90 Days and counting

Yeah, time for my .02 cents of opinion on the 90-day probation bill. In some ways, on paper, this does indeed sound like a good idea. Sure, let the SME businesses try people out and if they don't work out, let them go without problems. However, there are a few gaps between intention and reality...

First, the workers aren't stopped from starting legal action against the employees for discriminatory reasons, and how many workers might possibly consider this? Fine, some workers are willing to accept that they aren't suited, but there are those that will either take offensive (real or imaginary) or just see this as an easy lawsuit. I can already see many SMEs not taking advantage of this just to avoid the potential court cases.

Second, it is said that some businesses wouldn't follow the rules anyway, so this bill won't matter. Uh, reminds me of the line: If you outlaw guns only the outlaws will have guns. Just because the bad ones are doing it doesn't mean you give power to the good ones to do it too.

Third, yes, some businesses will be seeing this as a way of getting through cheap labour without worrying about paying wages. Against this is the problem of continual retraining and not keeping developable peoples. However, if this is going on, it'll most likely be in the sector where training is not high, ie manual labour or common low-base job. This is what most of us really think will be going on.

Time will tell if this works, but most of us are highly doubtful. Cynicism vs hope, and there's not much of the latter...

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