Unpaid workers are slaves to the system

THEY are the apprenticeship hopefuls sweeping hair off the floor of salons for months at a time, waiting for a position that doesn't exist.

They are the unpaid legal students being asked to give legal advice to paying clients, or the "trial" real estate agents selling properties only to be shown the door when they ask for pay.

 

The Fair Work Ombudsman has shone a light on the murky world of unpaid work in an effort to ensure young people aren't exploited by unscrupulous employers.

In a new report they have also called on industry groups to tighten their guidelines around internships and trials.

The FWO has pointed the finger at the retail, beauty and hospitality industries, where some employers are making it part of their business model to make "trials" last as long as possible.

Job Watch executive director Zana Bytheway said many young workers were scared to speak out.
"Many young people see it as a part of life and don't want to damage their future job prospects by speaking up and looking like a trouble maker," she said.

"Much of this flies under the radar, but more needs to be done to protect workers."

Authors of the University of Adelaide report stress many employers are flouting the law by offering unpaid trials when they should be paying people on a probationary basis.

That way, if employers think they have hired a lemon they can show them the door, but still pay them for the contribution they have made to the business.

The report also highlighted a growing trend of university students and graduates being given internships for paid positions that will never become available.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said the number of interns being exploited had boomed in the past decade, with public relations, advertising and legal services being the main offenders.

"If left unchecked, it will become a lot more significant in many industries in the next decade," he said.
"This is not acceptable to be treating the next generation of hairdressers or lawyers in this way.

"Not all university students can get these unpaid internships because they can't afford not earn a living in the summer.

"If this is going to be the way you get employment in the future those people who can't afford it will find themselves disadvantaged because they don't have the skills others have got."

Adelaide student Lucy Small-Pearce estimates she has done at least 50 hours of unpaid work when trying to get jobs in various cafes and restaurants.

The 21-year-old, who now works in fast food to fund her way through uni, said the practice was rife.
"I was hired for the job but never paid for the trial," she said.

"I've spoken to a lot of people about it and they have had the same experience. I've often had to do two trial shifts to get the job.

"We are working just like another staff member and making a contribution by cleaning, making coffees and doing everything else. But we are never paid for it."

But while there are nightmare stories of never-ending internships and eager beavers being worked to the bone for no cash, marketing ace Kathleen Chell is one of the lucky ones.

The 21-year-old last year approached advertising company Grand Brands in the hope of gaining some work experience and soon after become their first ever intern.

Studying for a business degree at the same time, she came into the office one day a week and soon built up a solid reputation as a hard worker and quick learner.

She has now secured one day's paid work with the organisation, who she said has valued her contribution to the company.

"It has been eye-opening because there is things that you learn at university but my time here has given me perspective on the industry itself," she says.

"It shows how different it is from university assignments. I got work across a variety of assignments which was great.

"I was the marketing assistant but now I'm a digital marketing assistant. I'm still working one day a week because I'm still studying."

Kathleen said young people can struggle to get internships and work experience because a lot of marketing agencies were not willing to give up their time to teach a rookie the ropes of the business.

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heraldsun.com.au 7 Feb 2013

Not paying a worker for time rendered is illegal.

The 'system' supports these kind of illegal activities, as there are huge financial benefits to all but the worker.

The government also supports this slave labour, and to amplify the 'problem' even more, Australia will import another 300,000 migrants into the workforce, to lower the wage rate of the Aussie worker.

We do not live in Financial Times, but rather with Financial Terrorists.

Senator fires up on smokes shares

The Future Fund has bought shares in a tobacco company which commissioned a report on the economic benefits of people dying prematurely from smoking-related illnesses.

It was revealed in a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the fund, which has the job of helping meet the Commonwealth's superannuation liabilities, had acquired a stake in the Czech Republic division of cigarette maker Philip Morris.

The Czech division outraged tobacco industry opponents in 2001 when it commissioned a report from consulting firm Arthur D. Little International which found the savings to public finances from smokers' early deaths, together with cigarette tax revenue, outweighed the burden of smoking related healthcare and other costs.

The company later issued a statement saying it ''deeply regrets any impression from this study that the premature deaths of smokers represent a benefit to society''.

The fund acquired the stake, now worth about $200,000, last May, but it was only revealed on Tuesday after questions from Greens senator Richard Di Natale. The $84 billion fund announced last October its governance committee was reviewing its tobacco investments.

Fund managing director Mark Burgess would not say when the review would be completed.

Mr Burgess said the fund held investments in 15 tobacco manufacturers, worth a total of $221 million. He said the fund did not directly invest in tobacco stocks but owned shares in tobacco companies through external fund managers who chose the stocks.

Senator Di Natale said the fund's tobacco holdings showed its policy on environmental, social and governance issues was ''pretty useless'', but Mr Burgess insisted its policy was ''world class''.
In 2011 the fund stopped investing in landmines and cluster munitions.

Australia is a signatory to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which recommends governments have no financial interest in tobacco, but this is a non-binding guideline.

Senator Di Natale, who wants the fund to drop its tobacco investments as soon as possible, said he was ''disappointed that we're investing in a company that believes that it's good health policy and good economic policy to encourage people to smoke''.

He said among the tobacco companies the fund had invested in was an Indonesian firm that had added sweetened filter tips and had sponsored schools.

theage.com.au 13 Feb 2013

The government has zero interest in the well being of its citizens. Apparently you have a choice to smoke or not.

The government rakes in approximately $5 billion annually from Victorian's smoking habits.

Government actually support their multinational brethren, rather than hinder their business practices, irrespective how detrimental it is to the general population, as they are mere cannon fodder.

Company caught in US claims of speed camera corruption

VICTORIA'S main supplier of speed and red light cameras is embroiled in a corruption scandal in the United States.

Melbourne-based Redflex is being investigated over claims some of its US staff bribed a Chicago official to win and keep multi-million-dollar traffic camera contracts.

heraldsun.com.au 13 Feb 2013

By all rights and protocol, the government  should sever the tender immediately.

Corruption in the speed camera industry is rife.

Police wipe out fines if and when they are caught by the cameras. This has been going on for decades, unpunished by their 'brethren' legal system.

Speed Camera fines handed out to the general populous are illegal.

A Melbourne man posted this information on the internet a few years ago, and within hours he had a phone call ordering him to take the information down, or it will be taken down for him, with further consequences.

Corporate fraud along with government fraud is the country's biggest economic killer, but will never be stopped, as the system will crush any who get in its way.
 

Busy Baillieu rejects mayoral invitations to visit Melton

PREMIER Ted Baillieu has snubbed invitations to visit Melton, saying he is too busy.

 

Mayor Kathy Majdlik issued two invitations to Mr Baillieu to visit the city late last year.

 

In her first letter, Cr Majdlik said the council was keen for him to see first-hand the growth issues facing the west.

But an email from his assistant diary manager on January 25 claimed 'longstanding commitments' prevented a visit in the short-term and he offered his most sincere apologies.

Cr Majdlik warned Melton would not be ignored.

"Melton City is the second-fastest-growing municipality in Australia, not just Victoria, and I think it warrants a higher priority than it is getting from the Government."

Speaking in Parliament, Melton state Labor MP Don Nardella urged Mr Baillieu to visit Melton and even provided map references to help him locate the city.

heraldsun.com.au 12 Feb 2013

One of the purposes of the corporate media is to entertain the herd population, along with being the 'official' government propaganda tool, irrespective of which political party rules.

To entertain 'stupid man' (a term coined by the English aristocracy, referring to the commoner) the corporate media focuses on trivial events, where 'entertainment' is the focus.

Most people would not be aware of an event that happened in Melbourne recently or would even care, but the official government tool, the corporate media made a big deal about it.

A youtube 'sensation' (read group of teenage losers called the Janoskians) had their fan base congregate around them. The media true to their objective made it a focal event.

What is currently happening in the outer western suburb (satellite town) of Melton is much more important and significant, where attention of every land owner should be focused to.

Land rates collected by city councils are fraudulently collected, and therefore a criminal offence.

The Shire of Melton or the Melton City Council has been chosen as the place to legally challenge, the right to collect rates from citizens.

In late 2012 the challenge was made to Councillors about the legality of collecting rate, during a council meeting.

The result (read video) of this meeting was posted on you tube on 31 December 2012, under the title: Pirates of the Suburbs - Destroying Communities, see url : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Lnze7O22g

This is not a matter of a Peasants' Revolt, but rather a structured challenge to question the legality of the collection of rates by city councils.

The questioners were not only met with hostility, but also threatened with police.

Exposing the fraud of the ruling elite, e.g. politicians, law makers, high profile business people etc, is usually met with intimidation and later force.

This video should be watched by every land owner in Australia, and followed up with the questioning of local governments.

The Melton City Council is in dire straits, and a 'come visit us' invitation may seem plausible, but there could be another agenda.

Exposed Legal Secrets - An Introduction

In relative terms to other nations on the planet, (white) Australia is a fairy new addition to the conquering English fortune base.

Lessons learnt from the setting up of other countries, e.g. the United States, make new laws in a new land tighter with less freedom for the masses, with greater control by the ruling forces.

One fact never mentioned in the corporate media, is the oppressive influence of the Freemason’s brotherhood over society, and more importantly over non members. 

The politicians, law makers and financiers responsible for drafting Australia’s laws, originating from England with various backgrounds and religious beliefs were part of the English empire also belonging to various Masonic lodges, of which the Scottish Rite was one well known Masonic organisation.

Whilst one is not allowed to discuss which individuals are part of which lodge publicly, the majority of the top echelon of Australia’s society belong to whichever lodge designated to perform specific tasks, to which they conform to.

Masonic lodges whose members are nothing more than ‘foot soldiers’ come in contact with other members whose function is not too dissimilar.

From tax law to criminal law, the law makers put pen to paper to the sole benefit of their community brethren. This can be seen the way the law favours the criminal, to the detriment of the ‘layman’, or a more derogatory term used by the English aristocracy ‘stupid man’.

A term in law used is privilege, with the understanding that it is private law, i.e. justice to those who can afford it, and not the commonly defined term : “any of the rights common to all citizens under a modern constitutional government”.

In the newly created category, ELS – Exposed Legal Secrets, corpau will be publishing information obtained from various sources, how the law deliberately works to the detriment of not only victims of crime, humanity, but also how it supports criminals, especially from the corporate sector, who are essentially, the peers of the law makers, politicians and heads of state that enforce a ‘Draconian’ rule upon the uneducated herd. The sources have approached corpau with the understanding  of anonymity and  that any information provided cannot be linked in any manner to their person.

It is common knowledge in Australia that a whistleblower is the ‘criminal’ yet the allegations made are not only dismissed, if against the system, but then the whistleblower then suffers the consequences of harassment, job loss and eventually financial hardship and family breakdown.

Australia is truly a ‘lucky country’ as the corporate media slogan says, but neglects to mention especially if you are a corporate criminal.

Aussies get a rotten deal from Apple

AUSSIE consumers pay up to four times more than Americans for the same IT software, devices, games and downloads and a parliamentary inquiry is demanding to know why.

The world's biggest tech companies, Apple, Microsoft and Adobe, have been summonsed to appear before a public hearing of the House Committee on Infrastructure and Communications in Canberra on March 22 to explain their pricing discrepancies.

Aussie music lovers regularly pay around $2.19 for new release singles through Apple's iTunes store, where as US listeners pay the equivalent of $1.31, according to a submission to the inquiry by consumer group Choice last June.

The popular 16GB Apple iPad retails for around $679 in Australia, but costs only $640 in the US.
A 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro laptop costs $1349 for Aussies but just $1220 for Americans.

Australian gamers are forced to pay more than four times their US counterparts for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game, which costs $89.99 in Australia and $20.34 in the US.

Microsoft also slugs Aussies $751 for its Windows Vista Ultimate software package, versus $436 for US customers.

Labor MP, Ed Husic, who is leading the charge against unfair IT pricing, said the tech giants had refused multiple requests to appear voluntarily before the committee.

"This is an important move but one we shouldn't have to take," Mr Husic said. "These firms should have cooperated and been prepared to be more open and transparent about their pricing approaches.

"In what's probably the first time anywhere in the world, these IT firms are now being called by the Australian Parliament to explain why they price their products so much higher in Australia compared to the US."

"Given the widespread use of IT across businesses and the community, the prices paid for hardware and software can have a major commercial and economic impact."

The CEO of Choice, Alan Kirkland, welcomed the move to get the tech giants to please explain.

"Australians are waking up to the fact that we are being ripped off. We believe it's time that these companies realise this and start pricing fairly in the Australian market," Mr Kirkland said.

A Choice investigation found that one Microsoft software development product Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate was so overpriced in Australia than an Aussie shopper could pay for return flights to Los Angeles, buy the software there and still come home thousands of dollars better off than buying it here.

"With price differences this stark, the same old excuses just won't cut it anymore," Mr Kirkland said.
A spokeswoman for Apple Australia refused to comment on the summons.

"We're not commenting on the IT pricing inquiry," she told News Limited.

news.com.au 12 Feb 2013

This practice has been going on for years, where Aussies consumers have been getting ripped off, by the multinationals.

Slave labour trade agreements boost profits for the multinationals, with government support.

It is unnerving how quickly governments act to install speed cameras, within months, yet take years or even decades to give consumers a 'fair go'.

Laws are set up by the corporate elite for the corporate elite, at the expense of the general population.

An example is how tax laws favour corporations, with the masses footing the bill for their operations.

A future article will outline how corporations are allowed to operate in tax havens, paying Australian citizens wages from their off shore, tax free nations like the Cayman Islands, etc.

Tearful Chrissie Swan admits she hasn't been able to quit smoking while pregnant

PHOTOGRAPHS of a pregnant Chrissie Swan smoking have been sold to Woman's Day magazine for $55,000, after a three-way bidding war which included the media personality desperate to keep her cigarette shame a secret. 

 
Swan and her Watercooler Management agent David Wilson were in negotiations with Melbourne photo agency Media Mode until 11pm on Tuesday, when the Bauer publication finally secured the rights.

Woman's Day editor Fiona Connolly confirmed the controversial images, which have sparked a national debate on the popular personality and womens' health, will be published in the next edition of her magazine.

Despite tweeting they had "declined to purchase" the incriminating images, it is understood rival New Idea had bailed out on negotiations at the $30,000 mark for the exclusive set, taken near Swan's South Yarra home on Monday (diverting their funds instead to another paparazzi offering of snaps of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman swimming together at Balmoral Beach).

It was left to Woman's Day to bid against Swan herself, who fought desperately to keep the damaging images off the open market.

The former Circle favourite told 2UE's Ian 'Dicko' Dickson (a partner in Swan's management company) she had only offered $10,000 and was not able to match the magazine's big money because she was "just a working mother."

But Swan reportedly made a final offer of $53,000 for the damning images, before Woman's Day bettered the amount by $2000 by the agreed late-night bidding deadline on Tuesday night.

Just hours after the photo auction was settled, Swan then used her Mix FM Melbourne radio show to confess all about her private struggle with nicotine addiction and the personal turmoil she felt in putting her unborn child's health at risk.

Connolly told News Limited "Chrissie herself has admitted how grateful she is the photos were taken as they not only stopped her smoking but have sparked one of the most significant debates for women's health in years."An emotional Swan appeared on Channel 10's The Project yesterday and said she has really struggled to give up smoking during this, her third pregnancy, and probably wouldn't have confessed to it had she not been caught out by a photographer.
The Can Of Worms host and radio presenter earlier used her Mix FM Melbourne program to confess her cigarette sins, which she had kept hidden from her partner, family and friends until being snapped in the act by a paparazzo last week.
"I actually can’t explain it," she told hosts Carrie Bickmore and Charlie Pickering moments after bursting into tears on national TV.

"There can be no reason," she said.  Swan said she was "completely embarrassed" by the story and her situation "because being a mother is the single most amazing thing that has ever happened to me".
"It’s a horrifying situation and people are rightly disgusted," she said, adding that she only told her partner and her mother after the photograph was taken. She also said she hoped that the incident was dramatic enough to help her give up the fags for good.
"I have never felt less like a cigarette in my life," she said.
She said her latest pregnancy had been a "massive surprise and I had tried to go cold turkey like I did with (oldest son) Leo and I was confident I could do it, but I couldn't. I just failed and failed, time after time."

While making "no excuse" for her risky behaviour, Swan said the pressure of carrying two radio shows, a new TV program, a weekly newspaper column, maintaining a relationship, raising two kids and selling the family home had all been triggers in her decision to keep "having a sneaky cigarette."
Already targeted for her parenting choices, when a magazine portrait of her young family sparked a debate about childhood obesity, Swan said she carried the shame of her smoking secret heavily and would "never do anything to harm them and yet, here I am having five cigarettes and justifying it. It's madness, I can't explain it."
Health specialists said Swan's high-profile admission had the potential to have a positive impact on other mothers secretly battling to give up smoking for the health and safety of themselves and their children.
The anti-smoking lobby Action on Smoking and Health said Swan's confession showed just how "extremely addictive" nicotine could be.
"She sounds like she has a life similar to other women with lots of pressures, this is not a personal attack on her, but that is no excuse to continue smoking," chief lobbyist Anne Jones said.
"We have excellent support for people who want to quit smoking these days, from online quitting to Quitline and subsidies for nicotine patches.
She said most mothers did not deliberately want to risk their child's health whether they were addicted to "nicotine or heroin."
Mothers who smoke during pregnancy increase their risk of having a miscarriage or a premature birth, their baby is has an increased risk of a low birth weight or death from sudden infant death syndrome according to the National Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy’s National clinical guidelines for the management of drug use during pregnancy.
The National Health and Medical Research Council and National Institute of Clinical Studies says cigarette smoking during pregnancy also increases the risk of the baby being born with a cleft lip and palate or developing childhood cancers.

perthnow.com.au 7 Feb 2013

Trailer Park Trash mothers like Chrissie Swan do not deserve children, if the choose to continue to smoke.

What makes it worse is that  the corporate media pays 'drug money' for trash stories like this.

Pathetic parenting even before the child is born.

At the end of the day it is society which pays for this pathetic parents actions.

Record police fines on pedestrians as car theft arrests drop

POLICE are fining more Victorians for jaywalking but are failing to nab criminals for serious crimes such as car theft cars.

More than 5690 fines worth a record $412,418 were issued to pedestrians by Victoria Police in the 2011-12 financial year.

heraldsun.com.au 12 Feb 2013

It may be difficult for the 'layman' to understand that the police work for the 'corporatocracy'.

A policy is to raise revenue, in the most effective manner for the government, which in reality is a business.

In the near future corpau will be publishing how the Australian government is actually a business, or rather a corporation.

The authorities have little concern for 'crime reduction', but rather put an emphasis on raising revenue by its police 'force'.

An officer must bring in more than they are paid.

Drugs in sport

In the corporate media, the current hot topic is doping in sport or the use of performance enhancing substances in the football code of AFL previously known as VFL, in particular to a Victorian team Essendon. Drugs are not limited to the AFL.

U.S. cycling champion Lance Armstrong, has been caught out using performance enhancing drugs, and consequently his previous first place wins have been deleted from the record books. His carefully scripted interview with Oprah, was farcical, explaining the definition of cheating from the ‘dictionary’. The joke is on the uneducated commoner.

Being ‘THE’ topic in the media, a football program called ‘Footy Classified’ recently referred to its viewers with the quote ‘to layman at home’, explaining some of the details of the allegations. On the program also it was noted that the Essendon football players involved in the allegations, in any previously public engagements proudly wore their signature football colours, whereas in the media interviews denounced any visible association with  their team Essendon.

The football code VFL was created by the ‘authorities’ to keep the commoners busy on the weekends, and to occupy them during the week with meaningless competitions and trivia, in order to distract them from the machinations of the ruling elite. This is a well known and well documented fact.

Currently the AFL is a billion dollar industry, vast approaching a multi-billion dollar business.

Corruption in the police force as well as with the legal profession working together with corrupt judges, associated (read: paid off ) with high profile betting syndicates, together with well established drug families, will ensure that no one of significance will get prosecuted.

Some players are involved not only in criminal activities, but also deal in drugs with the help of biker gangs, to which the authorities turn a ‘blind eye’.

At the end o f the day, the ‘authorities’ will stop at nothing to keep this multi-billion dollar industry churning out the profits from the ‘layman’, the uneducated commoner. 

It is of little doubt that the current scandal will blow over with nothing more than a ripple in the industry.

Drugs flown to Australia on private planes

THE arrest of an alleged drug boss in Chicago has revealed a bold trafficking operation by Mexican gangs who fly tonnes of cocaine from the US to Australia in private planes and, on the return leg, fly out "millions of dollars" in cash profits

To entice pilots to fly the jets for the monthly US-Australia roundtrip, cash windfalls are offered, according to court documents.

Planes used to fly cocaine to Australia are loaded with millions of dollars in cash for the flight back to the US and pilots are paid a 10 per cent share of the booty.

The details are alleged in the criminal complaint lodged by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the US District Court in Illinois against Jose "Juanito" Mares-Barragan, a 31-year-old accused of being the co-head of a Chicago drug trafficking organisation working for Mexico's ruthless Sinaloa cartel.

"If he wants to go big, we can go big," Mares-Barragan allegedly told an informant, codenamed CS1, during a recorded meeting to discuss enticing a pilot to fly cocaine from South America to Central America.

The pilot would make $US500,000 for each South America-Central America flight and CS1 would earn between $US30,000 and $US50,000 for introducing the pilot to Mares-Barragan, documents filed in court allege.

Mares-Barragan also allegedly told the informant "$US1500 per brick" would be earned for transporting 20 to 25 bricks of cocaine from California to Chicago.

Mares-Barragan's former co-head of the Chicago drug operation has become a "reliable" key informant for authorities, in the hope of receiving a reduced sentence, and is referred to as "Individual A" in court documents.

According to the complaint against Mares-Barragan, CS1 and Individual A met on January 13, 2012 and the movement of cocaine from the US to Australia was discussed.

"Individual A advised that his/her associates were moving millions of dollars per month from Australia to the United States, and that the money was being used to purchase cocaine to be sold in Australia," special agent for the DEA Christopher O'Reilly wrote in the criminal complaint lodged against Mares-Barragan.
"In prior meetings between CS1 and Individual A, CS1 had pretended to be a pilot.

"Individual A asked CS1 whether he/she was interested in moving millions of dollars from Australia to the United States."

Mares-Barragan was arrested on January 22 and charged with conspiracy to attempt to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine.

He has been refused bail and is being held at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center.

aap 11 Feb 2013

The drug industry in Australia is worth approximately $1,200 million per month. 

A 'brotherhood' meeting in the 1980's stated that the authorities are fighting a losing battle with the organised drug syndicates.

Under no circumstances can the corporate media reveal the true extent of the losing battle by the authorities against drugs, as not only is the corporate media an official government 'lap dog' but would also indicate a loss of control, and the 'commoner' would lose faith in the 'system'.