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June 28, 2005

Can education replace the law?

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 perhaps the most at stake is Tasmania, where the vast majority of companies have fewer than 100 employees.

We can understand it from the employer's point of vies. chriscurnow.com has a lot of sympathy for people who mortgage their houses and sign away the rights to their firstborn children in order to set up their own small business. It's hard work and it although it has its privileges, the constant battle to keep cash flowing in the door is mostly heart-wrenching.

However, we are saddened by the attitude of employers who feel that unfair dismissal is their enemy,

In the words of Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive Damon Thomas

Businesses we're talking about a very wary of hiring new people. In fact, it's an unfortunate truism that at the small business end in Tasmania you actually get people saying I won't hire those people, I do need them, but I won't hire them because one day I might have to fire them.

There is no doubt this is the attitude of many small businesses and it is hard being a small business person. But it also hard being a low paid worker with a mortgage and a family to support.

Don't faint but Unions Tasmania secretary, Simon Cocker, doesn't agree:

Here we're facing the very real prospect that these medium size enterprises will be able to say to their workers, "here's your AWA, if you don't like it, walk", and that worker has got no comeback.

How can we ever get these two sides to agree?

 

Well we don't give much hope to TCCI's answer

If you don't treat your workforce properly, you'll have no motivation, you'll have less productivity, and at the end of the day, you're the loser, as well as the worker.

Interviewer, Tim Jeanes states the obvious:

But that's just words. I mean, realistically, what can we put in place?

To which Thomas replies:

Well, one part of it will be, or could be, a proper coordinated education and promotions campaign about that very issue, and that's one thing that our chamber has actually put to the Federal Government – a proposal for a small, but significant, pilot program to be run in Tasmania whereby every employer in the State would receive a proper guide on how to hire, how to treat, how to deal with your employees, proper workplace practices, and offer that on an annual basis to make sure that people were up to date with how you get the best productivity out of your workforce, and how your workforce gets the best out of you.

Oh, that's just great. Perhaps we could do the same with car thieves. Let's remove the laws against car theft and implement an education program to show these people the effects stealing cars is going to have on their lives.

Many, many employers know about keeping their staff motivated, but a lot don't. They have just started up their businesses and their HR skills are not great. Why should they be? They didn't go into business to be HR managers. But unfortunately like it or not, that's one of the things they have to be.

This is the central issue about unfair dismissal. It's not that employers don't have the ability to fire underperforming employees, they don't have the skills to manage underperformance.

Instead of arguing for relaxation of unfair dismissal, peak employer bodies like TCCI and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry should be arguing for more support for employers in this vital area, Imagine how more productive Australia could be if we improved the management of performance in small business.

Unfortunately, chriscurnow.com believes that both sides in this debate are too blinded be either idealogy or downright fear to be able to see the other's side of the fence.

The government is blinded by the idealogical view that employers are putting up the money and they should be able to do what they want.

On the other hand, the Opposition Labor Party is too bound up in trying to make find a political handle on this issue.

Both the peak employer and union bodies are a bit closer to the action and see the real fears of their members.

Australia crys out for a leader who will bring these two groups together rather than driving them apart.

Posted by chriscurnow at June 28, 2005 8:56 PM

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