2nd Blog Post

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the lateness of this blog but I had trouble logging in to my gmail and blog account, but I have got it working now :)

This week we are looking at employment relations in Europe. I found the European Working Time Directive to be quite interesting, which regards laws on the maximum number of hours employees can work each week at their workplace. Right now the European Working Time Directive states that an employee does not have to work for any more than 48 hours per week. But if the employee wants to work for additional hours beyond the 48 hours, he/she can opt out of the 48 hour agreement with their employer but this must be voluntary and in writing as well.
Working Time Directive Laws
I found a lot of useful information about working time laws at the website above.


European Working Time Directives and Opting Out

Above is one short video I found which talks about the Working Time Directive and how employees can also choose to opt out on whether they want to work above the maximum weekly hours for their job. The video also interestingly discusses how from a safety perspective the working time directives are a real positive as well. With studies to show, workers who stick to the maximum working hours make less mistakes in their job than they do when working beyond the maximum hours required.

I think this is a positive way for countries within the European Union to look at the the Working Time Directives especially when employee's safety comes in to the question. But at the same time this is interesting because in Australia the maximum numbers of working hours for an employee by law is 38 hours, which is quite a big difference to the European Unions 48 hour maximum.

Is 48 hours to much? Or is 38 hours to less? Tell me what you think.

Thanks everyone!

1st Blog Entry

Hi everyone, my name is Jonathan and this is my first blog post for the semester. I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say.... (you guys probs wont)

Anyways.. This weeks topic is focused around multi-nation corporations which you already may know, and I understand that everyone probably knows what a multi-national corporation is, but I will just re-enlighten you all (in which case I may receive some bonus marks of somekind Andrzej!?). A multi-national corporation is a company with a clear national home base but operating in several countries, which is almost every company you can think of these days. But today I don't think I am going to be 'blogging' and engaging the meanings/understandings and the what, why, when and how of what a multi-national corporation is, I think i may go with a more modern example closer to myself.

In Nicholas' presentation during our tutorial on Tuesday, he talked a lot about how these days entrepreneurs (mostly the good ones) barely have to do any work but merely produce a bright and innovative idea to get some sort of investor/buyer interested. Mark Zuckerberg would throw a measily 1-2 billion dollars at you for just making him smile (as it would seem). These ideas that Nicholas talked to us about got me interested (must of been the guitar) and thinking, and it came to my mind a good example that I will quickly share today. This example is of a close acquaintance of mine, and proves the fact that because of huge multi-national corporations today taking over the world, entrepreneurs can make a lot of money fast, and then move on to the next without much hassle.

This close friend of mine created a company called e2o along with two other partners. This business specializes in the oil and gas industry. Within 3 years of being created the company was bring in huge earnings and pulling in big contracts within the industry including Wheatstone, Origin and Gladstone projects. they were bought out by Clough (another big player in the industry). For me this sheds a light on how quickly a business or even a good idea can be picked up by a big multi-national corporation, and for a business 3 years of actually operating before being offered a big pay out is not a very long time. And now that they have been bought out, two of the owners are already looking in to their next project, whereby no doubt they are expecting to make some more money by a multi-national corporation.

If you want to have a quick read about my short story, the link is below:

http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/38930/clough-acquires-commissioning-specialist-e2o-for-14m-38930.html


I hope everyone enjoyed my first blog, I'm sorry but I have never done it before to be honest.