Page 1748 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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When I was an employee, I was really lucky. I did not move around too much. I found great bosses who respected me and paid me what I thought I was worth; but I never worked in a salon long enough to gain long service leave entitlements. I worked in the one salon for my whole apprenticeship, which is usually about four years. I then worked in a couple of smaller salons until I found a salon that was great for me. I stayed there until the birth of my second child and I then opened my own salon. Really, I had very few bosses, and I stayed for long periods with them, but I still did not get long service leave entitlements.
As with industries such as construction and building, hairdressers move between employers but not always out of the industry. Some hairdressers move around a bit, whether that be from having to get away from bad bosses or whether they want to grow their abilities and work with new people. That does not mean that they should not be entitled to access long service leave. These are real-world issues experienced by real-world people.
Imagine a hairdresser by the name of Boris. Boris left school and started hairdressing when he was 17. Boris is full of life and thrives on learning. Boris, like me, did his apprenticeship in one salon for the whole four years. Many do not make it the whole time. Let us say that Boris was lucky enough to find a good boss and it all worked out perfectly. From there, Boris went to work in a salon which had a bit more flair and gave him the ability to do more fashion hairdressing. If you want a mix of colourful dreadlocks and braids with a side cut, Boris is your man.
Boris’s boss at his second salon decided to sell up and, unfortunately, his new employer and Boris did not see eye to eye. Boris found a new job. He even got a promotion. He became the manager at the new salon. Boris reckons that it is pretty grouse there and he has now been hairdressing for a total of 12 years. He has met the love of his life and wants to travel and get married overseas. He loves his job. This was also all before COVID times.
We are imagining this scenario: even as a brilliant hairdresser and a manager, he is not really paid very well. As an apprentice, junior hairdresser and even as a manager, he is struggling to put savings together. If Boris was able to have his long service leave entitlements transported, he would have plenty of leave available to him and enough money to pay for the trip. I am sure that some people would say that Boris is being greedy with his request that he get the same rights to long service leave as other people get. I reckon that Boris has waited long enough.
Long service leave should not be limited to people in industries with more ongoing employment practices. Hence, I am really happy to include other industries in my motion. It is important that we look at all the industries that are non-public sector industries. Things like childcare workers, beauty therapists, mechanics—they are just a few of the industries that could also benefit from being included in the long service leave portability scheme.
As a very colourful former member of this place once said:
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