Burn, baby, burn!

[Glexn]

It was a lovely, freezing Winter morning in Ballarat, and a tall, long haired git was chilling in the Southern Region Data Centre, when suddenly all the fire alarms went off, and we all had to evacuate, and then all these fire trucks arrived, and started spraying water all over millions of dollars worth of servers which house data for about four dozen major corporations and government agencies, and the gruff fire fighter and the pretty lady fire fighter who lead the team were the same ones who helped me when my motorbike caught fire. The boss made us all log out of our phones before we evacuated, so he doesn't have to pay us for the time we're in the emergency area waiting not to burn to death. How sweet of him, huh?

Though, I am exaggerating, a switchboard caught fire, bit's melted, but it's okay. Now I'm back inside. Was still standing in the freezing cold and light rain for almost an hour, though.

An hour I'm not getting paid for. Fucking fire.

[BullpupDFWM]

talk to the union.

[Glexn]

I had to sign away my rights to a union to get a job here. I agreed to neither start one nor join one. Kind of annoying, sometimes. Like when they don't pay you for a month...

[BullpupDFWM]

Ha! I had a job like that once. Fucking shithouse. Especially when they put your safety at risk like that. I occasionally have musings of getting the Woolworths I work at shut down because of their never ending (and often seemingly intentional) OHS violations.

[Glexn]

Originally Posted by BullpupDFWM

Ha! I had a job like that once. Fucking shithouse. Especially when they put your safety at risk like that. I occasionally have musings of getting the Woolworths I work at shut down because of their never ending (and often seemingly intentional) OHS violations.

What kind of stuff do they do? There's a Woolworths in Melbourne's West that is doing some renovations, an apparently it's around the fridge and freezers out the back. Every second or third item I buy that needs to stay refridgerated is off. Do they only do it to their customers, or do they jerk the employee around, too?

My work is relatively safe, so far as white collar almost-cubicle jobs go. Although, I did find out last week that my base pay rate is $0, and my pay is entirely up to my manager's discretion. He can take it away whenever he likes... Thankfully, he's not an arse like most of the rest here.

[BullpupDFWM]

Fire extinguishers are always blocked or covered. Fire exits and alarms are always blocked. There are never enough safety steps for everyone. The capping ladders are almost always faulty (ie, they keep moving when you step on them). Chicken fat is often left on the floor in the deli section, which we than have to walk through to get to the toilet or break room.

A little ironical considering how the importance of safety was hammered into us when we started.

[J A Eyers]

They can ban you from joining a union? Is that what 3,000 years of John Howard did to Australia? It sounds like the UK in the 1920s. Or America 50 years from now.

[BorderCollie-san]

Originally Posted by Semirhage

I had to sign away my rights to a union to get a job here. I agreed to neither start one nor join one. Kind of annoying, sometimes. Like when they don't pay you for a month...

I'm fairly certain that is illegal. you're in Victoria so you're automatically in the Commonwealth industrial relations system. The Workplace Relations Act 1996 has a whole part on freedom of association. There is a prohibition on employers refusing to employ a person on the grounds that the person "is, has been, proposes to become or has at any time proposed to become an officer, delegate or member of an industrial association"

where do you work? you should refer it to the workplace ombudsman.

[Glexn]

Originally Posted by BorderCollie-san

I'm fairly certain that is illegal. you're in Victoria so you're automatically in the Commonwealth industrial relations system. The Workplace Relations Act 1996 has a whole part on freedom of association. There is a prohibition on employers refusing to employ a person on the grounds that the person "is, has been, proposes to become or has at any time proposed to become an officer, delegate or member of an industrial association"

where do you work? you should refer it to the workplace ombudsman.

I work for IBM. I was reasonably sure they weren't allowed to do that, and I've thought about going to the ombudsman. We get paid almost half what our counterparts in Sydney and Brisbane get. The trick is, you see, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars this building rakes in every year, if it costs a cent more, they'll shut it down and move it elsewhere, and there's five hundred jobs gone from this little city. The eight largest corporate entity in the world in downgrading our computers soon, from the 4 year old pieces of garbage they are, to something much worse. We only got Windows XP last year.

I don't think there is a great deal I could do that would end in something positive.

[aLiteSneeze]

Baby it burns to be your fire on the side.

[BorderCollie-san]

what did they actually make you sign when you started, an AWA?

[Glexn]

It was back in 2006, but the new contracts have that little logo up the top. I don't think mine did.

[The Drunkk Machine]

someone was quoted as saying "burn baby burn"

[Everlong]

There was a fire in a Woolworths in Manchester in England during the 80s I think and lots of people died in the restaurant. The reason was because when the fire alarms went off the people waited to pay the bill before they evacuated.

[J A Eyers]

Kudos to their sense of fair play.

[Salvage Guy]

That's a restaurant full of Darwin candidates.