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News: Work & welfare
What about working children?16 November 2005Children will be more vulnerable in Howard's re-regulated labour market, explains Gillian Calvert.
Children and young people's early work experiences are very important to them. Recent research we conducted found more than half of kids from Year 7 to Year 10 work as well as go to school. So work matters to kids. Children value work under current conditions which protect them. Our study found that children's sense of job satisfaction is attributed to 4 key features of the work environment. RecognitionThey value it for the recognition, such as the self reliance, responsibility and advancement that children can gain through work. It also includes the opportunity to make new friends. This may change with the new IR world. If fear of dismissal pervades the workplace, then the opportunity to build relationships at work will be at risk. It may also be a more competitive rather than co-operative work setting: pitting people against each other to hold onto their jobs. It's hard to make friends when you're competing with each other. Degree of controlAn important aspect of control was the capacity of kids to fit work around other aspects of their life, such as school, sports and social life. Our study found that working after 7 pm was more likely to result in kids feeling dissatisfied with their lives. It also found that working more than 15 hours a week was detrimental. In the new IR world of few protections, schedules and hours will be designed to consider business needs, with little attention to kids needs.
IncomeChildren are like everyone else. They want to be paid fairly for their work, although by and large children accept that lower wages reflect less experience. Our study found the average wage was $6 8 per hour. The effect of the IR changes when combined with the Welfare to Work Bill will result in lower minimum wages for adults: this means even lower junior wages for kids. SupportSupportive working conditions are important to children's job satisfaction, support such as supervision and training, or that provided informally through advice and interest from employers. Our study found kids had a high rate of injury: probably the result of inexperience, lack of training in the workplace and normal adolescent risk taking. With unions having less access to workplaces: safety issues are less likely to be identified, perhaps leading to even higher rates of injury. Having to negotiate conditions we now take for granted, will put more pressure on the relationship between employer and the young people. Possibly resulting in less supportive relationships: something kids value. We need to remember that kids are kids. They are not experienced in the workplace and they are still developing. If we don't make kids' early experience of work positive, they may walk away, increasing the group of marginal people with no links to employment. Children look to adults for guidanceKids look to adults for guidance. Kids expect adults to know what is safe and to help with advice when needed. This applies to the work place as much as it does to other settings. With this expectation of adults, kids are not going to be able to negotiate their own contracts on an equal footing. They will trust the adult employer to do the right thing by them: but it is more likely the adult employer will be doing the right thing by themselves, not the children. Kids enjoy work because they are protected by the awards and conditions hard won by adults over the past 100 years: they cannot reproduce those conditions in their individual negotiations. The federal government's proposed industrial relations system gets rid of much of the current safety net. Children and young people will not be able to negotiate fair pay, appropriate meal and rest breaks, and working hours that don't result in them feeling rushed, tired and not being able to focus on their school work. Even with the support of their parents, children will not have strong bargaining power in the new industrial world. Our work with kids shows they enjoy work: my fear is that the IR changes will tip the balance and we will start to see kids no longer enjoying their early work experiences. We need to protect children while they learn about the world of work: not require them to negotiate with vastly more experienced adults just to secure basic job standards and conditions. Australia should have more concern for its children and their transition to adult life. Gilian Calvert is the NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People and these are the notes for her speech at the launch of The State of the States 2005, at Parliament Hopuse on 14 November. The NSW Commission for Children and Young People is a contributing author in the 2005 issue of <>i>The State of the States 2005, focusing on the State of Industrial Relations. Buy The State of the States 2005 online nowThe State of the States 2005 costs $24.95 plus postage. You can purchase your copy of The State of the States 2005 securely online using your credit card via the Paypal service by going to this page on the Evatt Website. Also on the Evatt site
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