YOUTH WAGES:
ALP SELLS OUT YOUNG WORKERS

The Labor Party's backroom deal with the Howard Government to entrench 
junior rates of pay is an act of utter contempt for Australia's young 
workers and the trade union movement. The secret deal, between reactionary 
Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith and the Labor Party leaders will 
see young workers 18-20 years old continue to be exempt from anti-
discrimination legislation and as a result be paid at low rates 
indefinitely.

There is currently a junior rates clause in the legislation which exempts 
junior rates of pay for workers aged 18-20 years from anti-discrimination 
legislation. These younger workers were due to be covered by the 
legislation from June 22 next year, and so be paid according to skills 
rather than age. Labor's deal will now prevent that happening.

Instead, an ad hoc process will take place, with the Industrial Relations 
Commission determining junior rates on a case-by-case basis.

It could result in the spread of junior rates to areas where they presently 
do not exist.

Unions have responded angrily to the deal.

The right-wing Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees' Association (SDA), 
which covers 75 per cent of unionised teenage workers, said that Labor has 
grossly undersold workers.

"Workers at fast food outlets and supermarkets aged 18 to 20 years are 
doing exactly the same work as their counterparts aged 21 years and over", 
said the union. "Yet an 18 year old worker is paid only 70 per cent of the 
adult rate of pay under today's junior rates provision."

Labor has "negotiated a shoddy deal with Peter Reith to preserve the status 
quo", said the SDA. The union expressed bitter disappointment that it 
wasn't consulted by Labor over the deal.

The South Australian Branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union 
(AMWU) last year won landmark agreements with car manufacturers Mitsubishi 
and GMH which scrapped junior wage rates.

The car workers' agreements put skills as the basis for wage levels instead 
of age, which the union points out has little to do with performance in the 
workplace.

"The AMWU will resist junior rates in any of its agreements and workers at 
GMH and Mitsubishi will not be turning the clock back", said the union's 
State Secretary, Paul Noack, who described Labor's deal as "hypocritical 
and discriminatory".

"There is no doubt that this will mean a big blow to the living standards 
of young working Australians who are already doing it tough."

The union noted that despite the Federal Government's push to deregulate 
the economy, it has no reservations about introducing regulations that cut 
living standards.

Following the ALP/Reith deal the ACTU Executive issued a formal resolution 
that expressed "deep concern and disappointment at the agreement reached 
between the ALP and the Government".

It notes that the deal doesn't define the term "junior", which ignores the 
fundamental fact that in Australia today people are adults at 18.

Also that it does not recognise "that the problems facing young people will 
not be resolved by cutting young workers' wages".

The ACTU "acknowledged the need for fair and enduring reform of junior 
rates and resoundingly rejected the dishonest, misleading and simplistic 
approach to this issue being pursued by Peter Reith".

The maintenance of youth wage rates will result in the continued and 
increased level of exploitation of young workers as well as its use by 
employers to lower wages across the board.

If the Coalition's second wave anti-union laws are passed, employers have 
greater powers to use individual contracts to force down the wages of 
adults to the level of junior rates.

By cutting this dirty deal the ALP has accepted the lie perpetuated by the 
Government and employers that low wage rates reduce youth unemployment.

The fact is that while junior rates of pay have been in place, youth 
unemployment has worsened in leaps and bounds in the past decade, with 
youth wages actually declining relative to adult wages.

The contempt for workers and trade unions demonstrated by the ALP leaders 
raises questions about the direction Beazley is taking the ALP. Is he 
embarking on the same path as Blair's New Labour, and trying to distance 
the ALP from the trade union movement?

The deal with Reith has certainly done nothing to unify the labour movement 
when it needs the maximum of unity to fight the offensive by the Coalition 
Government and employers on the working class.

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