Is Gen Y to be our next beast of burden?

Put squarely, the proposed IR reforms massively underestimate the disproportionate power base that exists between the often older employer and the younger employee. (Caveat: if the prophecies of Peter Sheahan, and the Generation Y folk do hold true, then all managers should be concerned about the day when the tables turn).

In announcing further details of the IR reform package, Prime Minister John Howard also said - in yet another attack on those aged 16-24 - that the Workplace Relations Reform legislation will include a requirement that minimum wages for trainees be set by the Australian Fair Pay Commission at levels to ensure that they are “competitive” (beware of the dreaded euphemism for “cheap”). Disturbingly, wages for many young apprentices and trainees are already extremely low. For example, the wage received by a first year apprentice in the building and construction industry, or the hairdressing industry, is just $231 per week.

It is often asserted that by keeping wages low for apprentices, employers will automatically take more on. Forget the fact that youth have made perfectly plain that it is the very poor remuneration associated with becoming an apprentice that continues to act as a real disincentive to taking on a trade. In sum, it would be unwise to expect these reforms to assist aspiring youth apprentices, at least in the short term.

Taken collectively, the proposed IR reforms might, very well, result in substantial economic benefits. But it must be asked: at what cost?

Australians are already working harder and longer than any other nation in the OECD. This can only create massive social consequences, none of which seemed to have been adequately considered by the Howard Coalition. Indeed, it is somewhat ironic that the same government that espouses ideas of “family” wants us to work longer and harder.

At this rate, Generation Y won’t be having any babies at all.