Chapter 484: Rebuilding Labor Laws
The railway bidding went very smoothly, and with the fourth phase of construction of the Leonora Industrial Base about to begin, Australasia is about to usher in hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of candidates for these new jobs. So far, there is no sign of another outbreak of influenza, and the world economy, which has been dormant for more than half a year, has finally recovered.
The first is immigrants from all over the world. After Americans' reputation in Europe was completely ruined, Australasia became the first choice for Europeans to immigrate.
If the regions that were more popular for immigrants before the flu were the United States, Australasia, Canada and other regions, now they are Australasia, Canada, South Africa, South America, etc.
As direct beneficiaries, the number of immigrants in Australasia is visibly higher.
Although there is still the impact of the flu, in more than two months from the beginning of the year to now, Australasia has added more than 300,000 immigrants. The growth rate of immigrants is quite exaggerated.
This is not over yet. The government expects the number of immigrants to reach more than 2 million this year. How to deal with such a large number of immigrants is a problem.
Two million immigrants are definitely a lot, accounting for one-tenth of the current total population of Australasia. They are also close to the populations of the capital Sydney and the second largest city Melbourne.
On the one hand, creating more jobs will help these immigrants to integrate into Australasian life more quickly after arriving in Australasia without having to worry about life problems.
On the other hand, that is to improve the treatment of immigrants as much as possible, so that immigrants can deepen their sense of belonging to Australasia, and even let them actively support the country of Australasia.
In Australasia, the solution to things is simple. Even if Arthur just has an idea, a large number of people will implement it for Arthur's idea.
Since March, members of the House of Representatives have raised issues requesting the revision of labor laws to protect the rights of Australasian citizens and immigrants.
According to the existing labor laws in Australasia, the interests of Australasians are relatively well protected.
In terms of work system, Australasia generally adopts an eight-hour work system. The maximum daily working hours must not exceed 11 hours, the weekly working hours must not exceed 60 hours, and one day per week must be used as a rest time, etc.
In addition, for working hours exceeding eight hours and additional overtime on all holidays, double wages for the overtime period will be applied, and no deductions will be allowed, and must be paid in full.
These various systems look good, but there is no mention of immigration at all.
As an immigrant country, Australasia still has to take into account the large number of immigrants.
Of course, the immigrants here refer to those who have decided to settle in Australasia, but are in the nationality examination period and have not yet obtained nationality.
Although Australasia lacks population, not everyone wants it. All immigrants each year must go through a first round of background checks to ensure there are no revolutionary rebels who could endanger Australasia's national security.
In addition, there is an assessment period of at least half a year. During the assessment period, no illegal behavior is allowed, otherwise you will lose the qualification to obtain Australasian citizenship.
This nationality assessment system has eliminated at least tens of thousands of unqualified immigrants in Australasia, and has effectively reduced the crime rate and social harm incidents in Australasia.
After all, Australasian citizens can enjoy various welfare policies promulgated by the state and the royal family, and these people are far less likely to engage in criminal activities than immigrants.
Regarding the proposal of the new labor law, it is natural to add these new immigrants and make certain modifications to the original labor law.
The first is the minimum wage provision. When Australia was formulating labor laws before, because the income gap between emerging enterprises and farmers and herdsmen was too large, it did not set a clear minimum wage.
However, as the development of Australasia gradually gets on the right track, it is also necessary to have a clear minimum wage regulation.
The per capita annual income in Australasia is more than 50 Australian dollars, and the minimum wage level is set at around 40 Australian dollars.
This also means that for all jobs in Australasia, the minimum annual salary must not be less than 40 Australian dollars, and the minimum monthly salary must not be less than 3.3 Australian dollars.
Although the minimum wage is lower than the per capita income level in Australasia, there is nothing that can be done about it.
After all, not all working people are exactly the same. For some workers with disabilities or other problems, I cannot ask business owners to give them the same salary as normal people.
The minimum wage is to protect the income of these people, ensuring that their income will not be too much lower than the per capita income, so that they have enough capital to live in this country.
According to the per capita income of Australasia, 40 Australian dollars is also a threshold for the per capita income of Australasia.
Along with the changes in Australasian labor laws, there are also subsidy policies for low-income people.
Only families with a per capita income of less than 40 Australian dollars will receive material relief from the Royal Relief Committee. For every 5 Australian dollars of per capita income below 40 Australian dollars, there is also a threshold, and the proportion and amount of subsidies will be higher.
The lowest threshold is a family with a per capita income of less than 20 Australian dollars, which is defined as a special poor family, enjoys all tax exemptions, and has high subsidies and support policies.
Classifying low-income people into different levels will help lower-income people get more supplies, rather than equally sharing the same supplies among people with different incomes.
After all, life in Australasia has become much better than it was more than ten years ago. Families with a per capita income of more than 40 Australian dollars are actually considered well-off.
Calculated into the currencies of other countries, it becomes clear that the per capita annual income of 40 Australian dollars is equivalent to 20 pounds, 100 US dollars, 400 marks, 180 rubles, 200 yen and 140 taels of silver. In Australasia, where prices are relatively low, it is not a problem for a family to have enough food and clothing.
In addition to determining the minimum wage, labor laws also provide clear provisions for disputes between labor and assets.
Capital is prohibited from using any excuse to delay wages from the labor side, including arbitrary deductions from wages, and will be severely punished by labor laws.
If it is determined that malicious wage arrears and wage deductions are true, the capital side will face a minimum penalty of 500 Australian dollars and a maximum penalty of confiscation of all property.
Such severe penalties can effectively reduce the malicious behavior of capitalists in wage arrears.
Along with the development of Australasia, private capital, large and small, has developed.
This regulation is a restriction on these capitals. After all, capitalists will not obediently pay taxes to the government and pay full or even more generous salaries and incentives to workers like Arthur.
Of course, in order to prevent some workers from maliciously causing trouble and even using their status to obtain improper benefits for themselves, the labor law also has restrictions on the workers.
If it is determined that the worker maliciously caused trouble, the worker will also be fined a minimum of 20 Australian dollars and a maximum of 500 Australian dollars. If the case is serious, he or she may face imprisonment based on the actual situation.
Favoring the people but not condoning them is also the main tone of the revised labor law.
Although the public is a vulnerable group, it cannot be ruled out that some unqualified people use their status to seek improper benefits.
Of course, although the term immigration during the probationary period is included in the labor law, the treatment of immigrants and citizens is still very different.
First, all Australasian businesses are prohibited from indiscriminately cutting staff. If the company is going to reduce its workforce, it must notify it at least one month in advance and issue at least one additional month's salary after the layoff to ensure that the laid off people have enough time to find a job and still have a certain amount of income when there is no job. Feed themselves.
This policy is only available to Australasians. Immigrants do not enjoy this policy before they officially obtain Australasian citizenship.
At the same time, in order to stimulate all immigrants to master English, the official language of Australasia, there is also a provision in the labor law, that is, immigrants who master English can receive the same minimum wage guarantee, and immigrants who do not master English can only Can obtain 70% of the minimum income under labor law.
To put it simply, for immigrants who can speak English, the minimum wage when they join the work is also 40 Australian dollars.
But if they don’t know English, the minimum wage for these immigrants will drop to 28 Australian dollars, which is still a considerable drop.
As long as this regulation is officially implemented, immigrants will take the initiative to learn English for the sake of their own income, no matter how unwilling they are.
What's more, it is easy for these European immigrants to learn English. If they master English more proficiently, they can also gain a higher status in Australasia.
There is a loophole in this labor law, that is, immigrants who do not speak English are likely to take jobs from domestic people.
After all, immigrants who don't speak English only need to provide 70% of the minimum income, but citizens and English-speaking immigrants have to provide the full minimum income. The difference is 12 Australian dollars per person per year.
If a large number of immigrants who cannot speak English are hired, calculated based on 100 people, it can save 1,200 Australian dollars in salary expenses every year, which is a lot of money for small and medium-sized enterprises.
To prevent this loophole and protect the rights of domestic citizens and English-speaking immigrants, new restrictions were introduced in the labor law.
That is, all enterprises in Australasia shall not employ more than one-third of their total employees from foreign immigrants.
Australasian citizens must account for the majority of all enterprise employees. This also prevents some capitalists and business owners from taking advantage of labor law loopholes and employing large numbers of immigrants who do not speak English.
If immigrants want to earn higher incomes, they must become Australasian citizens and obtain all the protections afforded to citizens by labor laws.
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