Tag: Small Business

拒绝内卷—澳大利亚小企业劳资关系的问题及简单思考

Posted by Luming Wang on

社会的内卷(Involution)似乎是中国社会当下被讨论最多的问题之一。原本的含义是“社会或文化模式在某一发展阶段达到一种确定的形式后，便停滞不前或无法转化为另一种高级模式的现象”。现在则更宽泛地指代在有限市场中投出大量劳动力以获得总产量增长的生产模式。具体表现在如”996”这类以拼命加班带来产量增长，而不对劳动生产率进行提高的增长模式。

在很多人印象里，澳大利亚应该是一个工作日朝九晚五，周末要么海滩晒太阳，要么街边喝咖啡的社会。与内卷似乎完全不搭边。但是在我们的从业过程中却发现在一些小企业，尤其是劳动密集型行业中，内卷似乎成了企业和员工生存下去的“唯一途径”，即通过压缩成本进行同质化竞争。

小企业要招人，但是又总觉得用工成本太高。有的应聘者想找工作，但又觉得税务太重。结果两者达成妥协，以低工资现金支付方式“各取所需”。不过这种看似“和谐”的雇佣模式，却是为日后的纠纷及合规风险埋下了伏笔，而承担这一风险的往往是企业主而非雇员。

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New Unfair Contract Term Regime – More Protection for Small Businesses

Posted by Luming Wang on

In this post we will talk about the new Unfair Contract Regime (Regime), which came into effect in November 2016 in accordance with the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Act 2015. The purpose of the Regime was to protect small businesses from being exploited by their mega counterparty, which previously is only afforded to individual consumers.

Unfair Contract Void

Under the new regime, a consumer contract or small business contract (including contract for financial services) is void if:

  • The term is unfair; and
  • The contract is a standard form contract.

What is a small business contract?

A contract is a small business contract if:

  • The contract is for a supply of goods or services, or a sale or grant of an interest in land; and
  • At the time the contract is entered into, at least one party to the contract is a business that employs fewer than 20 persons; and
  • Either of the following applies:
  • The upfront price payable under the contract does not exceed $300,000;
  • The contract has a duration of more than 12 months and the upfront price payable under the contract does not exceed $1,000,000.00.

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