Australian managers fail international benchmarks when it comes to the treatment of their people.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Fair Work works well

    • Luke Williams
    • 08 August 2012
    4 Comments

    A major review into the Fair Work Act says the nation's workplace laws are 'working well'. Industry response has been predictable, uncompromising and even dishonest. The question we should ask is: do the majority of Australians (not just bosses) think we have a fair system which rewards hard work and productivity?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Social justice arguments against dismissal regulation

    • Paul Oslington
    • 19 March 2012
    6 Comments

    A subtle effect of dismissal regulation is that it penalises workers who are risky for employers, such as those returning to work after a break to rear children, those with a disability, or from particular racial groups. The most vulnerable in the labour market miss out as employers lean towards 'safe' workers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard's guts and glory

    • Moira Rayner
    • 28 February 2012
    49 Comments

    This rough, tough former workplace lawyer came, as we knew she does, into her own when she was on her feet, fighting for her political life. Now for the first time since she put on the prime ministerial stilettos in 2010 we can sense the steel core within those blue suede size 36 heels.

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