Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Australia (Ratification: 1969)

The Committee notes the observations of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) received on 4 October 2017. The Government is requested to provide its comments in this regard.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Employment trends and active labour market measures. The Government indicates that labour market conditions have improved over the past three years to May 2017. The number of persons in employment increased to 12,152,600 in May 2017 and the unemployment rate declined from 5.9 per cent in May 2014 to 5.5 per cent in May 2017. Although the participation rate increased to 64.9 per cent over the reporting period, up to May 2017, groups in situations of vulnerability, including the long-term unemployed, youth, the mature aged, persons with disabilities and indigenous Australians, continue to be disadvantaged in the labour market. The Committee notes that the Government is committed to promote workforce participation and to provide additional support to specific groups, with a particular focus on disadvantaged parents of young children, indigenous Australians and older people. The Committee notes that the range of targeted assistance has increased since the last report, with the introduction of the Transition to Work and ParentsNext. ParentsNext, which became operational in April 2016, is a pre employment programme assisting parents belonging to specific groups in preparing for employment, including indigenous Australians, women, youth and culturally and linguistically diverse Australians. The Committee also notes a structural change in the employment market over the past 25 years. Given that the share of employment in the services industries has risen, the Government is seeking to reskill retrenched workers to take up opportunities in industries that are experiencing growth through, for example, the Growth Fund initiative. The Committee also notes a rise in part-time employment over the past three years, which coincides with increased underemployment. In its observations, the ACTU indicates that underemployment is at a record high and reiterates that precarious work is one of the most pressing issues in the labour context, with 40 per cent of all workers working under non-standard work arrangements. While the ACTU recognizes that these forms of employment have their legitimate purposes, it maintains that these arrangements are increasingly being used to avoid the responsibilities associated with a permanent ongoing employment relationship. The ACTU refers to its 2012 Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work which includes recommendations directed at improving the level of permanent employment among the Australian workforce. The Committee requests the Government to specify how it keeps under review, coordinates and adapts the measures and policies adopted according to the results achieved in pursuit of the objectives of full, productive and freely chosen employment. The Committee also requests the Government to include information on the results of the measures taken to address long-term unemployment, underemployment and precarious work, including information on the number of programme beneficiaries obtaining lasting employment.

Youth employment. The Committee notes that youth unemployment fell from 13.6 per cent in 2014 to 12.7 per cent in 2017 and that youth employment increased by 3.6 per cent over the three years prior to May 2017. However, the Committee notes that young people continue to experience disadvantage in the labour market and that the underemployment rate for young persons has increased from 15.8 per cent in May 2014 to 18.5 per cent in May 2017. The ACTU observes that the youth underemployment rate is approximately three times that of the rest of the workforce. The Committee takes note of a series of measures, enacted in the context of the Youth Employment Strategy since 2015, to assist young people at risk of long-term unemployment and welfare reliance. The Government indicates that the Empowering YOUth Initiatives support innovative approaches from not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations to help unemployed young people, while the Transition to Work service provides intensive, pre-employment assistance to improve the work readiness of young people who have disengaged from work and study. Furthermore, ParentsNext assists, inter alia, young parents to prepare for employment. Among these projects, the Committee notes with interest the initiatives taken under the Government’s Youth Employment Strategy, targeting the improvement of employment outcomes for young people with mental illness. The Committee notes that Youth Jobs PaTH provides training and voluntary work experience placement through PaTH internships and wage subsidies. It also notes, however, that the ACTU expresses concern that PaTH internships replace real, entry-level jobs and carry with them a risk of exploitation for vulnerable young jobseekers, indicating that participants are not given the legal protections to which employees are typically entitled, since they are paid significantly below the minimum wage, are not provided meaningful qualifications and are not granted legal protections to which employees are typically entitled. The Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment initiative aims to expand government services for young unemployed who wish to start their own business and includes an expansion of the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme. The Government is also funding Community Development Programme (CDP) providers to implement youth engagement strategies to help engage young people in remote Australia. The Growing Jobs and Small Business Package is aimed at providing targeted support for young people who are more susceptible to long-term unemployment. The Queensland Government has implemented a number of programmes to reduce youth unemployment, including the Back to Work Regional Employment Package and Skilling Queenslanders for Work programme, the Back to Work South East Queensland Employment Package and the Employment Skills Development Program. With regard to Western Australia, the annual Western Australia State Training Plans focus on youth training aimed at connecting young people’s competencies with industry needs. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information, including statistical data disaggregated by sex and age, on the impact of the measures taken to encourage and support employment levels of young people and reduce youth unemployment. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information, including statistical data disaggregated by sex and age, on the numbers of young persons participating in each of the abovementioned programmes, and on the impact of each of these programmes on the employment rate among young persons.