Paying independent contractors on time
Independent Contractors of Australia advice…
According to the Adelaide Advertsier (26 February), the Minister for Independent Contractors has announced that new legislation will be introduced to require government departments to pay small businesses and independent contractors within 30 days of invoice or be charged penalties and interest. This is a positive development that will have particular impact in the IT sector for example. For more details, see the original press release here.
Certainly in our experience, the government has not always been very good at paying on time… so being able to know charge penalty interest is a step in the right direction. But will they accept the charge?
hhmmmm that is the question…
It’s About Time: Women, men, work and family
The women, men, work and family project was launched by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward in 2005. It examines the relationship between family responsibilities and paid work.
Striking the balance between paid work and family life has become more than a “barbeque stopper” – it is one of the major challenges facing families, employers and governments.
HREOC released a discussion paper, Striking the Balance: Women, men, work and family in June 2005.
The project builds on the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission’s previous work on paid maternity leave and the Pregnancy and Work Inquiry by examining the broader issues for Australians who seek to combine paid work and family responsibilities.
At the heart of efforts to “strike the balance” between paid work and family and carer responsibilities is the issue of time.
It’s About Time: Women, men, work and family is the final paper of this project.
It’s About Time draws on material provided through 181 submissions from individuals and groups and 44 consultations and focus groups held around Australia throughout 2005 and 2006. HREOC heard many personal stories during the consultations and focus groups and spoke to employers, employer groups, employees, unions, community groups, parents, carers and children.
Despite a decade or more of economic growth and prosperity, many Australians say they are not living the lives they want. They feel pressured, stressed and constrained in the choices they can make, particularly at key points in their lives.
Family relationships top their list of priorities, but the demands of paid work increasingly undermine the time that people have to care for their children, parents and other family members.
While a large number of workplaces have family-friendly policies, many others do not.
The cost of not finding solutions to this challenge can be immense, particularly for individuals who are forced to take poorer quality paid work in order to meet their dual responsibilities or who have to drop out of the labour market altogether.
There are also costs for employers, particularly in industries with skills shortages, and costs for the economy as a whole in terms of workforce participation and productivity.
The aim has been to broaden the work and family debate to better include men’s role in family life, include forms of care other than child care (such as elder care and care for people with disability) and to highlight the relationship between paid work and unpaid work.
It’s About Time makes the case for a new framework to support a balance between paid work and family responsibilities. This new framework recognises changes in caring needs and responsibilities across the life cycle, addresses equality between men and women and reflects a “shared work – valued care” approach.
It proposes a series of changes to legislation, workplace policy and practice and government programs to support this new approach.
Making this new framework a reality requires commitment from governments, employers, communities, families and individuals because, in the end, striking the balance between paid work and family is a shared responsibility.
These proposed changes to legislation will most certainly affect your organisation in time, possibly sooner rather than later.
How committed and open will your organisation be??
Will it be ready to share the responsibility?….
Brush-off for small business
Sarah-Jane Collins’ (for The Age) opinion on the other hand is not as complimentary…
Small business owners are frustrated that they still do not have a voice in federal cabinet, after expectations that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would promote the portfolio were dashed when the ministry was announced.
The chairman of the Council of Small Business of Australia said he was disappointed the Labor Government had not given small business a chair at the top table.
“I’m very disappointed in Prime Minister Rudd that he hasn’t recognised our importance by giving us a minister in cabinet,” Bob Stanton said as the first cabinet meeting was under way in Brisbane yesterday…
Mr Stanton said he had expected the Labor Government to move the portfolio into cabinet, but when the announcements were made last week the new minister, Craig Emerson, was in the outer ministry.
hhhmmmmmm
Minister for Independent Contractors. World first
Craig Emerson is the new Minister for Independent Contractors. His portfolio also covers small business, services economy and assisting the Finance Minister with business red tape reduction. Australia led the world with the first Independent Contractors Act which ensures independent contractors are subject to commercial law and not industrial relations law. The ALP has committed to this principle. It has now appointed a Minister to secure this principle. ICA believes this is also a world first.
Given that individual contractors are becoming more the way of the world, an initiative like this must be looked on favourably. One can now only hope that Mr Emerson is the right one for the job! and is capable of setting up this type of work, along with the rest of his portfolio, for now and the future…
Decision time: election countdown
With the countdown to Saturday’s election well and truly over, Mysmallbusiness asks small business groups to sum up the offerings of each party and outline what they would like to see from the new government.
What do you want to see from the new government?
As it worked out the way you want it too?
Where can you see most value in the offerings?
In addition to this, during 2007 ICA had extensive liaison with the ALP on its independent contractor policies. They published ALP statements and commentary. Featured is a consolidation of the key ALP statements and the ICA comments. ICA are assured by the ALP that these statements are the firm policies that it took to the November 24 election and ICA assume they will be the polices implemented during this term of its government.
The Creation of Conscious Culture through Educational Innovation
by Michael Strong of ChangeThis.com
Michael Strong has a vision of schools which will promote authentic learning for our youth. He has a vision of creating institutions that model positive behavior. He believes that our society doesn’t provide this guidance early enough to help form the futures of children who are starved for meaning and inspiration. In this expansive manifesto, he calls for a diverse educational market in terms that any business person will appreciate.
I too have a vision for our educational systems, as I started to discuss in Secrets of Inspiring Women Exposed. I believe that education is the key to living an authentic life on so many levels. Based on my personal education and now, my daughter’s, I believe that we fall short in a number of areas. For example, we should be:
· addressing the curriculum in our schools (particularly delivery and content)
· including topics such as money and financial literacy; relationships and how to be good parents and partners; the mystery of love and sex (and that’s just for starters).
Education is not about training people to be employable. It’s about enabling them to be the person they are destined to be, to reach their full potential. It’s not about finding oneself, it’s about creating oneself. Heck, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!
There are only two things in life that one can truly invest – time and money. And with key adults in children’s lives spending more of their time in other places and then throwing money at addressing the issue, who is really developing the children? And in what areas exactly? Where does that leave the children when they need to become adults?
In 2000/2001 I facilitated the national ‘Australis Self Made Girl’ programs around Victoria. The program introduced 14 to 18-year-old girls to the notion of economic empowerment and financial independence. It was a wonderful program and most fulfilling for all involved, but unfortunately the funding ran out and the program was canned. So who is teaching our girls, our friends, and even our mothers now?
Why is it so important? Because how will our children learn about such life skills, the art of living, if they are not fortunate enough to be surrounded by exceptional role models, which is sadly quite often the case? And please, I’m not saying it’s the role model’s fault. It’s probably more to do with them not having access to fabulous role models either – but the cycle has to end somewhere. ‘Children are our Common Wealth’.
Managers Lack Diversity
The Australian Financial Review — Page: 8 : 18 September 2007
Original article by Narelle Hooper
LexisNexis Summary
A US consultant has criticised the low numbers of women in management roles in Australia. Tom Peters said that leaving women out of top management roles is “economic stupidity”.
Peters said that markets are highly diversified and there needs to be a diverse group of managers to keep pace. Peters told the Australian Institute of Management’s 2007 convention that men in power fail to understand how much women in management have to offer. New research has shown that very few women sit on company boards and participate in senior management in Australia.
hear! hear!
Paid maternity leave’s now an economic necessity
The Australian Financial Review — Page: 58 : 18 September 2007
Original article by Catherine Fox
LexisNexis Summary
There is a strong economic case to help women in the workforce in Australia. The shortage of skilled talent and the need for labour mean that managers must attract and retain top female talent. Managers who have surveyed women in the workplace have found that the number-one need is a flexible working environment. Women also require paid maternity leave, so that they can have children and then return to work, keeping their ties to the workplace.
Groups such as telco Telstra in Australia have a policy of promoting and retaining top female talent. The Australian Democrats have introduced a private member’s bill in the Australian Senate. This calls for all working women to be given 14 weeks of Australian Government-funded maternity leave at the minimum wage level at the birth of a child.
hear! hear!
Mums at work
by Leon Gettler
Work and motherhood remains one of the most extraordinary balancing acts. I’ve always watched very closely how mothers go about getting the job done and then racing off home or to the school or child care centre. It’s just awesome and I’ve learned a lot from it. Thanks to what I’ve learned, I seem to get a lot more done these days.
But returning to work is not easy. And it’s not just because of the ridiculous maternity leave situation in this country either (Australia).
How has your experience been?
What would you like to make sure others know?
Fear of sacking ‘keeps women quiet’
The Age — Page: A3 : 13 August 2007
Original article by Jewel Topsfield
LexisNexis Summary
Twelve academics contributed to the “Women and WorkChoices: Impacts on the Low Pay Sector” report. Across low-paid jobs such as cleaning, hospitality and transport 121 women were interviewed. A key finding is that low-paid women are too afraid to comment on illegal or unfair work conditions; also fearing to request changes to working hours in case they are dismissed under the WorkChoices laws. The Australian Government has described the report as “deeply flawed and politically motivated”, ahead of its official release on 13 August 2007. The report also found that the loss of unfair dismissal protection in small businesses affects “the labour market in which minimum-wage workers are concentrated”.
Work Choices hits women hard: study
The Sydney Morning Herald — Page: 3 : 13 August 2007
Original article by Andrew West
LexisNexis Summary
Australia’s Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) commissioned a WorkChoices report in March 2006. However, after the sex discrimination commissioner, Pru Goward, departed the agency to contest a seat for the Liberal Party, HREOC withdrew from the study. The research continued with funding from state governments and bodies such as the National Foundation for Australian Women and the Women’s Electoral Lobby. A key finding following the WorkChoices legislation was “an increased climate of fear” found in many areas which traditionally have a concentration of female employees, particularly aged care, call centres, child care and hospitality. Most of the 120 case studies involve women earning less than $A20 per hour, with almost 85 per cent in workplaces with less than 100 employees.
The nail in the coffin
David Chalke
IN August 2005, when asked about the dangers of rising debt and interest rates, the chief economist of one of the big four banks made a prediction.
“It would take an interest rate of more than 8 per cent before households found their loan repayments more than they could repay.”
Prescient bloke that he was, he also predicted that would be up to 24 months away.
Two years later, to the month, welcome to mortgages of more than 8 per cent.
hhhmmmmm….
where does that leave you?
time to rethink your financial, and life, structure?
