Backlash to a new $120,000-a-year union pay deal for stop-sign holders working 36-hour weeks has prompted a heated defence of tradies.
What side are you on?
Should Stop Sign Holders Get a Pay Rise to $120k?
capslock on 19/02/2024 - 10:37
Last edited 19/02/2024 - 11:08 by 1 other user
Last edited 19/02/2024 - 11:08 by 1 other user
Poll Options
- 194Yes
- 868No
Comments
300k in cash only reporting 50k on paper we all know those tradies
They what?! Cue outrage
Also I'm surprised they didn't just write about something they read on reddit.
YES, BUT only if every other job's pay goes up proportionately
Absolutely, that job would absolutely suck. worth more IMO
I say yes because it means all other jobs that require more education or are higher risk should then earn more than $120k/yr.
So whats your opinion on ceos ?
LOok at the optus ceo, could she even turn a computer on or setup wifi and yet somehow she is running the company ?
The question is how do I apply for one ? Do you need connections to get one ?
I mean technically - given the quality of driver that's on the road these days - I'd consider the bump to be danger pay…
(profanity) the CFMEU. Bunch of crooks.
Dunno what they call themselves now
But the ME (mining and energy) part of the CFMMEU split off
Leave the construction grubs to themselves
It'd only be CFMU now right?
is the cancer worth it?
Wait up. What are they paid now? Because I'd have thought minimum wage.
Seriously, what quals are needed, and where are these jobs advertised?
Genuinely interested. Never in my career did I get paid $120k, with multiple degrees (now understood to be a waste of money).
It's absolutely ridiculous and once again, taxpayers are the suckers.
Im confused. Why is OzB setting wages?
I think they deserve the money more than those WFH lazy people and empty executives and bureaucrats
Unless you want to go and stand there doing their job, which you are welcome to, don’t be a post negging douche and do something useful for society
They aren't even standing all the time though. When traffic management isn't required, they're sitting down with their lollipop.
Nurses, teachers, retail workers and more do more standing than theses guys and get paid much less.
It's useless, not useful. A portable traffic light would do a better job.
Only you can share an opinion online right….
Classic aussie tall poppy: everyone wants more money as long as its them and no one else.
Trades and Construction costs have soared ridiculously over the last 20 to 30 years plus …
"Write your own cheque" has become a practice in all Government regulation departments contracting out work …
Job variation costs on infrastructure projects is a total norm ! ..
Why don't we have more needed Infrastructure ? ahhh … We just cant afford it !
Taxes should be higher on minerals etc. ?
Taxes should be higher on high-wealth and mega-wealth individuals and Corporations ?
Government Departments should have an accountability system on the spending of taxpayer money .. ( good luck on that one !)
goodnight
Why can't we use short-term foreign labour to fix the housing/infrastructure crisis? We are already doing that for fruit pickers and highly skilled doctors and nurses by hiring them from overseas.
They already are.
Time to change jobs.
Don't hate the traffic controllers. Join them. If you think they are overpaid go and get overpaid as well.
And this is why I try and suck every last poorly spent cent back out of the tax system.
Given that I've heard the rates for traffic controllers are $70/h for typical hours or $110/h for night works (and this was a few months back mind you), isn't this just in line with industry rates? ($70$/h ~120k/y)
I could try this but I fear I will get confused which side is "stop" and which side is "go".
So I will return to medical practice knowing my limitations.Yes indeed. Love that the gov. values doctors at 85k/yr but sign holders at 120k/yr.
This role could be replaced by an AI controlled stop sign with an automatic weapon attached.
The automatic weapon wouldn't be for traffic control but to ensure people know the AI means business.
Until Skynet gets involved. Yes.
union will block that straight away
They should get it.
ah yes more Murdoch class warfare, who got caught with their pants down now?
fine by me we have bigger grubs that rotting and leeching on this society eating away an average tax payer's hard earned money every minute to fry and put under scrutiny, instead we go after those poor lollipop girls who have no career future, typical!
120k per year to hold a stop sign? Where do i sign up?
You know we've reached bottom of the barrel government corruption when our public Doctors paid less than thaan the politicians mate spinning a pole next to the street.
I have nothing against the people that do thos job. Honestly I simply could not do it, all that time standing around. It's worth that money. My issue is with the insane union push to have them everywhere. There is a job up my road, it will be a 4-5 story block of flats but currently just some foundations. It's a quiet residential street and every day there is two traffic controller's, both sitting in a seat the stop signs not even within arm's length. I'm sure that every so often a truck turns up and they spring into action stopping the few cars that pass by every hour but is it necessary? I guarantee if you asked them they would say no. That cost over the construction period ads up and so does the price to build. But like I said at the start no way I could do that for all the riches ok offer - my gripe is with the people that mandate it for every project where a single car is part of the equation.
Why can't we use short-term foreign labour to fix the housing/infrastructure crisis? We are already doing that for fruit pickers and highly skilled doctors and nurses by hiring them from overseas.
In Vic on a standard double build on a normal street, the traffic controller bill adds between 16k to 20k to your build. Nuts
How much do the school crossing guards make per hour? Same job if you ask me..
It's not at all, not even close. Don't compare a child to heavy machinery.
I think they’ll be a flood of new applications. And to hell with morons who ignore speed restrictions and rocket through areas where they hold the signs.
These bad boys are by all the road works in Taiwan. They hit a button on a remote and the stop sign spins around to slow..
This job is like, less skilled than stacking shelves and should've been the first we automated.
Let’s all pull our kids from school. Save your self squillions on school fees. You can than quickly have a family of 5 people earning $600,000 a yr.
Why would anyone in their right mind even think of studying in this country?
More money holding up stop signs and taking selfies these days than being a doctor. Disgraceful.
Lol lollipop boys are not traders.
But they have to be paid hazard pay for the extra risk and breathing in all those vehicle fumes all day.
The beggar I drive by daily, needs to get some of these union connections. He must easily do 36 hours a week of holding his sign…
Instead of being angry that someone else is getting a good wage, be angry that you're not
At that rate, why wouldn't one opt for portable boom gates and/or electric signage?
It's silly that we use humans to hold signs in 2024.
This.
How it's done in most other Western countries.
Most other Western countries don't allow union thugs to hold industries and the public to ransom.
Get rid of unions.
Tell us you've never been to a major work site without telling us
Tell us you're behind the rest of the world without telling us.
They would need about 40 of them at Bulleen Rd Melbourne. Good luck syncing so more than 1 truck can enter that construction site within a 30 min period.
@Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Can't be any worse than it is right now.
As I said, there is a working solution already being utilised all around the world.
@imurgod: Can't be working if there is a squillion traffic management contractors in Oz, UK, USA and France. And the list goes on.
But we hear you. You're anti union and likely work in air conditioning. Right?
@Typical16-bitEnjoyer: All because of unions. You're simply proving that unions are the cause of the issue, hence my suggestion of automating it.
I don't have my air-con on at the moment, just my window open to breathe in the sea air. What does that have to do with anything?
@imurgod: The unions won't be able to resist automation forever.
There was a port somewhere in Australia that was beholden to a union representing their crane and forklift operators. I believe they were striking for an extended period demanding a heavy pay rise, and negotiations had stalled. So in one sweep, the port manager made all the crane/forklift operators redundant and installed automated systems. They were going to do this eventually, but all the union heavy-handedness made them bring it forward.
If I was a traffic controller I would be enjoying these generous pay packets while they last, because these sort of jobs are on their way out.
@qwerty-4321: Nice story you completely made up.
That particular port is brand new.
It employs 200 staff rather than 500-600 that other equivalent ports employ.
The Union "heavy handedness" was due to the owner of said Port demanding workers work 12 hour shifts, which no other Australian port requires. The norm is 8 under all other agreements.Fun fact, that Port, despite being Wizz bang fully automated (yet still requiring 200 peeps) is losing money every day as it's not profitable and being propped up by State and Fed govs.
@Typical16-bitEnjoyer: A.I. may do eventually but it'll be too late and it won't be able to replace it as completely as automation can replace unskilled labour (just look at car manufacturing as an example of this happening).
Automation will actually perform the role of a sign holder in every single way imaginable.
What point are you attempting to make? You always seem to avoid answering that question…
@Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Then I'd be out of a job, wouldn't I?
You're not making any sense.
I take it from your comments that your role is replaceable.
The difference is that I can adapt and pivot. That's why I am where I am in life and you have to rely on unions to fight for you.
It's called unskilled labour for a reason. It requires no skill.
@imurgod: Have you considered pivoting into traffic management, since you obviously think it pays way too much?
@Typical16-bitEnjoyer: No, I am educated and skilled.
I have no need for a job that an inanimate object can do better while having unions ensure the industry won't survive (see manufacturing).
You do you though, maybe look at re-skilling at some stage.
I'm simply making economic sense. I don't know why it upsets you. Do facts do that to you often?
@imurgod: I am sorry that you get paid so little, and have AI taking your job in the near future, despite being so educated and skilled. Keep your chin up.
@Typical16-bitEnjoyer: My success upsets you huh?
Good.
Maybe you shouldn't have been lazy your whole life.
What a crybaby.
Unskilled Labour shouldn't earn more than any over average wage globally - simple.
Are you an unskilled labourer?
If you actually read the story, it goes on to say hours are irregular, you can have weeks without shifts (teachers have this too of course, but still get paid 😀), long travel etc. so who is actually earning that much doing these jobs?
Probably nobody but sites like news.com know only too well that few people read much beyond the click bait headlines. Even the article itself is structured so the truth only comes out if you read to the end.
If we can have robots serving us food in restaurants, surely this can be automated with a robot and AI
It already is in every country outside of Australia, because they have laws than ban unions from inventing fake jobs to rort taxpayers via local, state and federal governments.
They deserve the money more than people like Banducci and recruitment gimps
Banducci rescued his company from horrific corporate investments made by diversity executive hires, that almost bankrupted them. He was definitely worth every penny he was paid.
A stop sign on the other hand can and is equally held up by an empty barrel. There is literally no reason to employ anyone to do it at all.
I don't understand how they can keep mass importing highly skilled nurses and doctors from overseas, but can't do that for tradies/traffic controllers?
Blows my mind they could fix the housing crisis quickly by importing short-term foreign labour (like they already do for fruit pickers), and us ordinary Aussies have to suffer for it through higher costs of living, housing and expensive tradies.
You can replace stop sign holders with a barrel and you already have the same outcome in terms of road safety and warning of hazards. In almost every other country in the world, they already either use a barrel, or a mobile dummy that stands in a barrel base to hold the stop/slow signs.
Australia is one of the only places left in the world still paying people to do the function & let's be honest, barrels and dummies are less likely to introduce any risk.
Literally the point I'm making. Inanimate objects do the job better and more reliably with less cost and less risk.
It makes complete sense.
Yep.
120k will attract many people to the job.
But then they may not all get 120k when there's not enough shifts for every applicant.
In healthcare, you have nurses that make more money than their managers. Eg due to overtime, penalty etcThe nurses will also relentlessly cry poor, then immediately turn around and campaign against the admin, support and management staff they work with getting paid more than minimum wage - because it will take from any proposed budget increase allowing for their own pay raise.
The sympathy-tank society has for those clowns ran empty years ago.
I think there is a myth that pay is related to effort. Pay is generally related to specialisation, scarcity, regulatory requirements and cost to minimise risk or to add value.
Traffic controllers provide organisations with risk and cost minimisation and this is reflective in the pay. Think about the fines the company might receive or insurance claims that they need to settle vs paying traffic controllers a decent wage to mitigate onsite risks.
Stop sign holders are getting paid to do a job that in almost every other country a dummy on a stand or an empty barrel does. The empty barrel also reduces risk and danger, as it takes away a person needlessly standing in traffic. The position is just a way for unions to financially rort state and local governments. There is literally no reason for the position to even exist. Advocating for the position to exist is as stupid as advocating for people to hold up traffic lights instead of steel poles doing it.
I am not disagreeing with any of your comments above but simply stating the fact that this is how corporate decisions are made.
That's exactly the problem though.
This isn't a corporate decision, it's a union decision.
Yes, Aus is full of non-sense.
the funniest thing i've seen was 3 people each holding a stop sign and only standing about 2 steps from each other…..360k there….what a joke…
They deserve it
It’s not as easy and safe as it seems
Is that all. I'm from whirlpool, I stock shelves at aldi and make 400k