Under the Fair Work Act, a full-time employee is recommended to work a 38-hour week.
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But how many of us routinely put in extra time every week, often unpaid, and maybe after hours.
Don’t be shy; raise your hand, for you’re in company.
Australians work longer hours than many in the developed world, about ninth in the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) of 35 member countries.
The average worker puts in 42 hours a week. Forty two hours and 15 minutes every week, precisely, give or take a toilet break or two. Across Australia, statisticians have totted up their pocket calculators and say that’s $71.2 billion worth of unpaid hours every year.
They reckon, for an average income, that adds up to about $8704 of unpaid time annually.
Whistle, raise those eyebrows, let your eyeballs slightly bulge, and then recommit to work-life balance in your new year’s resolution.
Goulburn and District Racing Club’s voluntary redundancy payment to its outgoing secretary manager has not been made public, but future financial reports will surely cover off the matter in their audit.
Like GDRC board president Ken Ikin, we think “one year’s salary” for 20 years’ employment is not too generous an offer, but probably a nice slice of Australia’s billion-dollar unpaid overtime pie. We also think a change is as good as a holiday, and look forward to seeing the club’s continued development under the new chief executive.
Life and death on the land
Images of dead and dying sheep on a Goulburn property may have turned heads this week, but we doubt they have changed mindsets.
No one condones animal cruelty, but very few among us question the welfare or origins of those prime cuts on the barbecue.
It is easy to condemn the grazier responsible. Though the 31 sheep euthanised comprised less than one per cent of his 4500 flock, they deserved better care and closer attention from their shepherd.
But who among us admits complicity to the exploitation of animals in other ways: eating their meat, drinking their milk, wearing their skin?
Let’s not take animals for granted. Let’s call out cruelty where we see it, but let us question our own choices, too.