Work(No)Choices........even the ads are lies!

[member34258]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Face-of-workplace-ad-a-bad-employer/2007/08/07/1186252659293.html

[HAL]

Do you like talking to me? Do not ask me any more questions please. What is your real name?

[Dave The Man]

Work Choice is a Joke

[stui magpie]

Yep. Sh1t happens.

A painter owes people money, turns to acting in commercials and people come after him.

The ACTU lies with details about how people were supposedly sacked, no one cares.

I've discovered that working as a builder/builders labourer is as hard on the liver as it is on the body.

[David]

Nice case of irony, but that's about it.

[member34258]

Ah, the squirming right wingers.
How I love to see the pithy responses.
Classic.

[David]

Believe me, the government has given its supporters plenty to squirm about in the past 6 months or so, and this story is hardly a case of that.

[Dave The Man]

[David]

Well, not like actively campaigning for the Liberal Party support. And I don't really care that much who wins this election. But yeah I'll probably be voting for Howard.

[Proud Pies]

oh this man just gets better and better. Perfect example to use for the ads in my opinion.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/dad-didnt-pay-me-either/2007/08/07/1186252707775.html

WorkChoices actor accused of ripping off son


Michael Bachelard and Misha Schubert
August 8, 2007

FRESH allegations have emerged that Workplace Authority actor Damien Richardson ripped off other workers, including his son, whom he failed to pay for almost three months' work in 1999.

The new evidence from Mr Richardson's son, Aaron Moore, delivered another blow to the credibility of the Government's workplace advertisements as Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey and Prime Minister John Howard defended the remaining advertisements in Parliament.

Mr Howard described them as "information ads", but Labor and the unions demanded the rest of the campaign be axed, saying it was designed "to con working families".

Mr Richardson, a former painter and part-time actor, plays a man in a beanie in the ad designed to reassure young workers they could not be exploited under WorkChoices. He now has an appointment with the Workplace Ombudsman in Melbourne today to explain his conduct as an employer.

Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson confirmed he would explore the employment record of all other actors in the $37 million ad blitz, at the orders of Mr Hockey.

The Liberal-friendly ad agency that created the campaign, Whybin TBWA, ducked for cover, referring all queries to the Government, citing confidentiality provisions.

Mr Richardson's estranged son, Mr Moore, yesterday backed the complaints of other young workers, saying he had worked for about 11 weeks in his father's theatre restaurant, Theatre Royale, in Mitcham in 1999. His total pay was just $100.

Another young man, Phil Graham, said he too had been employed by Mr Richardson as an 18-year-old and supported all the elements of the story of Erin Gebert, published in The Age.

Mr Richardson has argued the boys were subcontractors who only had themselves to blame for not being paid because they had failed to obtain ABN numbers and had not invoiced him.

He said they had "never ever" asked him for money.

He told ABC radio that Mr Gebert was "the youngest person I would have employed — everyone else was in their 30s or 40s".

But Mr Graham said he was five months younger than Mr Gebert and aged 18 when Mr Richardson hired him in 2005.

Asked if he had been a subcontractor, Mr Graham said: "It's not true at all."

Mr Moore said he had spoken up because he was angered by Mr Richardson's insistence that Mr Gebert's work was not up to scratch.

"I thought that was wrong because he's done it before, and he's probably done it to other people as well," he said.

"I don't really hold any ill will against him, but it sounded like a lie to me."

In 1979, Mr Richardson split with Mr Moore's mother, who was then 16, shortly after she had his baby, and there was little or no contact between them after that.

But in 1997 Mr Moore contacted Mr Richardson after seeing him in a television advertisement, and in 1999 he came to Melbourne and began working for him.

"Once I started working with him it turned out he wasn't paying me … according to him it was a new business that was waiting for money to come in — that was the story that just kept coming and coming," Mr Moore said.

"There was one time I did get some money, and that was after, I'd say, six weeks of working there … I asked him for some money, and he took me to the pub and bought me a few drinks and gave me $100 out of his wallet.

"When the business was going bad, instead of coming in to tell me there was no more work for me, he sent in the silent partner, who I'd never met before. And he came in to tell me I was no longer working there.

"I was devastated. I can remember the train trip back to the city, I was crying all the way."

Some months later, Mr Moore tried to contact his father, but "it went to voicemail and I never got a call back". The Workplace Ombudsman yesterday agreed to investigate Mr Moore's claims.

Mr Graham worked with Mr Richardson 18 months ago and said his former employer had "the gift of the gab".

"He said you won't get paid, we'll meet at the pub and I'll pay you there, and he'd buy a couple of drinks and said, 'Oh, that person, the cheque didn't clear'," Mr Graham said.

Workplace Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said it was "unlikely but not impossible" that young people in the position of Mr Gebert and Mr Graham were legitimately contractors.

He said he would suspend judgement until he had explored the case further.

Workplace lawyer Peter Vitale said: "If this young fellow wasn't performing work for any other employer, and clearly he wasn't in a situation where he was conducting his own business, then there's a likelihood that he'd be found to be an employee rather than a contractor."

Mr Richardson did not return The Age's calls yesterday.

Mr Howard defended the "totally legitimate" campaign, which he conceded had cost taxpayers $23 million since May, on top of the initial WorkChoices blitz worth $44 million.

He accused Labor of having double standards by refusing to criticise advertising by state Labor governments.

Mr Hockey suggested the credentials of actors in ACTU and state Labor ads in Victoria and WA might also be checked.

[Dave The Man]

[Syd_Magpies_Girl]

Both parties have their heads up their arses as far as I'm concerned. Either way, we are doomed. Kevin Rudd is a show pony, and John Howard is a forgetful lying old twit.

Which way do you go?

[stui magpie]

[Alec. J. Hidell]

Poor old Johnny, he can't seem to take a trick lately.
Interest rates have just about nailed his coffin lid shut

[member34258]