White Christmas 2024

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 21/12/2024 at 5:25 PM, New display name said:

Makes sense to not give your new attractions away for free, especially when you just spent 100,000 billion, trillion dollars on it.

Last I heard, admission to WC was costed, or already included in an annual pass, which, shock horror, also has admission to the same rides during the day time.

[franky]

If I had to guess, I'd say ticket sales and staffing budgets were set for the event with the expectation that the rides wouldn't be opening til Boxing Day.

[Themepark Enthusist]

I would say, that it is crazy to not have the WoO open during the event, even if it was already costed and budgeted they probably had a comfortable profit margin already and should have the ability to spend a little more on having it open, unless of course their profits are so slim they can’t afford to spend that much more on staffing. But even then how can they then justify having it open during the day…

[Levi]

my guess is they didn’t have any staff rostered on to work the night, i think the opening was a very last minute decision. the staff rostered to work for the last couple days were probably already rostered there for training, would explain why it wasn’t open.

[themagician]

@Leviagreed, I think their original plan was to open Boxing Day and when DW started soft opening Rivertown there was a ‘oh shit we need to get this done now’ moment and that’s what lead to there only being 15 hours notice for its opening

[Park Addict 93]

On 24/12/2024 at 9:07 PM, franky said:

If I had to guess, I'd say ticket sales and staffing budgets were set for the event with the expectation that the rides wouldn't be opening til Boxing Day.

I think staffing was a large consideration considering on both the 21st and 22nd during day trade they had other rides closed due to staff shortages.

 

13 hours ago, themagician said:

original plan was to open Boxing Day and when DW started soft opening Rivertown there was a ‘oh shit we need to get this done now’ moment and that’s what lead to there only being 15 hours notice for its opening

Original plan months back was to open in time for all the White Christmas events. The opening date was planned to be a soft opening but yes certainly felt as though it was changed to be official opening to open before DW.

[Levram__]

I don't understand how they are having these ongoing staffing issues? This has been a problem for sometime now yet it doesn't seem to be an issue at say Sea World or Dreamworld?

[Levithian]

Because the work culture is toxic, it's a lot about groups within groups, and if you don't fit in or aren't considered "a team player" you get ostracised regardless of your work ethic or how you do your job. Throw in a shoddy EBA that allows them to pay staff drastically less than the actual minimum wage, what do you end up with? Trouble retaining employees. Especially ones that matter. IE, the ones that actually keep the place running. 
 

[dbo121]

14 minutes ago, Levithian said:

Because the work culture is toxic, it's a lot about groups within groups, and if you don't fit in or aren't considered "a team player" you get ostracised regardless of your work ethic or how you do your job. Throw in a shoddy EBA that allows them to pay staff drastically less than the actual minimum wage, what do you end up with? Trouble retaining employees. Especially ones that matter. IE, the ones that actually keep the place running. 
 

Dreamworlds EBA is circa the same 

[Narra]

16 minutes ago, Levithian said:

Throw in a shoddy EBA that allows them to pay staff drastically less than the actual minimum wage

1 minute ago, dbo121 said:

Dreamworlds EBA is circa the same

The Amusement, Events and Recreation Award itself is an issue IMO. Allows them to get away without paying weekend rates (except for Sunday's at a much lower rate than an individual award would pay, which during my stint at village wasn't a thing at all) and doesn't have anywhere near the allowances that most awards have.

[Levithian]

26 minutes ago, Narra said:

The Amusement, Events and Recreation Award itself is an issue IMO. Allows them to get away without paying weekend rates (except for Sunday's at a much lower rate than an individual award would pay, which during my stint at village wasn't a thing at all) and doesn't have anywhere near the allowances that most awards have.

Unless it has drastically changed in the last few years, none of them use awards. They literally don't mean anything when you draw up an enterprise bargaining agreement. Because it's approved by fairwork it allows you to overwrite any state and federal awards, including things like minimum wages. 

The reason they don't pay penalty rates for weekend work is the loading is supposed to be built into the base rate. Because the park is open year round, the ordinary hours include weekend work. It's not considered unusual or outside of the scope for the position, so it's not expected you earn penalty rates. Work overtime? that's different. Work events outside of park hours? again, different. 

In a just world these sorts of things are supposed to be accounted for in the base rate that everyone gets. Everyone is supposed to be paid a little more per hour for sacrificing their time because it's understood that the business operates 7 days a week. It's supposed to all even out in the end with employees working day shifts earning more than they would normally, so when you rotate through to weekend work and earn less its supposed to be balanced. 

Im reality, none of that happens. Fairwork aren't even supposed to approve any agreement that means an employee is worse off. Just what they define as worse off? worse off than their current agreement? or worse off than the federal minimum? because service staff at theme parks certainly get short changed all round. 

Stupid thing is they have a lot of power in numbers if they were to band together and issue demands and threaten affirmative action, but history has showed companies have basically bought them off with trivial things (how about lollies and a free bbq day to say thanks?) to get them to agree to new agreements when it comes time to vote. I don't know if they have managed to force changes, but different departments at both companies were trying to break away from the all encompassing eba's because this was happening. New and seasonal service staff were voting on agreements while the long term rostered departments were basically being lumped in with young kids that have never heard of an agreement before, let alone know what their employee rights should be. 

The only reason why affirmative action hasn't happened in recent memory is because there is very little union membership within employees at either companies anymore.

Edited December 31, 2024 by Levithian

[dbo121]

6 hours ago, Levithian said:

Unless it has drastically changed in the last few years, none of them use awards. They literally don't mean anything when you draw up an enterprise bargaining agreement. Because it's approved by fairwork it allows you to overwrite any state and federal awards, including things like minimum wages. 

The reason they don't pay penalty rates for weekend work is the loading is supposed to be built into the base rate. Because the park is open year round, the ordinary hours include weekend work. It's not considered unusual or outside of the scope for the position, so it's not expected you earn penalty rates. Work overtime? that's different. Work events outside of park hours? again, different. 

In a just world these sorts of things are supposed to be accounted for in the base rate that everyone gets. Everyone is supposed to be paid a little more per hour for sacrificing their time because it's understood that the business operates 7 days a week. It's supposed to all even out in the end with employees working day shifts earning more than they would normally, so when you rotate through to weekend work and earn less its supposed to be balanced. 

Im reality, none of that happens. Fairwork aren't even supposed to approve any agreement that means an employee is worse off. Just what they define as worse off? worse off than their current agreement? or worse off than the federal minimum? because service staff at theme parks certainly get short changed all round. 

Stupid thing is they have a lot of power in numbers if they were to band together and issue demands and threaten affirmative action, but history has showed companies have basically bought them off with trivial things (how about lollies and a free bbq day to say thanks?) to get them to agree to new agreements when it comes time to vote. I don't know if they have managed to force changes, but different departments at both companies were trying to break away from the all encompassing eba's because this was happening. New and seasonal service staff were voting on agreements while the long term rostered departments were basically being lumped in with young kids that have never heard of an agreement before, let alone know what their employee rights should be. 

The only reason why affirmative action hasn't happened in recent memory is because there is very little union membership within employees at either companies anymore.

Agreed my experience was lower pay than min wage . Did it because I liked the culture and seeing people happy but financially wasn’t the best move during my time. Was a while ago and doubt has changed . 

[Spotty]

Yep... back in my days at Village it was $16.01 a hour for a ride op (Part Time) - Legit 3c above minimum wage. No weekend rates either, just public holidays. Any night time events (Fright Nights, White Christmas, functions) were paid at "Multi Hire" rates - so the casual pay rate which I think was about $19 a hour back in 2012. It really wasn't a very good pay. 

Weekend rates at Village has only been a thing in the last 5 or so years fairly sure, and it's still only just above the minimum wage. I actually got paid more per hour working at McDonalds than as a ride operator back in the day. But I did it because I loved what I do, but the wages could only go so far in the end...

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 31/12/2024 at 2:42 PM, Levithian said:

Unless it has drastically changed in the last few years, none of them use awards. They literally don't mean anything when you draw up an enterprise bargaining agreement. Because it's approved by fairwork it allows you to overwrite any state and federal awards, including things like minimum wages.

Actually, Fair Work has to apply the 'better off overall' test to an EBA - it has to show that workers are better off overall with the EBA than the award, so things lost from the award are made up for in other areas.  Also the workers voted for it.

On 31/12/2024 at 2:42 PM, Levithian said:

Just what they define as worse off? worse off than their current agreement? or worse off than the federal minimum?

The second one. It has to be better than the award.