E D I T O R I A L

Icarus Rising
Right now John Howard is flying. Watch him soar in his Vodafone track-suit, further than the Hawke into unchartered skies.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Australia@Work
Labor's Penny Wong has the job of getting more people into the workplace and keeping companies honest. In her spare time ....

Unions: State of the Union
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson unveils the annual survey of attitudes of workers to their jobs, thier lives and the union.

Industrial: Fashion Accessories
Jim Marr unpacks the unlikely claim of a suburban house to be considered the New Mecca of the New Right �

Legal: Leg Before Picket
Chris White looks at how the federal industrial changes will impact on the basic right to strike.

Politics: Business Welfare Brats
Neale Towart asks why the only form of legitmate welfare seems to be going to the top end of town.

Health: Cannabis Controversy
Zoe Reynolds looks at how drug and alcohol testing is leading to some addled outcomes.

Economics: Debt, Deficit, Downturn
As the indicators head south, Frank Stilwell wonders whether it is the way we do economics that is to blame.

History: Politics In The Pubs
Phil Doyle reports on the increasingly-popular Struggles, Scabs and Schooners day out.

Review: Three Bob's Worth
Doing their best Margaret and David, Tara de Boehmler and Tim Brunero have different takes on the new Australian flick Three Dollars.

Poetry: Do The Slowly Chokie
Workers Online bard David Peetz teaches how workers to dance to Howard's industrial laws.

N E W S

Health System to Subsidise Shonks

Who Likes Bing Lee?

Death Threats Shut Campsie

Thumbs Down for Union Busters

Advocate Pours Salt on Wound

United Front Beats Drug Boss

Kev Backs Double Standard

Victorian Morality Shafts Teacher

Doctors Prescribe More

Multinational Banks Jobs

Working Class Idol

Greens Protect Entitlements

Activist�s What�s On

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Notes From a Laneway
Mental Health Workers Alliance member Toby Raeburn shares a week on the frontline.

The Locker Room
War, Plus The Shooting
The Socceroos aren�t their own worst enemy after all, or so says Phil Doyle

Culture
Life Imitates Art
The jokes have been around for some time about the economic rationalist's approach to the orchestra, writes Evan Jones.

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Ian West takes the secret passage out of Macquarie Street to deliver his take on NSW Parliamentary Committees and other goings on.

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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My Restaurant Tools

*****

It's not easy being a boss. Apparently you have to pay your staff.

So found out our Tool Of The Week Evan Hansimikali, restaurateur and sometime industrial relations expert.

Evan, who operates a restaurant on the Seven Network's My Restaurant Rules reality TV show found it a bit difficult coming to terms with the fact that he had to pay his staff, so he thought he's just cut their wages by $300 a week.

Not that this is Evan's doing mind you. He assures us that it is a simple lapse in communication, an editing problem.

And if that doesn't convince you, well, Evan has it hard you know. And he's not afraid to tell you. After all, he's the boss and he has it hard.

Why sometimes he has even had to take out the garbage!

The shame of it all!

Luckily in John Howard's Australia Evan has these things that he calls Australian Wage Agreement (AWA), which apparently allow him to rip $300 a week out of a pay packet.

Maybe he means an Australian Workplace Agreements?

Who knows?

Certainly not Evan.

After all, our Tool Of The Week likes to take Workplace Laws as general set of guidelines. Apparently making sure workers are being paid in more than Pink Salt is waste of taxpayers money - or so our little brat thought after his place was raided by State industrial relations inspectors.

You'd think that if you were on national TV you'd take a little time to at least make sure you were doing the right thing, but when your hairstyle is more important than the working conditions of your employees why should we be surprised.

It's probably just a good example of just how much hospitality operators think of their employees. If this is going on under the glare of TV cameras, imaging what the conditions are like at 9pm on a Thursday night at Westfield's?

Luckily, our Tool Of The Week has decided to share his wisdom with us on his weblog:

Evan's tip for the day: If you are an employee and have a problem with your pay, talk to the boss not the cameras...and the problem will be resolved!

No doubt turning to the TV cameras is a regular option for hospitality workers.

With that sort of fantastic HR skills and brilliant human insight is it little wonder his chef left for greener pastures.

Over the last week or two nearly 1000 people have responded with emails, congratulating Evan on being such a Tool that he'd need a street directory to find the end of his left leg.

You too can congratulate Evan by sending him an email here.

Meanwhile in the Kitchen, life grinds wearily on .

Show Us YOUR TOOL! The most inspiring interpretation of this week's tool get's a souvenir edition of Ship of Tools. Deface the Tool of the Week, click the button above to post your artwork, fill out the form and send your entry in and we'll post the winners next week in the Tool of the Week Gallery.

Ship of Tools - All the tools in one shed!

Nominate a Tool!

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 257 contents

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URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/257/d_pierswatch_pinktool.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005