Feeling appreciated...
Jun. 26th, 2003 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathpixieSo this was the talk of the office this morning. An interesting concept, actually not a bad idea, but there's something that has every registrar I've spoken to slightly concerned.
See, Rob Hulls the Attorney-General, before announcing this little gem of an idea, consulted the Chief Magistrate, the Law Institute, the Department of Public Prosecutions, and one more focus group I don't quite remember. The group he didn't consult with, is the Clerk of Courts Group. Which kind of sucks, because we're going to be the ones putting in the extra hours to make this work.
The general consensus at PERIN today was that no-one really minded the idea of evening shifts or working half Saturdays - as long as we were paid the appropriate penalty rates. Penalty rates that I can guarantee you the magistrates will demand, and get. The fact no-one even asked what we thought about the idea means that once again we're part of the court furniture, and any claim we make towards being suitably reimbursed for giving up half a weekend and/or our evenings will be ignored, like any of our claims are.
Is it so wrong to want a job that acknowledges you actually do something? I mean, we had to threaten to strike to even get the Department of Justice to talk to us about our enterprise bargaining agreement (which is still inching its way along through talks - maybe by the end of the year we'll have something back in place, considering the old one has expired), and the State Government is supposed to be cutting costs this year to cover an unexpected deficeit in the budget, and now they're proposing a scheme which will costs them millions to set up. And since the registrars - who run the court, the magistrate just sits there and makes judgements - aren't considered important enough to even consult about the night court proposal, I can pretty much guarantee that cost cutting will come from our wages, not the judiciary.
Bah.
See, Rob Hulls the Attorney-General, before announcing this little gem of an idea, consulted the Chief Magistrate, the Law Institute, the Department of Public Prosecutions, and one more focus group I don't quite remember. The group he didn't consult with, is the Clerk of Courts Group. Which kind of sucks, because we're going to be the ones putting in the extra hours to make this work.
The general consensus at PERIN today was that no-one really minded the idea of evening shifts or working half Saturdays - as long as we were paid the appropriate penalty rates. Penalty rates that I can guarantee you the magistrates will demand, and get. The fact no-one even asked what we thought about the idea means that once again we're part of the court furniture, and any claim we make towards being suitably reimbursed for giving up half a weekend and/or our evenings will be ignored, like any of our claims are.
Is it so wrong to want a job that acknowledges you actually do something? I mean, we had to threaten to strike to even get the Department of Justice to talk to us about our enterprise bargaining agreement (which is still inching its way along through talks - maybe by the end of the year we'll have something back in place, considering the old one has expired), and the State Government is supposed to be cutting costs this year to cover an unexpected deficeit in the budget, and now they're proposing a scheme which will costs them millions to set up. And since the registrars - who run the court, the magistrate just sits there and makes judgements - aren't considered important enough to even consult about the night court proposal, I can pretty much guarantee that cost cutting will come from our wages, not the judiciary.
Bah.
