Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

By Peter Lewis

How to be a millionaire without making any money and other great sleights of hand; a win for Westpac workers and more time off for baby in the retail sector.

Now That's a Bonus

The post mortem of the One.Tel collapse has shown what a good wicket the corporate cowboys were on. How's this for a sleight of hand? Directors Brad Keeling and the well-named Jodie Rich managed to extract bonuses of $14.6 million when the company share price hit a certain mark. Forget that the company was losing a motza at the time, the deal was based on the market capitalization. By the time the money was in their hot little hands, the share price had dipped to a more realistic level. Critics of these sorts of deals say that bonuses should be dependent on a sustainable market performance and not a race to a certain share price. Kerry Packer probably agrees...

Wins and Losses at Westpac

Westpac workers barely had time to celebrate a new wage deal than they were facing the prospect of further job losses. Reports surfaced that Westpac is planning to cut another 500 staff members and possibly as many as 800 by the end of September in a renewed effort to reduce costs. Earlier this year Westpac revealed it would cut about 200 staff members in back-office positions after a review by management consultants McKinsey & Co. It appears McKinsey's work under a project codenamed OS, or Organisational Simplification, had identified about 1000 positions that could be removed. The good news is that Resolute industrial action has broken the stranglehold of the major banks on their workforceThe breakthrough follows a tough campaign culminating in strike action before the Westpac AGM last December, and the release of the bank's now legendary 'barbeque cards' which fed workers lines on how to defend the bank at social occasions. The Finance Sector Union last week struck the deal covering 24,000 workers that includes: a 12 percent pay rise over three years delivered in annual instalments of four percent; commitments to improve staff workloads, including $6 million in additional jobs; an undertaking to a share allocation in the term of the agreement of up to $1000 per employee per annum, based on the bank's performance.

Coles Gives Time Off for Baby

Sixty thousand retail workers have won new rights for paid time off to attend pre-natal classes, along with an extra six months unpaid maternity leave under a groundbreaking new enterprise deal with Coles. The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees (SDA) has struck the innovative deal with Coles and Bi-Lo Supermarkets. It includes: - paid leave for 'appointments associated with pregnancy', including pre-natal classes, for both male and female employees; unpaid parental leave extended from 12 to 18 months and the option for fulltime employees to return to work, part-time, after having a child. SDA state secretary Greg Donnelly says the deal, which also includes a $50 per week pay rise, was struck after extensive canvassing of his membership. Donnelly says while the current political debate centres around provision of paid maternity leave, the more important factor for his members was the right to return to work after a lengthy break. The 18 months leave period is the first step in the SDA campaign to extend the community standard for maternity leave from one to two years. The provisions of leave for pre-birth medical appointments is also significant because it would mean female workers did not need to take sick leave before the birth of their child, as many are currently forced to do.

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Contact:   Peter Lewis