LABOR’S  FAIR WORK ACT and the ECONOMY

Unemployment is rising and with it come redundancies and lots of calculations. Annette Sampson looks at your rights under the new Fair Work Act.

If you believe the figures, we're doing all right on the employment front. While unemployment rose to 5.8 per cent in June, it has been growing slower than expected. Indeed many commentators believe the Government's estimate of an 8.5 per cent peak in the unemployment rate towards the end of 2010 or early in 2011 may prove overly pessimistic.

But figures can be cold comfort for the 668,400 Australians looking for work last month and the thousands more worried about being thrown on the scrap heap.

A survey last month by accounting and finance recruitment firm Aequalis Consulting found job losses and workplace stress were the biggest concerns for employees and job seekers in this environment. More than 35 per cent nominated redundancies as their biggest concern.

"Candidates are experiencing extremely stressful times," says the director of Aequalis, Simon Boulton. "We believe it's the possibility of redundancies and the lack of job security that are creating the stress, which in turn can adversely affect performance."

Dun & Bradstreet's latest Consumer Credit Expectations Survey states that unemployment is starting to bite in households that are normally financially stable. It found 39 per cent of working Australians could survive for only 30 days on their current savings if they lost their job. Of middle-income households, more than half 51 per cent would last only 30 days and almost a third of households earning more than $70,000 a year fell into this category.

The company's chief executive, Cristine Christian, says rising unemployment is a significant concern for households, particularly given Dun & Bradstreet's latest Business Expectations Survey, in which more than a third of respondents indicated they were likely to reduce staff in the September quarter. Whether you've been made redundant or worry that it might happen, it's a case where forewarned is forearmed.

"You don't know what you don't know," is how Ipac Securities' Paul Gordon, who set up the firm's human resources consulting business, aptly puts it. He believes many companies short-change their employees by hustling them out the door before they have the chance to fully consider all the financial implications. Decisions are often made that leave them worse off than if their options had been explained properly.

Annette Sampson

Voice of the people lobby group have proved that Governments past and present misrepresent the real unemployment figures, as the employed  are calculated as persons  working more than one hour per/week.

The real Figures paint a picture that Governments don’t tell you. Our sources reveal that Adult unemployment is around 12% and most important the 18-25 age group at 28% and rising.

The later is more concerning when you consider the vice chancellors office of ANU Figures show that many thousand of Australian students that have qualified for University entry , were unable to gain entry because of lack of places - yet the intake of foreign pre-paid students continues to increase [ 2008 figures released recently amount to $15 Billion cash cow for the Government] .

Australian families should be demanding answers from their State and Federal members

Changes need to be made now, to ensure our youth have the right opportunities to build a smarter Australia.