Originally posted by steandleigh
Personally I will shovel shite until I find a job as I'm sure most would.



Best of intentions and all that but the harsh reality is that there are plenty on here who have gone to australia, haven't been able to secure a job within their particular field and so return to the uk as its easier for them to get said job - they aren't prepared ( for whatever reason ) to shovel said shite.

separates the wheat from the chaft?

No malice meant - i'm a shite shoveller too.

Originally posted by walla1
Hi Megalania

Personally I will shovel shite until I find a job as I'm sure most would.

Originally posted by kong
More Interesting news form "the land of oppurtunity" Hope the pommie refugees don't mind giving up their 20-30 days paid holiday, bank holiday/sick pay. Pah, who cares about employment rights and guarantees on pay/working hours and not been laid off with an hours notice?? Who needs such trappings when you have the beach??

Seems like the Aussie employment market is resembling that of the third world as it is revealed that;

More than half jobs now casual
By Aban Contractor
June 7, 2004



More than half of all new jobs created in the past 16 years have gone to casual workers with just over a quarter now employed on a casual basis, making them ineligible for paid sick leave or holiday pay.

Research compiled by the federal parliamentary library shows that almost 60 per cent of casual employees do not know how much they will earn in a week and more than one in three would prefer to work longer hours.

They are less likely to be covered by workers compensation and more likely to work on weekends, not have undergone training and have no superannuation coverage.

"This analysis lends weight to the argument that casual employment is not a preferred option for many workers, but rather an alternative to unemployment when no ongoing jobs are available," the paper, Casual employment: trends and characteristics, says.

"... In the 15 years to 2003, male casual employment grew by 151 per cent compared with an increase of 62 per cent in female casual employment. Today there are about an equal number of males as there are females in casual work."


Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia - each with well over a quarter of all workers in casual jobs - have the highest incidence of casual employment. NSW is fourth with just over one in four workers.

Labor's workplace relations spokesman, Craig Emerson, said the figures destroyed Federal Government claims that all casuals freely chose to be casuals, adding that the trend was set to accelerate with one in three workers expected to be casual by the end of the decade.

"This research also confirms that the alarming growth in casual work as a form of employment is not good for Australia's skills development," he said yesterday. "Businesses don't have the same incentives to invest in the skills of casual workers as they do in a permanent workforce."

But the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews, said the Australian Government supported casual employment as a legitimate and essential part of a flexible labour market.

"We need a flexible labour market to create more jobs and higher wages for more Australians," he said. "Casual work is often the preferred option of people such as students balancing work and study or mothers returning to the workforce."

The ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, said there were 2.2 million casual workers in Australia who had no access to paid sick leave or paid annual holidays. Sixty per cent of those people - more than 1.3 million - were long-term casuals who had been with their employer for more than a year.

"Around 450,000 casuals have been with their employer more than five years - these people are permanent employees in all but name," Mr Combet said. "On a personal level, casuals have difficulty borrowing for a home or car, accessing childcare and managing their household budgets. They even miss out on paid leave to care for a sick child."

The paper found that more than one in five casuals were in the 25-34-year age group and, with the exception of students, casual employment was probably "an involuntary work arrangement" for many workers.

Forty per cent of casuals had a post-school qualification and only 11 per cent had a bachelor degree or higher whereas the corresponding figure for employees in permanent work was 59 per cent and 24 per cent.

ALL aboard the Dreamland Express!!

Originally posted by HiddenPaw
With all due respect, it's easy to say you'll shovel shite - and perhaps you have actually been in a position to shovel shite - but the reality is that it's hard and demoralising. After all, you've spent most of your working life trying to move upwards. To suddenly hit the bottom of the pile is a shock to the system...no matter how many times you try to convince yourself you'll do anything.

I was quite fortunate that I found a decent job in my field within about 6 weeks of looking (same for husband). In the interim, I temped. My god, I felt worthless, undervalued, my confidence was knocked...worst of all was that I didn't know how long I was going to be shovelling the shite and I feared that my skills and personality would stagnate. Oh yeah, add to that the fact you're in a strange country, you have no social life, no friends and nothing is familiar.

As I say, good on you if you have been thru this before. If you have, you will no doubt appreciate that it can be an emotional drain - not just on you but on those close to you. If you haven't, then I hope no-one makes you feel less of a person if you come to a conclusion that things aren't working in Australia and you eventually decide to return home.

Incidentally, just interested who the 'plenty on here who have returned to the Uk cos they couldn't get a job' are?
HP

Originally posted by walla1
Hi HIddenPaw and others

I did shovel shite for 6 years when I left school as a labourer in a print factory because I left school unemployed under Thatchers Government when they stopped apprenticeships. Northern Town, coal mines and heavy industries such as the ship yards. So I know what it's like and would do it again. My first child was born when I shovelled shite so I know how to get by. I got educated as an adult and found the "ladder" to where I am now. I now have a national postion with a leading learning disability organisation so there you go.

My point that I was trying to make is you will do anything to get by and if that's shovelling shite then so be it.

Don't get me wrong I don't want to be where I am now in Oz, somewhere in the middle would be fine, don't want the pressures I face today.

There you go, will step off my high horse!!

Sorry if I've offended anyone.

Walla

Originally posted by HiddenPaw
Fair play to you Walla, if you've done it. The thing is you shovelled shite when you left school and since then you have climbed upwards. BUT - have you ever dropped back to the bottom again, against your will? I mean, imagine if your company demoted you to position of mailroom boy? One of the sad facts is that people in the workplace will treat the mailroom boy like a piece of shit because they think he's stupid, or can't be arsed to better himself, etc - you may be surprised at the sort of predjudices you come up against when you get labelled with a crap job!!! When you're used to dealing with the Diretor and all of a sudden even the receptionist (no disrespect to receptionists) turns her nose up at you?

Of course people will get by..survival instinct and all that. WHat I was trying to say is that it isn't as easy as people like to think...and surely people can't be ridiculed because they chose to cut their losses and move back to UK.

Originally posted by HiddenPaw
Fair play to you Walla, if you've done it. The thing is you shovelled shite when you left school and since then you have climbed upwards. BUT - have you ever dropped back to the bottom again, against your will? I mean, imagine if your company demoted you to position of mailroom boy? One of the sad facts is that people in the workplace will treat the mailroom boy like a piece of shit because they think he's stupid, or can't be arsed to better himself, etc - you may be surprised at the sort of predjudices you come up against when you get labelled with a crap job!!! When you're used to dealing with the Diretor and all of a sudden even the receptionist (no disrespect to receptionists) turns her nose up at you?

Of course people will get by..survival instinct and all that. WHat I was trying to say is that it isn't as easy as people like to think...and surely people can't be ridiculed because they chose to cut their losses and move back to UK.

Originally posted by Megalania
I'd like to hear from trades men and women:

Could you have obtained your Aus trade certificates whilst in the UK through distance learning and examination?

Originally posted by debsy
Megs
My other half has been studying for a restricted letting agents licence via correspondance. We will need this to start our business when we arrive. He was able to study this through the Tafe in Qld.

Originally posted by Megalania
Ta - buy or build the business?

Qld: Skills recognition

Qld: Recognition of work or training (trade recognition)

Originally posted by debsy
To buy and run the business.