NSW: Govt announces new provision to protect young workers

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2001
NSW: Govt announces new provision to protect young workers

SYDNEY, Feb 15 AAP - Young workers' annual holidays and long service entitlements are
to be better protected under legislation unveiled today by the NSW government.

Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca said he planned to introduce the two-pronged
legislation when parliament resumes in March.

Mr Della Bosca said the existing legislation was discriminatory against young people
because it did not allow workers to access long service leave until they were aged 21.

"The government is getting rid of a discriminatory provision which means young workers,
particularly young women in the retail workforce and young men in a variety of other forms
of employment - the hospitality industry, for example - lose their entitlements to long
service leave which they would otherwise be entitled to," he said.

"It's a discrimination to young people particularly because the five years or so of
service that they have prior to turning 21 is not counted as part of long service leave
under the current Act."

The legislation's second provision would remove anomalies in the annual leave act to
protect part-time and casual workers.

"The government has decided to move to secure the anomalies which allow employers to
round down time worked for the purposes of calculating annual leave for part-time and
casual employees," he said.

New South Wales Labor Council secretary Michael Costa welcomed the news saying it was
long overdue.

"We've been campaigning for a long, long time to remove injustice in terms of long service leave.

The announcements were made at a seminar of the state's top union officials aimed at
attracting more young workers to the union movement.

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