St George of the Garden wrote on Mar 22^nd, 2014 at 4:12pm:

I find it amusing, it shows the level of intellect.

Returning to the topic, of course retailers will claim the sky will fall in if they have to pay younger workers a bit extra.

Equally certainly, the sky will remain where it is and little will change.

Retailers should recognise their young staff are also consumers. To have a few more bucks in their pockets will be good for business and the economy.

Union bid to extend adult pay rates for all

    EWIN HANNAN
    The Australian
    March 24, 2014


UNIONS will push to increase the wages of young workers in a range of industries after a landmark decision awarding 20-year-old retail workers the same pay as 21-year-olds.      

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver yesterday welcomed a Fair Work Commission ruling on Friday that 20-year-olds should receive the full adult rate of pay instead of the 90 per cent currently offered.      

The changes, to be brought in over two years, amount to an extra $1.80 an hour for part-time workers who have worked for a business for at least six months.

Mr Oliver dismissed complaints the increase would “crush” small business and increase youth unemployment. Junior rates apply in 72 of the 122 modern awards, including hospitality, construction, manufacturing, and health care. “An 18-year-old is recognised as an adult under the law,” he said.

“Many are independent and have the rent and expenses of an adult, some have families, and yet they are paid less. An 18-year-old can go to war and fight for their country but if they enter the workforce they get 30 per cent less than their colleagues.”

While it was “a long road ahead”, unions would continue to fight for 18-year-olds to receive the adult wage. “Unions will be looking closely at this decision by the Fair Work Commission and how it will impact future claims as we continue to campaign for fair pay at adult rates for young workers,” he said. “We will be discussing the implications because the current system is out of date. It’s outdated policy that a young person is working side by side doing the same job in a workplace but getting paid less than the person next to them who is older.

“Young workers are important contributors to thousands of workplaces and anyone who argues that paying them a fair wage will cost them their jobs is underselling their worth.”

Non-competitive retailers go to the wall daily.... if they can't compete they are not in the market, and their minimum wage penalty rate for ungodly hours workers simply move on to the next fool.....

For every street cafe that falls apart through a combination of over-expectation of instant riches and a free ride for the owner Tony, Achmed or Stavros, and some sort of neo-Fascist total control over workers that falls into the gutter, two more arise to try the same line over and over......

If you can't compete and pay your workers - don't go there.

Australia!  Love it or GTF back where you came from!

If we are looking at pay rates for young workers, we need to look at it in the broader context of the system as a whole.

At the moment, young people do not receive equal pay for equal work. This is an anachronism from the days when young people still lived at home with parents, so their costs were lower. There cannot be real justification in retaining this when a lot of people live away from home such as full-time students.

On the other hand, weekend penalty rates are also an anachronism from a time when shops did not open on Sundays and Saturdays were always half-day trading if they opened. Most retailers did not pay these penalty rates. Young people receive many of these penalty rates - they have to, if they are to earn enough to live.

If we are to change these rules, we must change both sets of rules or neither of them. Changing one set of rules and leaving the other alone is unfair to the disadvantaged party.

Some changes to consider - this is a package deal:
* Abolish weekend penalty rates
* Abolish public holiday penalty rates except for Christmas Day, Good Friday, and ANZAC Day before 12 noon.
* Give all staff the legal right to refuse to work on weekends or any public holiday without having to give a reason provided they give sufficient advance notice so rosters can be scheduled
* Abolish age-based pay discounts

An alternative to abolishing age-based pay discounts completely is to scale them back and offer some government concessions to people under 21 who are living away from home such as discounted public transport and discounted car registration. If the government insists on imposing a reduced income on the young, they should also reduce their costs.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Mar 24^th, 2014 at 11:08am:



Yes but who would pay?

Tafe in the past was run by government who taxed business

Then we needed lower taxes for business so the government virtually has stooped the funding.

Business in the past wouldn't fund Tafe as they were doing with their taxes(fair point)

But now taxes are lower yet companies continue to complain of skills shortages because they refuse to employee & train as this effects the bottom line.

So it seems the poor old unemployed now has to fund their Tafe course.

Solution - move to India, do your course, get hired back on a 457.

Quote:


Interesting the national poo sheet is reporting so muc on Sinodinos and now this. Murdoch cracking the whip?