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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-04-07 Daily Xml
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CHILD EMPLOYMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 5 April 2011.)

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:38): I rise to speak on behalf of the Greens in support of the second reading of this Child Employment Bill 2011. We are pleased to see this bill before us, and are also pleased to see the government taking seriously the issue of the protection of children who are also workers. I will start by thanking the minister for the briefing that his officers provided to the Greens, and specifically Jess Nitschke, Marie Boland and David Brown, who were very generous with their time.

However, I also note that in that briefing a request was made for the submissions that led to the creation of this bill and, while there have been some delays in accessing those submissions, I am very pleased to see that they have finally—several days into the debate on this bill—now been released onto a website. I think this should be standard practice before a bill is brought into this place so that we as parliamentarians are able to see all the voices that were heard and all the views that were put into the formation of any bill. That should be standard practice for this government if it wants healthy, robust and real democracy—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: Any government—even the next Liberal government.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: —any government, including the next Liberal one, as the Hon. Stephen Wade says—and I will hold him to that.

This bill aims to fill the gaps between other legislation, and it will ensure, we hope, that young workers under 18 are protected in the workplace. The bill covers approximately 12,000 children aged five to 14 who have performed work in the past year, including in family businesses or on the family farm, but not including domestic chores. It aims to set clear parameters through regulations and codes of practice, making powers that will be subject to ministerial approval and, of course, parliamentary disallowance. These will be developed during further consultation with key stakeholders, and I understand that is to be later this year.

It does not cover, as I say, domestic chores, and it does not cover carers or collectors, although it does retain the flexibility to bring this sector in under its regulations if it is later found necessary to do so. The regulations will also allow different age groups (for example, 16 to 18 year olds) to be treated differently from those under 14. The bill has been subject to a lot of input, and I know that certainly the Young Workers Legal Service, Unions SA, Office for Youth, Business SA and other major employer groups have all had much to say about this. The Young Workers Legal Service will, no doubt, be quite joyful to see that we are progressing the debate here in this place.

The Greens believe that the workplace laws in our state should be fair and protect all workers, regardless of age, from unjust treatment. They should promote industrial harmony, and they should enable us to organise collectively to negotiate fair pay and conditions. We have a longsighted vision of protecting the rights of youth employees and young workers in the workforce who are under 18, as well as those who are classified as young workers but who are under, say, 25. Clearly, these are situations where we are talking about a person's first job in the world of work and paid employment, and it is important to get it right from the start There is sufficient evidence, however, that we are not doing that.

Young workers are open to exploitation in the areas of discrimination in the workplace, unpaid trial work, health and safety concerns and unfair dismissals, and they are often expected to carry out duties, including promotional work, specifically in the fast-food industry, where they are, in fact, paid as little as $5.95 an hour with no overtime and no appropriate conditions. We find that of concern. As I say, these are often the first jobs that these young people undertake, and they are in a very vulnerable position. We need to have special protections for them.

Many young workers find themselves working additional hours without pay. They do not receive overtime, and they are not often treated with respect in their workplace. This is a tragedy and should be addressed. Obviously, we cannot do everything through legislation and there needs to be cultural change, as well. I hope that, with some of these legislative protections that we are now looking at formalising, we will see that culture change.

We hear stories all the time about young workers who are pressured to work through meal breaks or who are exploited by employers to work on a trial period without pay. I think the Hon. Carmel Zollo mentioned that some of her family members had been subject to trial periods without pay.

The Hon. Carmel Zollo: Continuing trials.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Continuing trials—and certainly my younger family members have had similar experiences. It is often an older and more experienced worker who needs to step in and let them know that it is not acceptable. It is important to note that fast-food outlets and retail industries are, in fact, the largest employers of our most vulnerable young workers in this state. Those young workers also include migrant workers. It is timely that we see in The Advertiser today that Fair Work Inspectors, who targeted 87 fast-food outlets, found that 27 of these establishments were not applying current workplace laws.

Contraventions were identified by inspectors relating to pay slip management, lack of registration to trainee and apprenticeship contracts and many other areas. These young workers, while they will not fall under the jurisdiction of this legislation, having some protections under traineeship, were certainly found to be not only vulnerable but also exploited. Again, as I say, I hope that legislation such as this will further strengthen the protection of our young workers.

Our young workers in South Australia do need protection. We have the highest youth unemployment rate of the mainland states, often higher than the Australian average. We have a high youth casual unemployment rate and we have low school retention rates.

We see this bill also protect the rights of young people who often need to work. Secondary school students can be undertaking 10 to 15 hours on top of their school studies. We see that the protection of their education is seen as a high priority here in this bill. I note that there are specific exemptions in the bill for things like harvest time. Many country families would certainly be relaxed and appeased by that, I would hope.

Certainly, young people have a right to have an education to a secondary level; that is a human right that we recognise across the globe and it is something that we should always be taking quite seriously. That education does not necessarily have to be specifically academic. It can certainly be industry and employment-based education that revolves around skilling.

We welcome this bill today. As I say, it is particularly welcome that some of the concerns raised in the past by the union movement, and particularly the Young Workers Legal Service, are being taken seriously by this government. We look forward to the second reading stage of this bill. We have some interest in the questions that have been raised by the Liberal member, the Hon. Rob Lucas, in terms of restrictions around particular age groups for particular types of activities. As it stands, we are highly supportive of this bill, and we imagine it will have a speedy passage through this place. With that, I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.M. Gazzola.

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