Federal Liberal youth wages plan slammed

The Federal Liberal Party's plan to slash youth wages was an effort to create a cheap labour force, Productivity and Labour Relations Minister Yvonne Henderson said today.

"It is a short-term, band-aid measure which will not create new jobs," Mrs Henderson said.

"Any move to reduce the cost of youth labour has to be accompanied by job creation or training initiatives or have no long-term value.

"This ill-considered proposal includes youth wage cuts of 50 per cent in some areas and contains no provision for training.

"There is also a lack of evidence to suggest the cuts will create any jobs.

"The youth wage plan would also lead to massive displacement of older workers.  Employers could find it too tempting simply to replace existing workers."

Mrs Henderson said that in 1985 the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission agreed to hear applications from private employers to apply for lower junior and apprentice pay rates.

"The commission specified that applications would be supported only where employers could demonstrate a genuine inability to employ additional juniors at the prescribed rate.

"The provision was withdrawn by employers in March 1988 after evidence showed that wages were not the issue which prevented small business employing junior workers. Nobody had made use of the provision when it was on the books."

Mrs Henderson said: "The Liberals' new strategy would result in a pay cut of nearly $200 per week for a 20-year-old clerk or word processor.

"The reasons for not employing juniors included the fact that they had no skills or training and most changed jobs often."

Mrs Henderson said the low-wage policy was clearly not successful.

"I understand the employers agreed with the TLC in 1988 to have the original order removed," she said.

"The Commission was concerned that the employment must truly be 'additional employment' that was unlikely to have been created if the employer had to pay the prescribed rate.

"The Commission was also concerned that the employee's acceptance of the lower rate was truly voluntary and its implications were understood.

"The impending amendments to the Equal Opportunity Act to make it an offence to discriminate on the grounds of a person's age becomes an issue in the debate on junior workers' wages."