ACNC alleges serious misconduct and association with financial fraud, amid allegations that many small shelters are “fronts” for hoarders and charity scams. READ MORE

Activists are already hailing a new Californian law as the wedge they need to get rid of pet ownership.

Under pressure from well funded activist groups, the Californian governor has passed a law banning all except shelter dogs/cats from pet shops, in spite of a well fought campaign by the USA pet industry association, who appeared powerless to fight these activists.

BUT shelters aren’t intending to supply!

Now that they have a monopoly on pet supply, many shelters have announced they will refuse to supply pet shops. There aren’t enough shelter pets to supply to USA pet shops even if they were going to supply – USA shelters are already importing dogs from Central American countries.

To make matters worse, the dog breeding scene in the USA is entirely unregulated, with no AAPDB or Dogs Vic/NSW etc to impose standards, no Codes of Practice for Breeding, and no inspection of breeding premises. Consumers will be left on their own. Shoddy breeders will prevail.

WHERE is the rationale that says that a person can buy deadly drugs, alcohol and tobacco from regulated retail outlets,  but not a family pet? WHERE are the welfare benefits from removing any form of positive enforced regulation on dog and cat breeding and sale?

There aren’t any. This is populist rhetoric dressed up in fake news about puppy farms. Watch those same activists strike at Australia.

Click See the news on the California Bill

Fair Work is now prosecuting pet business in relation to penalty rates and overtime. In a current case, the member had a signed contract with her employee outlining rates of pay and hours of work The employee received “advice” and then commenced prosecution – now in the courts.

Here’s a few quick reminders when hiring and maintaining good employee relations…..

A) You cannot pay someone less than the minimum wage, with minimum conditions, which include penalty rates for weekend and after hours work. This is regardless of whether you are on an Award, or on an individual contract.

8 Ways to manage this issue:

1. Amortise the penalty/overtime rates (and for some, casual rates as well) into the hourly rate and have individual contracts which work out the same “in total payment”, but gives you flexibility over rostering
2. Hire only Juniors on weekends – you are still paying penalty rates, but on a lower base
3. Use permanent-part-time employees on weekends so that you aren’t paying penalty rates on top of casual loading
4. Consider your opening hours on weekends – Retail may have no choice, but Boarding, Grooming, and Service businesses may have some flexibility.
5. If you are a working owner of the business, consider making weekend shifts your own – then you are paying no penalty rates at all. For many this is the best option – high levels of business on weekends give you the best chance of meeting clients, and you take the slow days (often Mon-Tues) as your weekend.
6. Consider work experience students to assist with weekend work.
7. If you have a relatively large staff, think about an enterprise agreement to “flatten” the wages peaks.
8. Consider contractors, BUT only if they are true contractors (see below)

B) You cannot provide less in total than the 10 minimum employment standards.

These can be found at this link. Click Here to Read More…

C) Know your rights in relation to work experience students/interns.

Where work experience is a requirement as part of a course or schooling (eg School placement, TAFE, University) these people are not required to be paid! We have run into more than 1 recent case where work experience students have demanded or been offered payment. DO NOT OFFER PAYMENT! If you offer payment (as compared to a gift at the end of the placement, for example) you may be deemed to have taken that person on as an employee, and then be required to pay penalty rates/superannuation etc.

If the person comes to you when not studying and is “taking work that would have been done by a paid employee – then you MUST pay them as an employee. More information CLICK HERE. 

D) Trials of skills and experience prior to hiring

If you require a person to demonstrate their skills and experience prior to hiring them into a position, you may be required to pay them for their time – because they are doing for free work that would otherwise be done by an employee. Unpaid trials should be as short as possible. For more CLICK HERE

E) Hiring Contractors

This is the most difficult part of an employment relationship and had strong “pros” and “cons” A person having an ABN is not enough  – they must act, or be able to act as a true contractor.  

Pros:

• – no penalty rates
• – ability to call on as needed
• – perfect flexibility in work roles determined by the nature of the contract
• – no super
• – no casual loading
• – no sick leave or annual leave
• – pay on invoice.

Cons:

• – if you do not get your contracting right, Fair Work may “deem” that it’s a sham (pretendy) contract that should have been an employer/employee relationship.  In that case you get really badly penalised including casual loading, paid superannuation, penalty rates , sick and holiday pay – regardless of whether you paid a higher hourly rate to the contractor to cover all these issues!

The test of “true contracting” is

1. whether the contractor has the right and ability to work for other people, and
2. whether the contractor has the right and ability to determine their own ways of doing a job (which may include their own ways of following a Standard Operating Procedure).

For example……

• – a contractor may wear their own uniform, or only wear yours when they are on your property (so you collect at the end of the day and do the washing etc).
• – a contractor may work for more than one person (eg contract cleaning services to a number of Boarding Kennels)
• – a contractor may set their own hours (in consultation with you) and can have the same hours every week.
• – a contract should have an ABN, and invoice you for their services. DO NOT pay the contractor without an invoice!
• – a contractor should do their own superannuation payments, have their own insurance, etc. DO NOT pay the contractor’s superannuation for them!

Contracting can be a VERY effective way to reduce employment costs (not generally applicable to retail) but it MUST be done correctly or you end up on the receiving end of a really expensive and stressful prosecution by Fair Work.

Pets Australia courses teach Condition Scoring – the best way for owners to truly understand healthy weight and shape for their dogs and cats, regardless of bone size or fur cover.

The Guinness Book of records deliberately stopped taking entries for “Worlds Fattest Dog/Cat in 2008 after it discovered that people were overfeeding pets to try and break this appalling record.

For those who have trained in condition scoring – is this a “5”???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meow_(cat)

On the other hand, the world’s smallest cat is a little cuter – photo of Tinker Toy taken at 2yo.

A Bill banning pets in retail is in the hands of the Governor of California to pass or veto. The same activists are using the same lobbying techniques against the pet industry around the world to try to have all except “not for profit” pound animals (including rabbits) in pet retail – BUT there is no indication that the pounds will provide animals.  Pounds stand to make MUCH more money as monopoly providers of pets. Activists continue to try and make an association between substandard breeders and pet retail – a link that has NEVER been proven.

There is plenty of evidence that all this approach does is deny families the pets that they choose,  as a result of which affected families simply choose not to have a pet –  which is exactly what the activists want.

Because USA policy tends to also rebound into Australian parliaments, particularly Victoria. We have written to the Governor CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LETTER.