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Issue No. 187 | 18 July 2003 |
Hearts, Minds and Other Body Parts
Interview: As They Say In The Bible ... Industrial: Just Doing It Unions: Breaking Into the Boys Club Activists: Making the Hard Yards Bad Boss: In the Pooh Unions: National Focus Economics: Pop Will Eat Itself Technology: Dean for President International: Rangoon Rumble Education: Blackboard Jungle Review: From Weakness to Strength Poetry: Downsized
Authority Shafts Excessive Mine Hours Insurance Quiz: Money or the Baby? Monk Lined up with Jihad Masters Vote Snooping Bosses Out of House US Actors Back Aussie Comrades Teachers Caught in Family Feud Longer Strikes Spark Picket Code Max Sets Athens as Airport Standard Indigenous First for Construction Call Centre Jobs Diverted From Delhi
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard
Sid Einfield Would be Proud Tom in the Manger Sermon on the Mount
Labor Council of NSW |
News Insurance Quiz: Money or the Baby?
It�s one of the reasons he is sporting a FSU �I Have A Life� sticker and backing workmates� campaign to resist longer working hours Australia�s largest general insurer, IAG, is trying to force on them. "Our boy's 10 months old, he's just at the age where he's open and aware of what's going on. If IAG had it's way, Callum would be going to bed when I got in the door," Loaney said. He explained that workers from IAG's city offices had already given up 20 minutes or more a day to accommodate the company's March shift to Pyrmont premises. Its current campaign for lowest common denominator working hours, he said, was one step too far. Loaney explained that some workmates used the flexitime system in operation at IAG to try and take a full day off with their families each month. An extra half hour a day would make that ambition, too, more difficult. IAG has swallowed up a number of operations, along with different working hours patterns, in recent years. Some divisions have traditionally worked 37.5 or 38 hours a week, while workers formely with NRMA Insurance have worked 35. When it came time for EBA renewal the company decided it would base its claim for standardised hours on the longest working day. Workers from across the departments decided they wanted the shortest day, even ahead of the 7.1 percent pay offer the company has put on the table. The feeling is shared by staff at IAG's Victorian arm, IMA. When 500 of them were surveyed by a joint management-union committee 420 voted no to the payrise when it was tagged to an increased half an hour a day at work. Underwriting manager Loaney said he had been surprised and encouraged by the strength of feeling about working hours. He estimated membership at Pyrmont had surged by as much as 50 percent since the issue cropped up. He accused IAG of failing to live up to its claim to be an "employer of choice". "We can work 35 hours, get the job done, and spend good quality time with our families. That's the way we want it," he said.
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