Children as young as 13 could be put to work to help fill labour shortages as Australia’s peak retail body calls for national minimum working age requirements.
Ahead of the federal government’s jobs and skills summit, the Australian Retailers Association has released a submission calling for businesses to be able to tap into willing school-aged workers.
The inconsistency in minimum age regulations across the country should be addressed on a national basis, ARA chief Paul Zahra said.
“An ideal model would be one where we allow 13- to 15-year-olds to work, with sensible regulations in place around not working during school hours or at times that would impact a young person’s education,” he said.
Mr Zahra said Australia faced a crisis in labour shortages, with more than 40,000 vacancies in the retail sector.
“Agreeing to a national framework on young workers would help mobilise a willing and able cohort of people to help address the staffing shortfall,” he said.
Restaurant and Catering Industry Association head Belinda Clarke backed a nationally consistent working age of between 13 and 15, with regulations to ensure children did not work during school hours.
“We need to start looking to sensible and practical solutions to fix the labour shortage. This is a win-win,” Ms Clarke told the Nine newspapers.
“A consistent minimum age to work across the entire country would not only help businesses with the current staffing crisis we’re facing, but it would also help set up Australia’s youth for the future with the skills and experience necessary.”
But the peak union body said the government could not agree to allow 13-year-olds to work if it wanted to maintain a commitment to international labour organisation conventions.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil was concerned the proposal would result in businesses getting a cheaper workforce rather than investing in skills and training for adult employees.
“Our interest is in always making sure that we protect workers and they’re treated fairly,” she said in Canberra on Wednesday.
“We’ll, of course, hear what’s put forward but it’s not something that we think is an answer.”
Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees Association national secretary Gerard Dwyer said while the “overall” benefits could be a positive, young workers were overrepresented in customer abuse and sexual harassment complaints.
“There are some serious issues that need to be considered,” he told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
While the government is open to hearing all ideas at this week’s summit, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said common sense was needed about putting younger teens to work.
“We don’t want to pre-empt what’s coming out of the jobs and skills summit over the next couple of days, but that’s certainly not a plan that the government has in mind,” he told the Nine Network on Wednesday.
Mr Marles said he wanted to hear ideas about how the pension system could be reformed to allow older Australians to re-enter the workforce if they wished.
“Every business that you talk to, large and small, is struggling to find the people with the skills that they need and that’s what we need to be addressing,” he said.
“The summit is going to be a really important opportunity to look at the way in which we can deal with what is a crisis in the country.”
Getting children used to the value of working was important, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said.
“Multigenerational unemployment, it’s very insidious … getting into a culture of work is important, but I think that really starts [with] doing jobs around the house,” he said.
– with AAP
The post Put teenagers to work to fill gaps: Retailers appeared first on The New Daily.
