A Final Word

Any good employer will be happy to talk about all of these topics and will be completely open and transparent about all of these things. Just make sure that you ask politely and provide them with the space to answer your questions – they might not know the answer off the top of their head.  Also, whilst good employers aren’t perfect, they will change when they find out that they don’t comply for some reason. So if you have a good employer then don’t hesitate to ask about this stuff.

If on the other hand you have a bad employer, here are some things that I would never compromise on. The deal breakers:

• Minimum wage. If an employer will not pay you what you are legally entitled to be paid, then walk away. (And if they tell you that they can’t afford to pay you more because the clients won’t pay more and their insurances are too expensive, etc etc etc then ask them if they think it is right for the employees of the organisation to subsidise the business or reduce the price of the product by sacrificing their wages).

• Unpaid training and prep work, etc. This is illegal. Don’t do it. 

• Sham contracting. If an employer will only pay you as a contractor and the conditions don’t meet what I talked about above, walk away.

• Cash in hand. Don’t work for cash in hand in the outdoors. The legal risks if you get injured or if something goes wrong on the program are simply too messy and really bad for you.

• Not getting paid. This is a huge risk for you. If an employer doesn’t pay you your wages or superannuation then bring it up straight away. And if it drags on or happens more than once, take it up with the Fair Work Ombudsman and walk away.

• Foreign entities in Australia. There are too many loopholes that I don’t understand and the risk financially and to my health (WHS) is unclear. I won’t work for foreign entities on Australian soil (unless they can demonstrate they meet all of the criteria that Australian employers have to meet).

• Workers compensation insurance. If you ask for this and they can’t give you the details of the insurer or a certificate of currency in 30 seconds flat then walk away.

• A good health and safety culture. Again, no business is perfect, but some are downright bad. If safety issues aren’t being addressed, if suggestions aren’t welcome, if dodgy stuff is going on: then you’re best to leave. This includes harassment and/or a lack of action on it. Especially when harassment or lack of action on it is from the senior management.

• Writing things down. You don’t need to have all of these millions of things I’ve discussed in this document written down. But if an organisation is unwilling to provide documentation, or is unwilling to provide evidence or paperwork of key stuff (insurances, payslips, agreements about your job), then in my experience they aren’t good for it and you don’t want to get burned.

• And finally: Dickheads. Don’t work for dickheads. They are out there. If someone stuffs you around once, then maybe they had a bad day, but if they stuff you around again: walk away.

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In my employment over the years I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way (seriously hard) and I hope that this information saves you from those same painful and costly experiences. 

I also hope that you will share this information widely with your peers, and especially with new people in the industry: the young and vulnerable workers who we want to have a long and successful careers in this industry.

I believe that it is only through education that we will see positive change in the workplace relations arena.