Retail staff: the expensive job
Have often wondered this: who pays for the clothes retail staff are expected to wear when working for fashion brands and high-end labels? Well, the employers pay for some of it but the discounts are usually around the 40 per cent mark and don’t cover all the costs. But under the Fair Work Act, if an employer requires any special clothing to do a job they need to cover the cost unless otherwise stated in an enterprise agreement.The full costs, that is. News.com.au reported: Workplace lawyer Luke Gattuso, special counsel at Allens Arthur Robinson, said asking staff to spend their wages to buy clothes would contravene the Act if it was an “unreasonable requirement”. Mr Gattuso said an employer must not exert undue influence or pressure on an employee if they chose not to receive a deduction from their pay to buy items like clothing and footwear. “It’s a bit of a blurry line from the employee’s perspective if their employer is saying ‘I’d rather you wear this than that’. A policy doesn’t really mean much if the practice is in fact something else”
Making better choices, a little bit easier
A new website will soon make it easy for people to key in their postcode and find out what food in their immediate area is fresh, sustainable and ethically produced. It might make having a conscience a little less effort. Local harvest’s creator Nick Ray said: ”It’s a tool for people to make better choices. And the reality is the industrial food systems behind the supermarkets have a lack of transparency.” Australia’s Local Harvest adds retailers, farmers’ markets, market gardens and numerous groups and organisations associated with sustainable and ethical food harvesting, gleaning, marketing, production, retail, cooking and publishing into the mix. Ray says it’s all about connecting people – and watching the site evolve from there. ”So where you live will be the first point of engagement for Local Harvest but there will be many after that.”