Federal laws hit young workers

_{12, August 2005}

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Geoff at the Queensland Council of Union’s Brisbane launch (Kangaroo Point) of the national campaign against proposed Howard IR laws.

The working conditions of young people will be seriously affected by proposed Federal industrial relations laws, young workers and their families were warned.m

State Member for Ferny Grove Geoff Wilson spoke in support of amendments to the Queensland Industrial Relations Bill to protect Queensland workers’ conditions of employment and issued the warning to young Queensland workers in State Parliament last night.  Geoff Wilson is a member of the Beattie Government’s Backbench Committee on Employment, Training and Industrial Relations, and a former industrial barrister.

“The Howard Government plans to strip away State award entitlements to penalty rates, overtime, meal breaks, as well as protection against unfair dismissal,” Geoff Wilson said.

Geoff Wilson said the following cases involving young workers from his electorate were a reminder of how challenging things will be if employees are not given the opportunity through the Industrial Relations Commission to seek justice where it is due.

• A young beauty therapist was being forced to work if she was sick, as she could not find a replacement from the roster.  She was employed on casual rates - full time, for the past four years, and had not had a weekend off since she could remember. She wanted to start her own beauty business but believed that she would never be able to have the capital to do so.  She complained about the pressures of her workplace and felt things were spiralling downwards.
• A 14 year old supermarket trolley boy working for 3 weeks had not been paid.  His employer attempted to make him sign up as a sub contractor even though they advertised his position as an employee.  He felt as though he was being forced to sign a new contract as his employer was threatening to terminate his employment. He was still within his probationary period, and being paid an hourly flat rate of $8.55. He was required to register as a company and make his parents liable for up to $5,000 of damage done to cars by wayward trolleys.

“In the case of the trolley boy, his mother came to me for help, and I was pleased to be able to refer his family to the Yong Workers Advisory Service,” Geoff Wilson said.

“Young people are already at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to bargaining with their employers,” Geoff Wilson said. “They have less experience in the work force and hence limited negotiation skills.”

“It is rare that a young person has developed the confidence to be able to approach their employer and ask for a pay rise, to insist on their right to get a pay slip to address issues of underpayment or to challenge a warning,” Geoff Wilson said.

“While many employers try to do the right thing by their young employees,” Geoff Wilson said, “it only takes an unscrupulous few to force good employers to follow to stay in business in a competitive market.”

During the previous three years of advising young people about their working conditions, the State Government funded Yong Workers Advisory Service has received over 4,000 complaints from young people, comprising:

• pay and pay records (1219 of 4194; 29%) 
• employment conditions (1164 of 4194; 27.75%)
• workplace bullying (892 of 4194; 21.26%)
• occupational health and safety (122 of 4194; 2.9%)

YWAS Coordinator, Aaron Allagretto said that these complaints were just the tip of a very large iceberg.

“Under proposed Federal legislation, if a young person makes a complaint directly to their employer about the following and there are less then 100 employees, they can be terminated without reason,” Aaron Allagretto said.

• Requesting time off for social, schooling, family or sporting events,
• Turning up late once
• Breaks – meal and rest breaks,
• Not completely following a directive – lack of understanding of how to complete task
• Requests for training/assistance
• Questioning whether a directive is lawful (ie do I have to do the babysitting while my employer leaves to run errands if I am working as a retail assistant)
• Making a grievance within the workplace

“The Federal Government’s proposed minimum system of five minimum standards suggests an underlying expectation that workers are to successfully bargain directly with their employer for employment conditions above and beyond those minimums,” Geoff Wilson said.

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