Rainbows End workers are voting on a pay offer and potential industrial action over youth rates today as their union expresses concerns about a “watered down” youth rates bill tabled in Parliament late last night.

Sixty workers at New Zealand’s only theme park, who have been organising for the past two months to end youth rates, to have no one on the minimum wage, to have secure hours and to win back service pay, will be meeting at 9am this morning to discuss the company’s offer - which includes movement on youth rates.

NDU National Secretary Laila Harré says that young workers at Rainbows End and around the country will be disappointed that the youth rates bill tabled by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee select committee late last night will not guarantee an end to youth rates as Green MP Sue Bradford had previously intended.

The select committee’s recommendations leave discriminatory provisions intact, introduce a new ability to set wages based on “work experience” including the time that young workers have spent in the workforce and suggest that the time is set at 200 hours before a 16 or 17 year can be paid an adult wage.

“At worst the Bill would allow a Government to lower the existing youth rate from the current relativity of 80% of the adult wage and at best simply reduce the time for young people to qualify for minimum levels of equal pay for equal work,” she says. “We suspect that the select committee did not intend to make things worse for young people and we will bring up this concern and others with MP’s as the bill goes through the next stages in parliament.”

Ms Harré says that unions have fought hard to end discrimination against disadvantaged groups and are concerned that the Bill has failed to recognise that young workers like sixteen year-old Rainbows End cleaner Kalvin Guthrie has a right to equal pay for equal work.

Mr Guthrie, who earns a base-rate of $9.00 per hour on the youth minimum wage, believes that a training rate and/or training period isn’t required for many jobs like Rainbows End.

“At Rainbows End and at jobs where my friends work, anyone straight off the street with little or no experience could do our work regardless of their age,” he says. “I also started work when I was 15 and I think it’s unfair that 15 year olds and younger aren’t even considered in this Bill. And a 200 hour training period would still mean that most young Rainbows End workers would have to wait 20 weeks or more to get equal pay because of our casual part-time and holiday hours.”

Mr Guthrie says that at Rainbows End part-time weekend staff work on average of 10 hours a weekend and holiday staff can work up to 80 hours during the July school holidays (which start today) and up to 180 hours during the Christmas holidays. On average, youth rates workers at Rainbows End work 250 hours a year, he says.

“You’ve got to keep in mind that we’re only guaranteed three hours a day at Rainbows End – so if the park isn’t busy or it rains – it will take us even longer to work 200 hours.”

Ms Harré says that for half of the young people working in the retail industry it would also take 20 or more weeks to reach the adult rate. 65% of young workers work in the retail industry with most on youth rates, she says.

"Even the retail employer body told the select committee they would accept equal pay after a young worker had gained three months experience. As it stands the select committee has given employers more room to discriminate than they asked for. We assume this was not intended and so we are optimistic that a better outcome will be agreed by Parliament than the one tabled late last night.”

Contact:

Rainbows End youth rates worker Kalvin Guthrie and delegates will be available through NDU Media Liaison Simon Oosterman on 021 922 551
NDU National Secretary Laila Harré is available on 021 839 661

Select Committee Amendment summary included.