Students say NO to Youth Rates!

Students are this week rallying against the Government's attack on young workers' rights to earn a living wage, in a campaign organised by Young Labour.

“Youth rates are discriminatory and the possibility of their reintroduction is bad news for young people,” Young Labour President Ella Hardy says.

“This week we will be rallying at campuses around the country to gather photo petition against the policy.”

Hardy encourages those who think youth rates are unfair to take a photo with a sign indicating they say 'NO to Youth Rates'.

“ We need to stand up and say it's not okay to be paid less for doing the same work as somebody else, just because we're young,” she says.

She says the policy undermines the Kiwi value of fairness by sacrificing 'equal pay for equal work' in favour of helping large corporations.

“This is a ruse to help big business increase their profits. John Key wants wages to go down. We want them to go up.”

Ms Hardy says if National really cares about young people it should take the initiative to create news jobs and tackle the rising cost of living.

Young Labour's Union Representative Chelsea Torrance says young people want sustainable job opportunities, but are instead losing their work rights and facing having their pay cut while the cost of living rises.

“At the election young people should consider voting for Labour's plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour instead of National's plan to pay young people up to $7 less than the current minimum wage,” Ms Torrance says.

“When Labour abolished youth rates with the help of the Greens, it was about fairness. Our current plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour is based on that same fairness.”

Images for the petition can be sent to Young Labour via email, Twitter, or posted on the organisation's Facebook wall. Emails should be directed to communications@younglabour.org.nz. Young Labour's Twitter account is @younglabournz, and its Facebook can be found at www.facebookcom/NZyounglabour.

ENDS

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