It's a good time to be a young person looking for work,
but being a young worker isn't always a good time.
I'm 16 now and I got my first job at 13 at a hotel but I wasn't in their
system for a bit because I was, I think too young. I definitely have had some friends
that are working in like fast food places that don't get paid breaks and stuff.
I was 18 when I got my first job. It wasn't probably until 2 years in that
I realised I'd never received super because I didn't actually know what it was. I had a
couple of people around me that also worked in hospitality. Because they were, the young girls
they were taken advantage of doing, I guess, jobs that they weren't really meant to do and
kind of encouraged to engage in, kind of contact that wasn't appropriate and they didn't know.
Had no idea what was happening really but was happy to get money so didn’t really care.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in December last year 55.7% of teens aged 15 to
19 had a job, which is the highest percentage on record. The truth is, in the last six months the
rise of teen employment has come with a rise of teen employment law matters around exploitation.
We have had 181 clients under the age of 18, or their advocate, contact us nationally,
about 333 employment law matters. This represents a 73% increase in employment law matter types
from the six months preceding that. Most enquiries included payment problems,
working too many hours and harassment, or bullying in the workplace. Unfortunately,
this kind of thing is nothing new. Yeah at that time I was just so focused on,
"I just want some money in my pocket so I can start growing and being a mature adult".
I sat down with Georgia, who experienced some of these exploitations as a teen firsthand.
So I was working in a restaurant. It was from, spanned from about 18 through to 21. There was
a few actually, that happened to me that ranged from sexual harassment to both myself and other
employees within the workplace as well as, didn't receive super for about 12 months and I think this
was the first time that I'd really experienced, I think especially the sexual harassment side
of things. It was talked about all throughout the workplace and it wasn't uncommon for it
to be jested about or you know, made fun of, but I know there was a few of my teammates in
that work situation that were exposed to things that they shouldn't have been at,
you know the age of 18, 19. Now, there are some rules like
school aged students not being able to work during school hours but, overall,
there aren't really many other Australia-wide rules that govern how young people are employed.
Across Australia, different states and territories have different rules and
as you can imagine, there are employers that operate businesses across different,
different states and territories and it's very difficult for them to understand the rules.
Things are starting to change though. The Joint Standing Committee, who are a part
of the Commonwealth parliament, has recommended that the government ratifies the International
Labour Organisation Convention which covers what kind of work teens and
young people can do and at what age. We think that there should be a rule that
requires all workers to be given a simple standard written document that sets out the
terms and conditions of their employment. Just a simple one, not a 15-page contract in legalese
with all sorts of unfair terms. We'd also like to see the abolition of junior wages in favour
of a classification system, a pay rate scale that's based purely on skills and experience.
But teens and young people also need to know what to look out for themselves.
A lot of people would, would probably be working now and have no idea that they're covered by an
award let alone what it is. An award is a document that sets out the minimum rates of
pay and conditions of workers. So, for example there's a fast-food industry award. There's a
hospitality industry general award. So, it's important to know what award you're covered by
and then so you can understand whether you're being paid in accordance with that award.
Yeah when looking at your first job I think it's important to understand kind of how pay works,
if something were to happen, who you can turn to and who you can talk to if you feel like
something’s not right or uncomfortable. I don't think that there's enough education,
we do a little bit in school, but it's quite brushed upon and moved on,
so I think that more would be really good. Having that conversation around,
this is what you should expect on your Monday to Friday pay rate, from your Saturday, Sunday
etc pay rate. If you're not seeing this, talk to these people. It's incredibly daunting to talk up
to someone who is A) your senior in the workplace but also B) in age, but if you can at least reach
out to someone in a more mature position than you are, then I think that's a good starting point.