National Must Reject Youth Wage Discrimination

National must not back Roger Douglas’ attack on young workers, says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

The private member’s bill was announced today and is designed to reintroduce wage discrimination against workers aged sixteen to eighteen.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the rationale put up for the bill is a throwback to the worst days of the Employment Contracts Act.

“The idea that the way to reduce youth unemployment is to pay young workers less is the kind of discredited economic thinking the civilised world left behind years ago.

“The sad fact is in any other recession youth unemployment has always risen and youth pay rates have never affected this. Douglas’ cynical misuse of the statistics to make life even harder for young workers is shameful.

“If the Government falls in with Douglas on this they will be signalling more than just support for the bill, they’ll be signalling support for an economic ideology that has not just failed but failed spectacularly and internationally in the last few years.

“National has been chipping away at the legislative gains working Kiwis have made in the last decade like meal breaks, better holidays, protections for unfair dismissal and decent accident protection and we are entitled to know where they stand on this policy from one of their support partners.

“This government has repeatedly described itself as supporting hardworking Kiwis and it’s about time they walked the talk. Refusing to support this bill would be a good start.”

The EPMU is New Zealand’s largest private sector union, representing 45,000 members across eleven industries.

ENDS

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