I'll be honest.
I've never understood the attraction of being Leftwing.
It's like they just want everyone to be beaten down to a same level of poverty and to have open doors to let in all of Africa and Asias poor.

I am not sure I see the problem.

Why is it so bad in Australia to have money and be successful?

You know here in the United States its something to be admired. Yet in Australia we seem to want to cut people down and hand it to others?

The bonus convo yesterday here in NY

VP, Human Resources
"We also need to consider that paying out on the bonus allocations in Australia we have to pay additional costs to us like their superannuation and their social charges. They have a pretty high mandatory super cost that will impact the expense to us"

CFO
"Well we have a net pool figure by country and I've committed to that to the board. So we cull down the bonus paid out by whatever percentage and back into the net accrual pool for Australia. That's what we have to do?"

Me
"So we are cutting people's allocated bonus to pay their superannuation?"

CFO
"Yeah pretty much"

Me
"Isnt that a bit harsh, they can't control the superannuation and social charge costs?"

CFO
"Tough sh't, that ain't our problem. Hey don't live in such a fking socialist country is my answer"


Hate to say it, but he has a point.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on May 6^th, 2016 at 12:47am:


I guess I've never been wealthy enough to feel it.

edit: I don't think anyone thinks wealth is bad in and of it's self.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on May 6^th, 2016 at 12:46am:


A fine exposition of how chicanery is involved in giving as little as possible in return for as much as possible... without consideration for any other issues..... for example - would your company prefer to pay more tax (LMAO - they pay TAX here?) .. to cover retirement benefits for your staff employees.. or would you prefer to pay their compulsory superannuation?

Ordinary coal-face workers do not GET bonuses.... so where is this trade-off for them?  How many 'bonused' workers do you actually have in Australia - and not working on a laptop on board a First Class flight somewhere over the ether?

You want to exchange 'bonuses' for 'superannuation rights'?  Fine - just tell your employees that.... but let me say this... the average worker doesn't get 'bonuses' - so sell that trade-off to your five 'management' flunkeys here in Oz.... with the level of abuse inherent in the globalised economy already - they just might accept it...

But I'll bet you LIE to them to get them to do so....

You're not much of an accountant, Andrei - you only tell the boss what he/she wants to hear.. and you will all go down some day.....

When international television starts programming shows on 'tax havens' and 'international companies' and their rorts, and their import on the economy of the countries affected... you should start reading the writing on the wall.

Just saying.....

I don't understand your point Grappler.

Of the workforce our company has in Australia, all of the employees not on a warehouse union agreement receive an annual bonus.

What happsns is following the announcement of the company result and shre price dividend calculation, there is a bonus pool calculated.

The people in the room to decide this pool are HR, Finance (in this case as it was non US was me), Operations (COO).

We then calc what each country will get and then HR look at annual reviews, Manager assessment etc and calculate what each individual will get eg what their contracts say.

Whats happened here is that we set a pool for Australia - like we did for Japan, Singapore, UK etc etc

The HR guy is (rightfully) saying we have to pay 12%+ on superannuation on that bonus to employees in Australia.

The CFO is also rightfully saying I communicated to the board this is how much we are paying, we can't go adding 12% onto it now.

So given the bonus is 100% discretionary, we can make it whatever we like.

So we cut it down by 12% and we still come out to the same total - it is just they will get 12% less as a bonus because we pay it into super.

If they didn't have this hefty charge, then we'd still pay the same total but workers will get 12% more in their gross pay.

Make sense amigo?

All non EBA staff get annual bonuses.

Finance Accountants, Accounts Payable clerks, Customer Service, marketing associates, legal, PR.

Only ones who don't are sales force who get bonuses every quarter based on sales metrics and union people who are not included in the bonus program.

Oh and all those guys get superannuation in their monthly pay btw!

You never got an annual bonus ever?