Employment

Which Convention Articles relate to Employment Issues?

Article 32: Protection from Economic Exploitation

  1. Provide minimum age(s) for admission to employment;
  2. Provide for appropriate regulation of the hours and conditions of employment; and
  3. Provide for appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure the effective enforcement of the present article.

Article 26: Benefit from Social Security
Article 2: Non-discrimination
Article 12: Expression of Opinion
Article 13: Freedom of Expression
Article 15: Freedom of Association
Article 19: Protection from Abuse and Neglect

What are the Human Rights issues in Victoria relating to employment?

Minimum age - Children under 15 are permitted to work in Victoria with a permit. Under the Victorian Industrial Relations legislation it is possible for a child to enter an employment contract and no minimum age rate applies. Children tend to work in State award service industries, they are part-time and often transient worker and therefore have little protection.

There is a concern that the permit system is now largely ignored and prosecutions for breaches are uncommon. Spot checks on workplaces employing children under 15 to monitor occupational health and safety, hours of employment and wages no longer take place. The Annual Report of 1998/99 for the Department of State Development makes no mention of child employment permits so the number issued is unknown. Further, statistics for prosecutions for breaches are also not mentioned.

Minimum hours of work - The Community Services Act 1970 (Vic) permits children as young as seven to work (section 77(1)) up to 8 hours a day outside school hours between 6 and 11pm (section 77(6)), except in situations where the hours of work are so few, such as paper rounds, or the child is employed by the family in a shop at the residential premises, or for occasional charity events or sporting activities (section 77(c)).

Youth wages - The issue of youth wages continues to be a contentious one. The House of Representatives Committee report Youth Employment: A Working Solution (1997) presents statistics that show junior wage rates currently apply to 52% of young people under 21 and that trainee wages apply to 13% of this group.

'Freely chosen' work - The Work for the Dole scheme raises particular concern about the right to freely chosen work endorsed in the UN Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and whether or not participation is likely to lead to real jobs.

Enhanced mutual obligation - This signals a shift from a contract between unemployed people and government, which might be better describe as a 'reciprocal obligation', to one that involves unemployed people and community. Work for the dole, one component of the governments'mutual obligation' policy, is intended to be about individuals giving something back to the community.

Increased unemployment rates - In 1997 9% of all 20-24 yr olds were unemployed and looking for full-time employment compared with 6% in 1987.

High levels of part-time or casual work - Recent evidence has shown that part-time and temporary work does not necessarily lead to more secure full-time employment. Casual and part-time work is associated with low levels of training (Wooden, 1996). There is evidence that part-time work may persist for non-student part-time workers (Flatau & Simpson, 1996). Under-employment among part-time workers is higher among 20-24 yr olds, with 37% of part-time workers wanting to work more hours (ABS, 1998). While making up 20 % of the overall work force in Australia, the rate of increase of part-time and casual employment among 15-19 year olds is by far the largest of any age group.

Labour Market disadvantage - Factors found to contribute to young adults' labour market disadvantage include the labour force status of parents, ethnicity and indigenous background (Cass, 1995). Longitudinal studies show an association between early school leaving and ongoing labour market disadvantage, particularly for women (Dwyer 1995; OECD 1998). Cost barriers to education and training may especially affect the choices of young women from low socio-economic backgrounds (Byrne, 1995; Lewis & Koshy, 1998).

Occupational Health and Safety provisions - children require more protection and monitoring in the workplace than adults. Children require careful supervision, adequate rest and nourishment.

Violence in the workplace against children and young people - violence and harassment of young people in the workplace continues to be a serious concern, particularly when young people are not fully aware of their rights and have limited bargaining powers.

Young people have little knowledge of the rights - therefore with the shift to employment contracts they have low and unequal bargaining powers. Lack of knowledge, reluctance to complain and the absence of complaint mechanisms available to young people all suggest that young people have few enforceable rights in the workplace.

Trainees and Apprenticeships - No access to unfair dismissal mechanisms at Victorian level. Vocational Education and Training Amendment Act 1995 moves to allow the government to contract out the monitoring of apprentices by employers.

Invisible work of children - Home-based work is increasing in many industries so further increases in child labour might be expected.

Demise of the Youth Industrial Unit - One of the most significant consequences of the Commonwealth Powers (Industrial Relations) Act 1996 was the demise of the Youth Industrial Unit, the Victorian industrial inspectorate and the Victorian Wageline service. The Youth Industrial Unit had specific responsibility for workers under 21 years of age, and aimed to recognise the needs of young people and to provide a more flexible and personal response to young people.

Social Security - Youth Allowance integrates a range of payments to young people that include Austudy, Abstudy, Youth Training Allowance and Sickness Allowance. Under this current system income support is payable up to the age of 18 only if a young person is in an education or training environment and for those aged 18 to 20, only if the young person is looking for work or is in education or training. One of the more contentious aspects of the Youth Allowance is that payments to young people under 21 are parental income and asset tests. This means effectively that from an income security perspective young people are not considered to be adults and that they are not eligible for income support in their own right until this age.

Some concerns associated with income support highlighted by young people include: administrative processes being bewildering and intimidating; government departments often being unhelpful; co-ordination between department being poor; insufficient information about entitlements; applications forms being difficult to complete; waiting periods being unreasonably long; and clerical errors often mean that benefits are incorrectly reduced or stopped. (Seen and Heard). The introduction of a diary scheme and 'dob in line' by Centrelink puts young people at risk in fulfilling the requirement to apply for a stated number of jobs per month.

Tasks and strategies identified by the workshop

What can non-government agencies and government do?