Young Workers Vulnerable

"The new federal industrial relations legislation is likely to exacerbate the vulnerability of young temporary workers by removing award protections and encouraging individualised bargaining. In reality, few young workers will be in a position to "bargain" with their employer and they will feel even less confident about raising occupational health and safety concerns for fear of losing their job. Recent changes to federal Comcare legislation and proposed changes to federal occupational health and safety legislation could make the situation worse."

So writes Prof. Michael Quinlan in this op-ed piece in today's SMH. Read the complete article here.

The op-ed piece is part of a number of articles in today's SMH dealing with young workers and the appalling injury and deaths they have exprienced over the years. Read the centre-piece and feature article here. It highlights how the Federal Government's words about the the advantages of the new IR laws - especially for young workers - are totally hollow. That is the assessment of the writer of this article in the SMH.

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Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

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#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas stopped him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed behind his back into their patrol car, where they say he shot himself in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story, says in an interview that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?

Mahler's Prodigal Son

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