Actually I did the research the Monthly 15th of month and pay in advance is liked to the resources industry a lot of the time.. I asked a friend who deals with the issues and said most other businesses that would have been effected went to fortnightly or were always fortnightly and did not change.
I actually spoke to one of the people who operate a payroll in the resources industry who in fact did confirm they do this and then indicated that they often have trouble with terminations as the person has no leave due and sometimes has nothing to offset the over payment against and they have to attempt to recover the over payment. She told me that she was aware that it had flowed over into a few companies that were seeking the same staff skills.
There are lawyers that will seek to assist but do cost money or take part of the settlement.
However it appears that as you say:
"You still havent answered the important questions Joe, if you as an employer sign up jenny smith you give her a letter of offer which she signs.. Yeah??"
Yes I have but if the circumstances of the business change I have also on a very few occasions renegotiated the contract failing agreement I would suppose I would have had to consider redundancy however that has not happened to me as I am small enough for us to come to an agreement.
"In that letter you say you are going to pay them weekly, then 6 months later you change your mind and decide you are going to pay them 2weekly because you want to. And you are going to pay them 4 weeks in arrears.
Should you consult your employee Joe or should you just do it because you are the employer?"
Of course you go and discuss the issue with the staff members it affects. However if as you say elsewhere you are entitled to pay monthly ( which includes the prepayment) or Fortnightly or weekly then that is a business decision and I am sure after giving notice you would make the change. I would have tried to phase it in but that hypothetical for me because I would not have got into the two weeks prepayment situation anyway.
Telstra has sales force and they are paid fortnightly. that seems acceptable for that industry , which is similar to the Hills staff.
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Actually I dont see any benefit by paying monthly. The fortnightly cycle is paid on Wednesday to last Friday so no prepayment. By the way even if you can claim the notice pay if the staff walk out without notice it really isnt practical to go and collect in most cases.
Whilst it is an adjustment I can see more company benefits that disadvantages to changing to fortnightly and yes I can see that the staff member would be unhappy. However they are acting as I see it within the law.
"Are you an employer of your word Joe or are you going to be an employer that your employees dont trust and dont wish to work for??"
Well that is something I cannot answer as I of course believe I am that I can be trusted. In my case I have never had anyone who did not understand that the changes were necessary but at the same time they may well have gone home and said I am a bastard etc. I would hope not but reality is that no-one is universally liked by everyone.
However this does bring me to something I do get irritated with. I wanted to buy a business a few years ago and went to the two key staff wanting to offer them small shareholdings in the business for a commitment of an extended notice period. Both said this is only a job and really they didnt want the equity and thus I did not buy it. I did not buy the business as it had no committed staff and I did not want to carry the risk of losing two key members of staff. One day Australians will realise that the export of jobs is also a product of the inability of both management and workforce to see the success of the business as a joint task. Maybe it will happen before we dont manufacture anything in this country or maybe we will just be hostage to imports from cheaper jurisdictions.
Lets take Hills - I bought in knowing that Underlying profits next year would drop from $27,3million to between $22million to $24million. I sold out immediately before the AGM when they released the presentation which now suggested that it would be towards the lower end of that range forecast. That is about a 20% drop in underlying profits - that is not good in context of a company that should be seeing improvements in profits. I am aware that in the old Hills they had a printing operation in Adelaide that really hardly ever operated and probably lost a fortune. New management closed it. So if I was the leader of this company and faced with a 20% decline in profits and it seems to be getting worse then I am not surprised that they started looking to places where they can conserve cash. Here is where the rubber hits the road - I dont know management at all - so if they explained that they needed to make these changes to monthly pay and disclosed this with the workforce then hopefully they would understand the reasons behind it. Its better to accept the change than go through a restructure and retrenchments in order to save money. Having looked at SA economy recently if it was there I would not be wanting to look for a job right now.
Life isn't a straight line and not everyone is a fat cat living the high life as a business owner or employer. If my business was going to clearly do worse next year than last year - my staff and I would be both worried enough to talk about it and find ways we can both try to mitigate the problem.
I dont believe Hills are doing anything illegal - they are changing the terms of employment but via notice and consultation that is their right if its legal and I think it is legal to change to fortnight.
"And by making the change Joe it means you wouldnt pay the employee their full entitlements, because you have gone and changed their terms. Would that be accepted by your employees Joe if you did that??"
The employees are still getting their entitlements they are just not being paid two weeks in advance once a month but are being paid fortnightly. I would assume they are entitled to make that change. It may be uncomfortable but really the company is earning 20% less this year than last so if that is the case I would assume employees would also be prepared to accept the hardship of being paid fortnightly.
Better to be employed right now than not would be my advice. On a deeper issue is Hills a good company to work for - I have no idea but now that I am hunting around I do hear noise ( unhappiness - not a great working environment ...). whether the noise is justified or its just the fact that we all dont do well when there is change is another question. If you dont trust them then leave. I have not lost people when we have sat down and had to find ways to make things work.However on the evidence it's not Hills seeking to change staff's contracts whilst raking in more profits. This business was worth $390 million a few months ago now its worth $275million. Its taking pain.
HIL Price at posting:
$1.19 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
