Perking up

Channel Seven’s Today Tonight has not been shy to find stories about people being apparently crushed by WorkChoices in the past (“all I done was look at stuff on th’ net all day. It’s rool unfai-ya!”). Last night they aired a story that shows WorkChoices must be bad:

Unemployment in Australia is at a record low, meaning the worker has the upper hand for one of the only times in history.

And that means bosses are becoming very generous.

According to a Drake Recruitment survey, about 99 per cent of companies in Australia are providing some form of non-financial benefit to staff.

Businesses are throwing extra money at their staff, but the big increase in rewards is coming in the way of perks, better known in official circles as non-monetary or financial benefits.

The Drake Recruitment survey of employers found the top five non-financial benefits. Dominic Toledo from Drake said they were common across many jobs.

“The main ones are work-life balance, which includes flexible work hours, family-friendly start and finish times, the ability to work from home, workplace accessories such as laptops, mobile phones, home Internet connections, opportunities to work overseas,” Mr Toledo said.

Clearly the Aussie notion of a fair go is under attack. Those poor, poor Australian workers.