CTU welcomes decision on youth rates

The Council of Trade Unions has welcomed the Government's decision not to support Roger Douglas' youth minimum wage bill.

The bill would have restored the ability of employers to discriminate against 16 and 17 year old workers by paying them only 80% of the adult minimum wage.

CTU President Helen Kelly says discrimination on the basis of age is never acceptable.

"We are pleased that the Government agrees that paying young people less for doing the same work as an older person is fundamentally unfair and will do nothing to alleviate unemployment.

"There can be no justification for wage discrimination on the basis of age. This Bill was nothing but the reactionary twitch of a dying ideology and I am glad that the Government has seen sense in promising to vote it down."

Kelly said the Government now needs to focus on tackling youth unemployment through expansion of programmes like its Youth Opportunities programme and with further economic stimulus initiatives.