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Issue No. 293 | 20 December 2005 |
Waves of Destruction
Interview: Back to the Future Unions: A Real Page Turner Industrial: The Pin-Striped Union International: Around The World In 365 Days Legends: Terrific, Tommy Your Rights At Work: Worth Fighting For Politics: The Year That Was Economics: Master and Servant Revisited Culture: 2005: The Year of Living Repetitively Bad Boss: The Bottom Ten Religion: Hymns from a Different Song Sheet
Harper's Bizarre Excuse for Failure Workers Walk As Warnings Wiped Professionals Fear for Their Kids
Predictions The Soapbox Parliament The Locker Room Postcard
Free to Rat Tax Cuts and Cockroaches Proportion, Not Distortion Corp That!
Labor Council of NSW |
News Teenager Hit With Shrapnel
Geelong football identity, Mick Atkins, turned catty when Dharnae Kern insisted on being paid for 12 hours work in his greasy parlour. Atkins withheld half her earnings in tax, leaving Kern with less than $60 - at $4.98 an hour - for her work. "I thought it was ridiculous - just really petty," Kern said. The dux of her year at Sacred Heart College took the job for extra money during school holidays, but quit when Atkins demanded she worked weekends because it clashed with another job. "He [Atkins] knew I worked Sundays there [at the other job]," Kern said. Kern said when she asked for payment for the hours she had worked, Atkins told her he didn't have to pay because she "mucked him around". When her father, Walter, called to ask for payment - on the advice of Government service WageLine - Atkins responded with small change. After Kern's father approached the local Trades Hall, more than 80 people protested outside Gilligan's Fish and Chips to demand an apology. "[The Trades Hall] were my only avenue [available]," Walter Kern said. Geelong Trades Hall Secretary Tim Gooden said light needed to be thrown on cases where bosses were being difficult. "There's a lot of good employers around, but bad bosses will force them to drive their conditions down," Gooden said. Walter Kern, an AMWU member, said he was proud of his daughter. "She's good at that - she doesn't stand for injustice," he said. He said all he wanted was for his daughter to get paid, but the five cent coins and the high tax rate had got him "really cheesed off". "It's really terrible this attitude of adults, throwing their weight around against young people."
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