Page 2400 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017
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The Youth Coalition of the ACT reported that young people have a lack of awareness regarding their rights, workers compensation, taxation and anti-discrimination policies. They found that young people need to be actively involved with trade unions. This is consistent with the International Labour Organisation convention standards, to which Australia is a signatory, they say.
UnionsACT have also found that young workers are up to two or three times more likely to face a serious injury at work than the rest of the workforce and their research shows that half of all young workers 15 to 25 surveyed in Canberra have been employed in unsafe conditions. They also claim from their research that 70 per cent of young people have been bullied or harassed at work and young workers report fears and pressure from employers to not report unsafe practices. And 60 per cent of workers aged 18 had experienced bullying or harassment.
There are cogent reasons for young people to better understand their rights at work more broadly than their work experience placement. Their work experience placement is a good time to learn about these issues. Lack of awareness of existing employment law makes young people particularly vulnerable because they may be unsure of what wages and conditions to expect, and this can be exploited by dodgy employers.
In school, before young people begin to enter a lifetime of work—and it will be a lifetime of work now that the Liberals are pushing the pension age up—young people must have the confidence to stand up for their workplace rights from the beginning. I would like to quote former ACTU secretary Dave Oliver, who said:
Young people must be educated on their rights, what they should expect to be paid, what they can and cannot be asked to do by employers—these are the basic rights of all workers in our society.
What he said was backed by the Canberra Times in its editorial of 22 May this year:
In this climate, without the experience of years in the workplace or alternative jobs, these young people face a concerning situation made worse when some employers seek to take advantage.
This is also supported by the Youth Coalition of the ACT, which has found that young people as a whole are more vulnerable to unfair and illegal workplace arrangements such as unpaid work, sham subcontracting, below award wages and unfair dismissal.
This program in our schools has a strong foundation and I believe it has support in the community. In a letter to the editor of the Canberra Times on 6 July Mr Jim Dixon of Curtin said:
My child attended one such session at their school. Rather than the session being a recruitment exercise as is suggested in the article, my child was provided with information about safety, rights, entitlements and obligations.
They were advised that if there is a problem, talk to your work supervisor, your parent, your teacher or the Fair Work Ombudsman.
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