14 August 2008

Peaches Returns from Vegas wedding


Just another celebrity trash stunt that has no foundations for its existence.

The bets are on that it will last x days.

Labeled as a 'bad' girl is the new accolade. Nothing more meaningful then that irrespective of who your parents are.

Still Celebrity Trash.

KAZ ( Telstra Business) - Slave drivers

Sorry, but NO pretty pictures or any other eye candy, just raw information.

Here is an interesting bit of information that has been found on an Australian rights at work website.


Kaz is responsible for bringing in cheap unskilled migrant labour through a loophole in the migration system. It gets its workforce via New Zealand, from which New Zealand get via the IT churning countries. This loophole is deliberately left open by the government, as the business community reaps the rewards.

Telstra Puts IT Staff on New Contracts

Thursday 13 Apr 2006

Yesterday Telstra, who now owns Kaz, sent out new employment contracts to the ex-Kaz staff IT people, severely cutting back redundancy and retrenchment entitlements, and wait for it, stating that all employees were to work reasonable unpaid overtime. When the Telstra lawyer and the Telstra HR Director were asked what the definition of "reasonable hours" overtime meant, they were unable to answer. Here we go again .. . . thanks Johnnie "Battler's Friend" Howard

Posted by Karol - 11:35 am


The following comments by users are the most disturbing to ANY EMPLOYEE. Unfortunately the government's industrial relations policies that are SUPPOSED to protect the worker are NOTHING but FARCE, as it is NOT in the interest of the government for the workers to have rights.

Wednesday 17 May 2006

I now believe that Telstra/KAZ just don't care for their staff.

I have been issued a new contract also.

Conditions of employment were just extremely "less" than 2003 contract.

I put together a list of items to discuss for ammendment inclussion and assist both KAZ and myself to find an agreement

I was advised by KAZ HR in conference calls with KAZ staff, that the current contract will no longer be changed except for those changes agreed as per the “Contract Re-Issue Q&A”.

I tried to provide HR with an alternate option of adding of a “Schedule and/or Amendment” as part of my contract.

This approach is in line to the "Resolving Disagreements” policies at KAZ. That is discussing the issues internally within KAZ.

The items I suggested were:

Adding the company holding the salary continuance arrangement applicable to the my employment.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that KAZ accepts my home business as no impact to my current KAZ duties and approves me working under this contract.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that copyright ownership does not include those created under my home business. KAZ states that copyrights, intelectual of otherwise, are those items created during KAZ's business hours (Mon-Fri 7am 8pm and SAT 7am to 12noon)

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that that changes in legislation regarding the Minimum Superannuation Guarantee contributions will not affect the employee base salary under this contract. KAZ new contract leaves the Minimum Super Guarantee to be handled any way they want when they want.... no choice to the employee... as this is now part of the contract, if you do not agree, and an ammendment like the one in this paragraph is not accepted by KAZ, then "NO JOB"..

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that any alternate role will not be permanent partime, nor will reduce my salary due to such change. KAZ wants to hold the right to change your full time job to part time if so they please...

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that On-Call payments will stay. New contract says it is now included in my salary

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that KAZ will provide redundancy should I be relocated to another state permanently and Should I not agree.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that any variations to my specific job role will require review and agreement of my current contract. With non-agreement equating to KAZ providing redundancy.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that KAZ business hours, applicable to this contract, do not include public holidays nor state holidays, and requires employee agreement and consent to work on public holidays. New contract states business hours do not EXCLUDE HOLIDAYS of any sort, and are to be adheared to, however they are part of the business policies, and can change from time to time without prior notification, nor employee agreement.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that personal/sick/carer’s is of 10 working days, instead of 10 days. As per business hours policies, 10 days would count weekends, and holidays.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that "Actual Overtime" will be paid when KAZ asks to work on public holidays or Weekends.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that “reasonable overtime” is no more than 3 to 5 hours over the 7.6 hours standard hours. and any excess should be paid as "Actual Overtime"

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that for working hours calculation purposes, KAZ standard 38 hour week on average over a 52 week includes “Standard business hours” and “Reasonable overtime” only.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that my “fixed remuneration” will not be decreased if goverment should increase the Minimum Goverment Super Guarantee. KAZ wants to have the Super increases to come out of my base salary, or left up to the Remuneration team to do as they please.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that entitlements and redundancy will be applicable as per Australian Industrial Relations legislation applicable at the time should KAZ terminate my employment.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

Adding that confidentiality of information works both ways, and that upon KAZ request of employment termination, my personal and confidential information held by KAZ, will not be used in any way, internal or external to KAZ, with exceptions covered by applicable legislation.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

As most of the contract is based on KAZ policies, which can change at any time, I requested to add that KAZ or Telstra policies will have no impact to any of the items in the requested changes above.

-> This was denied by KAZ HR

What I see here is quite plain:

- Telstra wants to change contracts to reduce the job conditions, but not the job itself.

- I don't see any need for contracts to be "reduced/changed" and still do the same work, for the same customers, from the same location, for the same managers, EXCEPT if KAZ wants to reduce their contract conditions, as they cannot change current contracts.

It is not IR, it is just an excuse to reduce employee work conditions and grip on contract amendemnts.

Richard - 07:55 am
Tuesday 02 May 2006

What do you expect Telstra have been the worst employer in Australia for a few decades now. They are truely on the cutting edge of Winston's lack of industrial sense policies. They were talking about expected un paid overtime 20 years ago

Jeff - 02:48 pm

These companies have lawyers and financial backing far beyond the means of the average person who would wish to initiate ANY form of legal action.


Ref : http://www.rightsatwork.com.au/rightswatch/yoursay_comments?root=1409&searchTerm=unpaid

11 August 2008

How much sugar in Soft Drinks?



Have you ever stopped and wondered how much 'stuff' is in a soft drink?

Apart from the "E"'s or E-numbers, there is another additive, and a simple one at that. It's called sugar.

At a retail level from a 'convenience' store, in Australia, a single 600ml bottle of Schweppes Lemonade costs a WHOPPING $3.00, for essentially water and sugar. How much sugar?

The average 600ml contents contains 67.8g of sugar. An average teaspoon of granulated sugar is approx 4 grams. This equates to approx. 17 teaspoons of sugar in every 600ml drink.

Some people can easily have 2 or more drinks per day. At 2 drinks, this equates to at least 34 teaspoons of sugar in their diet.

Enough to make you a diabetic / obese ???

NOTE:

Current Market prices for sugar are approx US 14 cents per pound of sugar,
The Australian Gov. sells water to e.g Coca Cola at $1.40 per 1 million litres.

Therefore 68g of sugar costs $0.0204 AND
600 ml of water costs $0.00000084

So for this exercise a 600ml bottle costs $0.02 and is sold at $3.00.
a mark up of 150 times more than it costs. An extremely profitable business.

10 August 2008

Expansys : Expensive


A product that has been recently researched is available from the above mentioned company. The product n the spotlight is a USB charger for a Nokia phone.

Generally Nokia accessories are overpriced. The product listed at the company website is a CA-100, and at the time of writing retails for AUD$57.99.

The product is made up of a USB connector and a DC plug. Both these items retail at electronic hobby shops for around $5, yet the company mentioned sells it for $58 ??? !!!

Nothing more, nothing less the a RIP -OFF !!