People Smartz Blog

On Monday, Fair Work Australia finally laid down a decision that should have not been required in the first place.

Nearly a year and a half ago, a number of teenagers lost their after school jobs because of a clause within the General Retail Award which basically said a casual could not work for less than a 3 hour period.

For these teenagers, this effectively ruled out going to work after school as the time between school finishing and the retail outlet they worked in closing was less than 3 hours.

Now having restrictions on the minimum hours that can be worked is understandable.  In fact, to a certain extent, I support them.  However, when you are restricting the ability of teenagers to learn important work habits, then the law needs to be modified.  

Arguments from unions etc that easing this restriction would lead to "job losses" and "lower wages" did not really argue the primary point - that by enforcing this rule we were interfering with what is basically a vital learning area for our younger generations.  To suggest that allowing teenagers to work out of school hours was going to cost adults jobs just goes against the fact that most of those adults started exactly where these teenagers are now - with after school work!  Where did these adults learn the work habits that brought them to employment in later life if not in jobs such as these?

While it took 16 months and 3 rounds of arbitration to get there, this is a decision that should be congratulated. Despite the unions and government supporting the maintenance of the 3 hour limit, the tribunal has decided that provided a certain set of circumstances exist, a school aged person can work for less than a 3 hour period.

Under the new arrangements, school age persons can work a minimum of a 90-minute shift.  This will apply only if the employee is a full-time student; that the hours worked are between 3pm and 6.30pm on a school day; and the employee and their parent or guardian agrees on the shorter period. The shorter period is also allowed only if employment for a longer period is not possible because of the operational requirements of the employer or the unavailability of the student.

These arrangements are simple commonsense.  It is a pity it took so long to arrive at this decision!