Youth union movement opposes Douglas’s attack on young workers

The New Zealand youth union movement, Stand Up, is calling on the Government to steer clear of Roger Douglas’s Private Members’ Bill which directly attacks young workers by reinstating youth rates.

Stand Up convener James Sleep says this is yet another attack on young people by the Government’s support partner ACT. Roger Douglas’s assertion that the reintroduction of youth rates is the answer to youth unemployment is simply ridiculous, said Sleep.

“Youth rates discriminate against young workers on the basis of age. Employers expect exactly the same level of work from sixteen and seventeen year olds as from eighteen year olds. Sixteen and seventeen year olds don’t get to do their jobs 20 percent slower, or work 20 percent fewer hours. So why should they be paid 20 percent less when they are doing exactly the same job as an older worker?”

Sleep believes Douglas’s magic bullet to solving youth unemployment is fundamentally flawed.

“If Mr. Douglas really cares to solve youth unemployment he should spend his time lobbying the Government to invest in comprehensive initiatives that create jobs and education opportunities for the thousands of young New Zealanders seeking work.”
Sleep says ACT must not put the blame on young people for the Government’s failure to create these opportunities for young people to get ahead.

“ACT wants to take money out of the pockets of young people as a response to a lack of Government action over youth unemployment. That is appalling.”

Sleep says that if the Government decides to support Mr. Douglas’s Bill then it is working against its commitment to deliver for hard working New Zealanders and it will prove the Government is out of ideas on how to reduce the high youth unemployment rate.

ENDS

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