KEY POINTS:
Labour has modified its plans to revamp youth employment laws, and will introduce a scheme which will see teenagers work for three months or 200 hours before they graduate to a full adult wage.
Labour's proposal will see a member's bill by Green MP Sue Bradford reworked, with
her blessing.
Ms Bradford's original intention was to abolish youth rates entirely. However, when the bill was reported back from select committee, Labour - with support from New Zealand First and United Future - revamped its provisions to create a special "new entrants" wage category for teenagers.
The bill would have seen workers aged under 18 earning the new entrants rate - 80 per cent of the minimum wage for their first 200 hours of employment. Ms Bradford reacted with dismay to the changes and said she would fight to improve the bill. Labour's key backers, the unions, also expressed strong disapproval.
The committee stage of the bill is expected to begin today, and Labour Minister Ruth Dyson yesterday confirmed she would propose an amendment which would see 16 and 17-year-olds earn the new entrants' rate for three months or 200 hours - whichever came first - before moving to the full adult wage.
"It's a minimum, not a maximum. If employers want to pay more, they are fully entitled to," Ms Dyson said.
Progressive Enterprises is set to do just that.
It has just reached a wage agreement with the National Distribution Workers Union which will see the new entrant wage provisions extended to 15-year-olds.
Progressive, which operates Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths stores, employs 3500 staff aged under 18.
The deal, when ratified, would see also Countdown and Foodtown employees' pay lifted to match the higher pay of Woolworths employees.
NDU advocate Paul Watson said the deal would set a standard for almost half the country's supermarket workers. He said once employees hit the adult rate, a 15-year-old would receive a pay rise of approximately 65 per cent, with a 46 per cent hike for 16-year-olds.
Ms Dyson said the changes she would propose would be a significant step forward for young workers.
"It's significantly faster than they would have been otherwise [to reach the adult wage]," Ms Dyson said.
Ms Bradford said she was still a little disappointed that some form of youth rates would stay, but would allow the bill to proceed under her name because she said it was still a significant step forward for teenage workers.
"It is an improvement on the amendment that came back from select committee, so I am really pleased the Government and New Zealand First have seen fit to shift on this."
National opposed the bill at select committee, saying it might create a perverse incentive for teenagers to leave school early.
The Maori Party favours scrapping youth rates.
