Students are a valuable labour force for newsagents. Newsagencies have been a valuable learning and income opportunity for students. The Fair Work Act is changing that thanks to the minimum hours provisions.
Consider the case of “Nick”. For three years he has worked three nights a week, after school, for between and hour and a half and two hours. The newsagency was on the way home. He was happy with the work and the award wage he was paid. Now, under the new provisions, he will have to be let go since he cannot be given the minimum hours as the business closes at 6pm and he cannot get there before 4:15pm.
This story is not unique. I have heard from at least twenty-five newsagents of with similar stories, especially in high-street and regional situations. I’d estimate that more than two-thirds of newsagencies employ students for short hours. While it is hard to give a number of students affected without surveying all newsagents, I’d estimate that more than 15,000 students would be affected.
The alternative is for the employment to be off the books. However, that is dangerous.
The government says it has consulted business. Clearly, they did not consult all businesses. Maybe it should consult and work with newsagents and students to protect the current arrangements. They were considered fair before these latest changes were introduced.
Footnote: My newsagencies are not affected since we configured our businesses some years ago to have minimum three hour shifts. It suited us in our locations.
UPDATE (6pm): News Ltd columnist Andrew Bolt picked up on this today at his blog.
i have 2 students that work alternate days from 4 pm til 6pm when i close. i guess i will have to let them go, or do i run the risk of keeping the status quo, as i know both lots of parents are happy with the current arrangement, but then run the risk of incurring the wrath of the fair work commission?. i am in a small country town. Perhaps labour would prefer the kids do nothing after school, they sure as hell dont have their laptops or high speed broadband that Kev07 said they would have by now.
these kids are honest, trustworthy, well mannered, reliable young australians learning valuable work/life skills while earning some pocket money at the award rate, maybe Ms Gillard should come and tell the kids/parents why they are being sacked. Just to add some clarification, i have been a ALP voter most of my life, and i just cant see how this is a win for anybody, including the union movement, if i have to let these kids go i will mkae sure that they understand that it is a ALP/union driven decision to help protect them from evil capitalists like myself, shame they wont have a job tho.
Unfortunately there is a very fine line between “the employee only wants to work for an hour an a half” and “the employee is being forced to work for an hour and a half”.
And in terms of enforcement, you cant ask the employee, because they would in many cases be afraid of loosing their job (or the few hours they do get).
It’s really no different to other minimum wage laws, and unfortunately for students, it can sometimes be a bad thing.
due to school, they cant get here before 4pm, and i close at 6pm, its pretty simple maths, or do i lock them in the back room for a hour or so after i close so they can get their hours up.
This is not new – the minimum 3 hours has existed in the NSW Retail Award for at least 5 years. But it is a daft requirement in the context of young school kids, who simply want an opportunity to earn some pocket money after school. There should be a special provision making allowances for Under 18 casual workers in small retail businesses.
Three workers gone here as a direct result of Fair Work Australia – the unions must be so proud of their efforts on behalf of the workers.
@Rick:
How many days a week are they coming in? If it’s just 1 day, consider staying back with them and taking care of anything else you can do for the hour.
If its more, then its a choice you have to make – pay them for 3 hours, or find someone that isn’t a student to do 3 hours work (and get paid accordingly).
Out of curiosity, what rate of pay would apply to the student/junior you are paying now compared to a regular employee?
they alternate days during the week and i give them 4 hours each on alternate saturdays. does it make sense to keep a high school student back for an hour after i close the shop, im sure they have other things to do, like eating a meal and homework, maybe even sport.its not about the money, i would pay all my staff more if the business could afford it. truth be known, at this time of year i dont really need the juniors, but they are good kids and id like to keep them on as i wait for things to pick up again.
Blake, you seem to be hung up on the money issue, i dont employ them to save a few dollars, nor do they take the place of an adult,i see it as a way of helping young kids in the local community that want to get off the lounge and the xbox and actaully have a go at doing something while making a few dollars
I talk about the money because one of the reasons for the 3 hour minimum is to stop unsavory business owners from exploiting the workers who need to work to get by.
For example if the Junior rate was $14 and the Adult rate was $19. 3 Junior hours would cost you $42, so if they only worked 2 hours – 2 hours for an adult would be $38 so $4 more.
So if you wanted to employ the juniors, just pay them for 3 hours and you don’t have to sack anyone.
If you don’t have the work for them thats one thing – but its not the fault of “Fair Work” policy that means you need to get rid of anyone.
I wonder if Blake owns a business?
sounds like a uni student that will leave uni and not accept anything less that a ceo position with a top 100 company. why dont i just stand in the stret and throw $100 notes in the air
Workplace Agreements can accommodate this situation easily as we have done within our store. Our minimum hours worked was passed and the casual juniors identified as an example as to why it was necessary for our business.
I do actually, and it’s one of the reasons this post caught my attention.
I would love to be able to employ a casual for 1-2 hours at a time.
I’d also love to not pay taxes, superannuation, a minimum wage, pay interest to the bank and all sorts of other things.
That is the exact reason for my example – assuming your business has 2 hours of work that needs to be done: your choices are to pay an adult for 2 hours (as part of a longer shift). Or employ a junior but pay them for 3 hours. Depending on your industry and awards, the costs may be similar, or they may be different.
Blake,
Life is so easy isn’t it. What if we have a senior who needs to leave at 3.30 to do a school pick up so we need a junior to do the last 2 hours? Short of a workplace agreement it can’t be done under Fair Work Australia.
Agreed Brett.
I do personally think that Fair Work is going to result in the dropping of a lot of student jobs because of the hours requirement – however my understanding is that in many cases the requirement was there under old federal and state awards anyway.
For a general standard, I agree with the 3 hour rule applying. However in the case of many Newsagency and other reputable employers I agree there could be room to move. Remember while your individual situations may be fair – there are many employers out there who are happy to exploit workers for the minimum cost even if its not legal.
Now just think of the other case where an employer is asking a student to come in for a 2 hour shift – there might be half an hour to an hour travel time involved.
Sure for the student that can drop in on the way home. Its fair, but for the one that has to travel it’s not.
As an employer who are you going to give more work to? Are you going to cut any hours for the person who “can’t make” the shift where they have to travel for almost as long as their paid shift?
I know my inherent bias is towards the one who “is there” when I ask. And I know thats not fair to the other person who is relying on the hours to support them at uni etc.
Blake,
So the vast majority pay for the sins of a very few.
To be fair, there should be a cost free system whereby an employer and an employee can agree on a roster and the ‘umpire’ can call the employee to make sure there is no coersion.
Once again we turn to this blog for a conversation about matters affecting newsagents. I read the ANF notice about the new law weeks ago (i think) but don’t recall anything about what they are doing about this.
I have two employees affected. One a driver and one a school kid. The kid is happy to work under current arrangements but the drive likes the idea of getting paid for more hours.
It looks like I will have to take on more hours myself. What are others doing?
I employ two kids for 1 1/2 hours after school and 4 1/2 hours on Saturday mornings. A minimum weely rate for students would be more suitable. Perhaps 8 hours. Most of the kids I employ have a bit of a behavior or attendance record at school. My rule is get suspended at school and you get suspended at work too. No work no pay. All but one have really responded well to this. One of my staff has a family stigma in a small town so as few people would give them ago. You have no idea how proud she and her mother are every time she walks into work. Do I sack them. No. I will break the law until something is done.
An issue a little more disturbing than this with much wider implications is the notification I received today via email from the ANF that our EBA application has been refused. How many other agents are now having to come to turns for what this means for their business? Another $1k down the tube!!! Thanks, thanks for nothing!!
All the discussion has been centred around casual and part time employment.
Consider the case of a driver who has 300 deliveries to undertake. His minimum hrs are now 4 hrs.
Iamagine having 5 drivers. You get your papers at 4.00 am, roll them and the last driver leaves at 5.00am You have to have your deliveries completed by 6.30am so what do you do with the drivers from 6.30am till 9.00am / 9.30 am now ???? Under the Labour run Work Choices Act you have no choice.
And by the way- where have the Associations been in this matter and why is it that it takes discussion here to alert many Newsagents of the Government muddy mess. Get real and get fair Labour Party your killing us small businesses.
also have to remember that in my case, the kids and their parents actually approached me tring to find some after school work, i never advertised that i had a vacancy, because frankly i didnt, and still dont, i found work for these kids because they showed some intiative and im glad i did, this will cost thousands of kids across the country their part time after school jobs, how can that be good for anybody or the country?.
@ Proactive Newsagent
Assuming as per your example your last driver goes at 5am, what time do they get there? 4.00/4.30 – so have them start rolling and loading up at 4 and pay them 4 hours till 8am. If they are on the payroll then you’re still able to use them (unless you’re feeling generous). Have them do post processing, compile any lists and organise subscriptions and what not. Keep it newspaper related though to make it related to the delivery and they should have no problem with it. Its just work you or another staff would have had to do anyway, right?
I was just talking to a girl that I work with who was an ex-newsagent employee. And at her store there were always 3 hour minimums (and she was there as a uni student), and the delivery runs got paid for 4 hours each even if it only took them an hour or two. This is going back as far as 2003/04 and possibly earlier.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but it seems to me from context and language (and the lack of examples from his own business) that Blake is either a union member or govt bureaucrat with no understanding of how a business works nor of the desirability of a bit of flexibility. I was a newsboy (2 hours a day or less, after school) in a SA Country Town. I learnt work ethic and values, and it didn’t hurt that also got some pocket money. The Fair Work (sic) changes are insane.
i need workers working for more than 4 hours or otherwise bye bye.
Blake
I have no reason to hold onto five drivers after they finish their deliveries because A. they have other jobs to go to and B. I seriously would not have enough work for all of them.
Forever and a day a driver has been employed for just that reason – to home deliver newspapers and that is their basis of expertise ( for want of a better word)
Hi Mark
Micro businesses like newsagents in the UK are too small to be seen by Government. OK the representative organisations do get the opportunity to visit ‘the Minister’ from time to time, but the outcome is almost always for legislators to just carry on no matter the effect.
The UK will be having a general election this year, it will be called within the next three months and one of my tasks over the next month is to contact our current MP with a list of the 5 key concerns that I have in the way Government fails us.
Number One is new regulation and the need for small/micro business to have ‘regulation light’. That is an easy version to impliment with a code of practice already sorted out so that issues like your short hour students are caterered for before the legistation or regulation is brought in.
Steve
Steve,
That is such a sensible approach as size does matter when it comes to many regulations.
Unfortunately, our government has gone the other way. They had draft legislation last year on unconscionable conduct with special provisions for small business and pulled it at the last minute.
It’s not just this government. Successive Australian governments have failed small business.
I really must say that in a perfect world Government would exist to make an envrironment in which to conduct business, rather than Government telling us how to run a business.
My father was involved with a business for 30 years. He had avoided unions like the plague. They would rock up countless times, to warn him of the perils of not having his staff being union organised.
When he sold, they we’re right there next to him saying, “Now, we finally got you at last.” Dad just turned around and said “I own the land, not the business that runs off it.”
This ‘workplace agreement’ crap is just about access to sites. Control. None of these individuals have ever held a going business concern. It’s small minded factory worker’s who, need the control factor… it’s a drug for them. Mixed in with tall poppy syndrome.
I actually had a visit from an officer from Fair Work today. They were in the area visiting businesses with information only. I explained to the officer my concerns with the 3 hour minimum as I employ 2 juniors for 2 hours 2 school afternoons each week.
My idea is as simple as to allow school age employees to be employed for a minimum of 2 hours on any school day. However for weekends and school holidays minimum be set at 3 hours.
He was to take the matter up with his superiors, it will be interesting to see what the response is.