Lawyer Maurice Blackburn has released advice arguing that the Coalition’s $840 million Youth Jobs Path program, announced in last week’s Budget, could be illegal under current workplace laws. From The Canberra Times:
Currently a single childless jobseeker on Newstart gets $263 a week, which would rise to just $364 a week despite 25 hours of work per week…
But if the legal advice is correct, the program is not legally sound in its current form and would necessitate changes to the Fair Work Act, or have its subsidies increased to meet minimum wage rates, adding hundreds of millions to its cost…
The ACTU argues it “would require new legislation to legalise a second-class category of $4-per-hour workers and remove those employees’ basic rights under the Fair Work Act”…
“Not since the 1990s has it been legal to pay workers as little as $4 per hour. This policy takes employment standards in this country back almost 30 years and has the potential to drag down wages and conditions for all workers – not just those in lower-paid jobs…
Legal academic Andrew Stewart, who is Adelaide University’s John Bray Professor of Law, said it appeared there were problems with the hasty design of the scheme…
As I argued last week, I view the Youth Jobs Path program as ‘better than nothing’ given it will provide some training and will encourage employers to take on young Australians rather than reaching for a temporary foreign worker. I also don’t think the $200 a fortnight wage is ‘exploitation’ given it will come on top of existing welfare payments.
That said, a better way to increase youth job opportunities would be to crack down on temporary foreign workers, who number some 1.4 million and comprise roughly 10% of the Australian workforce.
In March, the Senate Education and Employment References Committee released a scathing report entitled A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders, which documents rorting and abuses of Australia’s temporary visa system for foreign workers.
This review explicitly raised concern over foreign workers replacing locals, while also discouraging employers from providing training.
It would seem, therefore, that a better way to help Australia’s youth would be to cut-back on foreign worker visas and, in the process, force businesses to instead train and employ locals, as used to occur.
