Push For More Jobs, Fast Travel
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday March 19, 2008
ILLAWARRA workers could miss out on jobs if employers were forced to pay them to commute to Sydney, the Illawarra Business Chamber has claimed.
The chamber's chief executive officer Mark Grimson said faster public transport between Wollongong and Sydney and more jobs within the region were better options.Mr Grimson said a proposal by Unions NSW to pay commuters for their travel time would make employers favour those who lived closer."The reality is if you were to make (the Unions NSW proposal) an across-the-board thing, you could put people in Wollongong at a big disadvantage because there could be employers in Sydney who say I'm not going to pay you to travel," Mr Grimson said.The proposal also raised safety issues. "What happens if you give your employee a laptop (to use while travelling) and they then become a target (for crime), would the employer be liable?" Mr Grimson asked.He said a better public transport system would reduce travel time and benefit the economy.South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris said paying employees for extra work was secondary to the need to cut down the time it took to travel from Wollongong to Sydney."To spend 11/2 hours over such a relatively small distance is a disgrace in this country in modern times," Mr Rorris said."If Sydney is serious as an international city, the links to it have to be of a first-world standard and they're not."He said it was fair to expect employers to contribute to compensation for employees who travelled long distances.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury