Council scraps four-day work week plan after backlash
www.abc.net.au
A Tasmanian council's move to introduce a four-day work week, in part to attract and retain staff, has been abandoned after pushback by a business lobby group and what has been described as "unacceptable hostility" towards staff on social media.
  • joelfromaus@aussie.zoneEnglish
    10·
    3 days ago

    Remember that if the private sector has its way we’ll be working 7 days a week 10 hours a day and on-call 365. Excluding the C suite of course.

  • shads@lemy.lolEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    The amount of vitriol coming from the usual sources towards this proposal was pretty high. The comment section on Pulse (local online publication with some backroom links to the state Liberal party) was full of people upset with even the idea of council workers getting pay rises a little over CPI, not to mention all the racist, bigoted, misogynistic stuff that’s usually on there.

    Honestly Tasmania is this melting pot of conservatives (with all the negative connotations that word can carry) right through to the most impractical of hippies, but the fringe elements of both sides are the most visible.

    The big difference is that the hippies have a political party that occasionally sees some success at a state level and some activist level zines. Whereas the conservatives have a political party that keeps getting voted into power and effectively the entire media landscape jamming a party line directly into their heads.

    My tin foil hat theory is that the HIA is worried that showing too much humanity to council workers will get some in the construction industry peering over the fence and wondering why the grass is so much greener. They of course couch it around delays to getting projects completed, but I have known plenty of builders who work around supplier and sub-contractor availability without it destroying their businesses, the industry, or society its self. I’m fairly certain they would do the same with council work being a 4 day a week thing.

  • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Not really surprising.

    Of course the private sector will scream blue bloody murder if public sector employees are getting better terms.

    Local govt isn’t really able to kind of lead the way on social employment reforms like this.

    I don’t hold any love for the Chamber of Commerce anywhere but it is kinda their job to push back on this.