The Australian labour laws recently went through some tectonic changes. The newest beast in town is a piece of legislation called Work Choices and it changed the face of labour laws in this country. It swung the pendulum firmly in the employer’s favour and it has been on PM Howard’s agenda for a long time. So what has this got to do with me?

I was asked to draft an employment contract for a client a few weeks ago. This was before the new legislation was gazetted but it was “anytime now” sort of scenario. So, that piece of contract evolved. And evolved. And evolved. Fast forward 5-6 weeks later I suddenly have become the firm’s de facto expert on Work choices issues. I now have 5 employment contracts on my table and the boss wants to generate a template for further contracts.

There is a little problem in all of this. I was hitherto, a complete novice on industrial relations matters. I know jack-crap about labour laws. Never practiced it, never had anything to do with it. The closest I have come to working on employment contracts was working on our in-house engagement letters while doing in-house work for a banking group. Those contracts however, never required complete grounds-up drafting. I only had to tweak certain clauses to cater to specific employees. The CEO would scribble specific terms for this or that employee and I would pull out our standard one and only work on those terms. I was usually too busy to re-hash the whole document. More importantly, there was always the HRD to make sure these contracts are consistent with what the organization required.

I guess being in a smallish suburban practice means you get your finger into every pie. I’ve been asked to draw up cause papers in Magistrates and County Court proceedings, dealt with family law matters, did debt recoveries, wrote letters to quasi government bodies and professional bodies and generally did stuff I had never done in my past professional life. I don’t like them. Like I said, I prefer not learning a new language. But that is my lot for now. I have to get used to it. One way or the other. Employment Contracts? Bring them on! For now.

There has been a spate of maladies at home recently. First I had my bouts of hypotension. For almost two weeks, I couldn’t do my runs because I was feeling faint. I only resumed running about week and a half ago. Then Theresa was affected by a mysterious form of allergy which caused itchy rashes to break out all over her body. Thankfully that disappeared after a couple of days and this morning, kiddo woke up with a nose bleed. It turned out she probably picked her nose too hard…

            I guess some in my church would term these “spiritual attacks” and would seek some form of deliverance. Maybe. To me it was just, well… “tough titties”?. Anyway, I did pray and they did go away.

A malady which wont go away is my work malaise. I am increasingly unhappy at work. The reasons are multiple but I guess the overriding one must be the uneasy relationship I have always had with the principal. From the very first week we have not seen eye to eye and it has truly been a wonder I am still with him, after more than 13 months. I prayed of course, but this one has so far refused to go away. Never mind, I will just plug away and see what gives, if anything.