When is a job not a job ?

[cappy]

No Problem Jim.

A world cruise is not that expensive, and with careful budgeting is within reach of almost anyone.
I book the cheapest inside cabin, 9 times out of 10 been free upgraded to outside cabins.
I go for two months, So Two months pension for me and HER is in the bank.
Two months of shopping bills saved are in the bank,
Two months of Petrol bills for the car is in the Bank.
Two months of the Gas bill in the Bank.
two months of Electricity is in the bank.
two months off the water bill is in the bank.
My car has a SORN on it while I am away, so two months road tax saved...£40
Two months spending money saved and in the bank.
I d0nt smoke anymore, so ciggy money in the bank
I very rarely have a drink now, 1 bottle of £5 wine a week saved and in the bank.
and so on,,,... Take all that off the cost a cruise and it is cheaper than going to Benidorm for two weeks.

So I am going back to Tahiti and Hawaii and all the Polynesian Islands in March , for almost free. Life is easy if you plan it right.
Cheers
Brian

##jeez brian put me down for a world cruise cappy

[j.sabourn]

Will send you a season ticket on the Shields Ferry Cappy.

[cappy]

Will send you a season ticket on the Shields Ferry Cappy.

well john i was suprised to see on the local news last night the tyne ferry is out of order causing lots of probs foe commuters as it has damaged the north side ferry landing ...which was wrongly reported as hitting the north pier .....one guy who ties up iether end of its transit is reported as saying ..he thinks he will give up his life at sea as the trauma of the collision has affected him .....honest ....cappy

[j.sabourn]

It was my twin Bruvver Cappy. As there is nearly 0.5 of a nautical mile between the ferry landing stage and the pier, is not too bad a job on the reporting side, they must be getting better on the BBC. If the crew member is leaving because of trauma may be a chance of you taking up your old vocation (not vacation), I will therefore pay for your insurance if you are offered the job. Do they still have these penny insurances. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

[QUOTE=j.sabourn;246089]#73... I assume a part Australian pension is classed as a benefit in which case we do get taxed on in Australia. It all goes into the pot for gross earnings if you are over the threshold. I paid tax of over 1000 dollars last year and this year 970 dollars. I'm surprised that the uk is not the same. If he has benefits over the threshold he is allowed tax free, then there is something wrong with the system. And your Tax office should be answering some hard questions. I find that unbelievable that a government should be so lax with other peoples money. Cheers JS


John we get a pert Oz pension, part UK and super but do not have to pay any tax. All the contributions were taxed at source so none due now as that would be double dipping.
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[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John S.
There are a few misconceptions about the super passed around in Australia. I was on one of the committees of the Building unions to put in submissions to the treasurer Paul Keating about super, it wasn't an imposition on the Employers it was agreed that a % of any wages agreement was not paid by the employer but was to be put by him into a super fund for his employees starting at 3% of the wage increase and climbing to 9% ,every time there was a wages agreement part thereof was to be to calculated and paid into the fund. The idea behind this was that in the future the worker would not need to be paid a pension. It was the John Howard Liberal Govt that stuffed it up. Now there is even talk that young people should access their super to pay for a deposit on a home. THAT was not the idea, as you know the Govt is steadily either not increasing the pension or cutting bits out,in time they wont be able to afford paid pensions this was foreseen at the time the super was agreed to.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

#86.... I'M not complaining Des about the super I got out here as it fitted in with my plans. Not forgetting I was only working for 11 years. For those who had worked for about 30 years however were walking away sometimes with 6 and 700,000 dollars and appeared to me as some were only in their 50"s were using as pocket money so to speak and could then go on the adequate at the time old age pension when they reached 65. Maybe taking a shore job maybe until they retired. The interest rates were also way up then also which they could utilize. If I remember back to that awful word work, If remember correctly you paid 5 percent of salary to Union, and the union sorted out the rest with shipowner if you were with a permanent job. If you were not with a permanent job you only paid 2 per cent of your salary to the union but received no money into the Super from the shipowner. If a casual worker however you received an up grade in salary of about 28 per cent. As I was on about 80,000 a year at the time, it paid me to go casual which I did for the last 3 or 4 years I was working. The maritime unions at the time consisted of the Guild for Deck officers, The seamans union, for Deck and Engine Room, and the Engineers union, don't know if the catering union was going then or not, as was on offshore agreement. The best paying union for the Super payout was the seamans union who had invested better than the others. I have absolutely no complaint whatsoever as regards the wages and conditions especially when comparing to my final salaries in the uk where there was no comparison as such, and am not going to bite the hand off that literally fed me in Australia. Sure they have a bad name the Maritime Union out here but during my period here they looked after their members very well perhaps too well for some. There will be some who say that is why there are no Australian ships now, I would say Bollix, the oil companies will use any amount of money to get what they want, and if they get cheap will use as makes their shareholders happy, I have also worked up in Singapore and worked for a Malaysian company who turned their nose up at cheap labour which is readily available there, maybe it was for insurance purposes who knows. Everyman is worth his salt, and Australia used to be well known for given anyone a fair go, times are a changing world wide it seems. Also big wages mean big taxes for the government, so they should be the last to complain. Apart from the first financial year out here which was 7 months, I never paid less than 30,000 dollars tax and would consider that a good year for me, so taking a part Australian pension I have no qualms about. Some years I paid over 40,000 dollars. Today slightly less this year 970 dollars maybe that is why they are getting hard up as no income tax coming today from the community. Cheers JWS

[j.sabourn]

#85... John in Oz.... I also have a MN pension among other things. Its not as good as Brians as took it a long time before 65 which one was allowed to do as was never again on a ship paying into the MNOPF. Was never offered a lump sum just the pension, which was a Godsend as saw us through some hard times on low wages. Has not altered for the past 20 years or so and doubt it ever will. All these forecasts the pundits make about pensions that the younger people will get when they retire, they should take with a pinch of salt. If in the eighties I had been more circumspect and accepted being turned down with vision I would have come out with a full MN pension, but pride comes before a fall and knew they were just trying to get rid of people as the MN was dismantled, and I refused to go. However saying that, things came good for me when I emigrated which I had wanted to do for a long time, the wife suddenly agreed, was the best thing we ever did and she finally agrees. It is I suppose hard for a woman to pull up roots, most seamen could live anywhere, a brothel would be a good place to start. However we all have to be circumspect and show the full British spirit. Johnny Walker in a lot of cases. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John S.
Sorry if my post came across as critical it wasn't meant to be; just pointing out how the super came about. I didn't get a great deal out of it as I was late joining while working for the Sydney water board, who had it in at a much earlier time.
My son used to be a bank manager up in Dubbo and he told me of blokes coming in who had been paid $700,000 and more in super but wanted to hide it so they could claim the pension, they had their houses paid off so how long would that money have lasted them, it wasn't meant to be kept for the kids as they would have their own super when they retired. I'm afraid that the whole shebang has been stuffed up. But the reason the Govt are attacking the building Unions and want a industry watch dog is not because they are out of control, most jobs are finished on time and there have been no strikes of note for a few years, it's because they control their own Super fund and they have $Billions there that the Govt want to get their hands on; and it will then disappear.
Cheer Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, the concept of super was good but like so many concepts brought about by Labor a total stuff up.
It was suggested by Keating that pay rises should be put into super but as an employer I can assure you it did not happen, though a number of unions such as the building did get to double dip.

When Keating first took over as PM he commissioned the ANU to do an audit on super. He also commissioned one on Medicare, both came back as very unfavorable to Labor. I was at Vic uni at the time and got hold of the copies of reports. Super the audit suggested should have been instituted in the same manner as Uni super. There the employer and employee pay into it. The current situation adds 9.5% to the employer wage bill and along with all other add ons can add as much as 30% to the employer wage bill.