Australian Work Environment Essay

With the concern of work-related injuries associated with mandatory overtime, many research studies have been piloted to examine the impact of overtime on nursing. A particular study conducted with 655 registered nurses in the Philippines reveals significant results in regards to the effects of nurses working mandated overtime. Results show 65% of nurses involved in the study report working over 40 hours per week. Also, 83% report working mandatory or unexpected overtime at least once a month and 15% state working overtime more than seven times each month. Furthermore, 37% of the nurses have suffered an occupational injury and 41% acquired an occupational related illness within a year span (de Castro, Fujishiro, Rue, Taglog, Samaco-Paquiz, & Glee, 2010). Mandatory overtime increases staffing absences.

Australia became a commonwealth of the British Empire in 1901. It was able to take advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. Now, Australia has a prosperous Western-style capitalist economy, with a per capita GDP at the level of the four dominant West European economies. Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of agricultural products, minerals, metals, and fossil fuels.

Working in today’s society has changed in the last few decades. The economy and technology are the main reasons for this change. The type of job and environment where one works has also changed. The fact that many people work from home via the internet has drastically changed the workforce and the environment surrounding it. With this change have come new demands, expectations, and opportunities for employers. Everyone deals with these demands differently, affecting the employee’s quality of life and job satisfaction. Though the job and office types and locations have changed over the years the need for job satisfaction has not. In today’s economy the job is not as stable as it used to be. One must be prepared for changes in the future.

In order to create Australia’s image as a working man’s paradise, workers gained rights to speak. The first of these issues to be discussed are the hours of work. The balanced working time of eight-hour day movement was introduced in the mid 19th century. It was conducted by trade unions for the right of shorter working hours suitable Australia’s harsh climate. This fairer working condition of eight-hour day has succeeded by the end of the century, when the government introduced fairer laws in the late 1890s which attempted to reduce working hours and give workers Saturday afternoon off. This achievement established a national standard that was aspired by the rest of the world and formed the basis of Australia’s reputation as a ‘working man’s paradise’.

The theme of overemployment is a current problem in the United States. Americans are overworked. Workload has increased and society has experienced a loss of leisure. Overemployment and overworked can be defined as negative effects that occur when individuals are required to work more hours than they want to work. “Personal perceptions of workload are critical, as individuals have diverse reactions to the number of hours worked depending on their needs, lifestyle, expectations, and experiences. Individuals have different tolerances for demands and stress. While many, including professionals

Businesses are continuously growing over time as technology advances and people find better and more efficient ways of production. With the expansion of a business, companies need more laborers and workers to help make their company successful. However, instead of hiring more people, business owners forced workers to work long shifts with very minimal pay. While muckrakers brought much attention to

With this overtime occuring often, it is impacting the quality of life of this particular employee which must be examined by upper management and a decision must be made to improve the process in a more efficient manner in order to reduce the overtime days.

Statistical research by Eslake (2011) has established that for the last decade Australia has been experiencing a decline in overall productivity. This supports the main thrust of the lobbyists, who argue that rigid organisational pay and working conditions create an inflexible organisation which is not able to compete in the international environment. They argue that there is a direct correlation between increased organisational flexibility and productivity, and a number of large organisations in Australia have suggested that barriers to productivity include a lack of flexibility, increasing penalty rates, and restrictions on the use of contractors (Todd, 2012:350). They believe that these inhibitors should be addressed in amendments to the FWA in order to secure a productive future for Australia and the workforce in general.

Key Factor that have been seen around the world in which have led to the transformations of populations are primarily Colonisation, Globalization and migration. Around the world today intractable conflict is found in many areas that were subjected to colonization by European super powers such as Africa, the Balkans, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America (Marker, S, 2003). Many of these produced conflicts with differences in policies, territorial boundaries, treatment of indigenous populations and the prioritising of some groups over others. This can create an uneven distribution of wealth and the formation of non-democratic government systems when others countries intervene in this manor (UNESCO, 2015). Examples of colonization also stem to Australia when the First Fleet arrive.

Employers should familiarize themselves with the laws regarding overtime and meal and rest periods in the states in which they operate. It is recommended that employers consult with an attorney in developing and implementing a policy on mandatory overtime, as they should with any new

3) The average Australian working week is currently 36 hours. On the other hand the average New Zealand’s working week is 40

After mentioning the advantages and disadvantages of zero hour contracts, this essay believes that zero hour contracts must be banned because it permits employers to be ravenous and to treat employees

Health and wellness in the workplace is crucial to business success. Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed. Stress has a large impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity. Companies that promote healthy lifestyle habits for employees to improve their health, often take the success of the company to heart and are likely to be absent less often for health related reasons.

Indeed, even critics admit that, in Apple’s case, “… the reason for overtime hunger is because workers cannot support themselves or their families on the base pace set by local minimum wage laws. And what many workers thought were reasonable amounts of overtime, upwards of 60 hours a month, are dwarfed by the levels alleged by the China Labor Watch report” (Sherman, 2013). The question then shifts from whether a corporations internal controls are adequate for monitoring labor practices overseas to whether a set of standard labor practices can feasibly be adopted globally. Though this may seem to be a new concern, arriving concurrently with the new wave of globalization ushered in by the Internet, that same concern has been felt for many years. This led to the formation of the International Labor Organization (ILO) back in the early 20th

In New Zealand workers are under pressure – and quite a bit of this pressure originates from unreliable work. There is an insecurity of not having definite hours of work, of not knowing whether you are an employee or a contracted labourer, of not being certain you will have an occupation one week from now or one year from now, of having no security against sudden excess, of encountering the nonappearance of an aggregate business understanding securing your pay and conditions. This insecure work frequently leaves labourers feeling that they are not needed, not esteemed, not by any stretch of the imagination required. It is harming for them, for their families and for our community.