'Nobody gets paid more than you': how Bridie won fight for basic pay

20 May 2018
Canberra Times
   

Bridie Tanner and her workmates were told "nobody" was making more than them working in retail on a bustling street in Sydney's inner west.   

The then 23-year-old was paid between $16 and $18 an hour with no holiday pay, superannuation or leave entitlements.   


Bridie Tanner said she felt like she was "at crisis point" after being sacked from her job.


When she questioned why she wasn't receiving those entitlements, she was told it was "best if you don't come back here".   

Ms Tanner, who presents a morning radio program at FBi community radio, had about $1000 in the bank when she was fired and "burnt through that on rent and everything else" in about a month.

"I was a week behind in rent and my next week's rent was about to be due. It really felt like I was at crisis point," she said.


Ms Tanner, now 24, was put in touch with Marrickville Legal Centre. Within weeks she had secured a payout from her former employer, including compensation for unfair dismissal and the entitlements she was owed.

She said she wasn't aware of the legal problems with working for cash-in-hand until she spoke to a  union delegate friend.

When she or her workmates raised the issue of pay and entitlements with their boss they were told "nobody on [a street in Sydney's inner west] gets paid more than you", Ms Tanner said.

Vasili Maroulis, a youth solicitor at Marrickville Legal Centre, acted for Ms Tanner and said the power imbalance between young people and their employers meant "it's very easy for them to be pushed around".   

He said Ms Tanner should have been paid "at least" $20 an hour under the relevant award.

Mr Maroulis said it was "drilled into" people they should get legal advice if they were involved in a criminal offence and "I wish that was [the case] with employment law".

Ms Tanner's story is one of several featured in a photo exhibition by Marrickville Legal Centre, which opened last Monday in Dulwich Hill during Law Week and runs until June 1.

BigOl64 wrote on May 25^th, 2018 at 8:03am:


Unless you are a politician or senior public servant

Then, the world is your oyster.

Especially if you can get a gig where you sell off Australian asserts ( like Darwin port)

And then retire on your political pension and magically find a job worth $800,000.00 a year working for the companies who you did the free fade deal with.

Not that anything corrupt was involved
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more

UnSubRocky wrote on May 27^th, 2018 at 12:37pm:


You're joking aren't you?

That's the very area where there is no full time,,,, it's all casual/part time.

Casualisation in all industries is a cancer.

UnSubRocky wrote on May 27^th, 2018 at 12:37pm:



Not from tourism you won't, low pay and part time insecurity; that's what tourism jobs bring.


And the socialist are fighting hard to make that happen.