By | 2 min
Today Unions 21 launched its new report “Hit hardest, scarred longest: Young workers during the crisis” with a lunchtime fringe meeting at TUC Congress 2012. The panel discussion to accompany the launch was with Shadow Secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves MP, report author Dr Melanie Simms and Community young member Rae Cahill.
The Unions 21 pamphlet shows how early experiences of unemployment can ‘scar’ young people for the rest of their lives, associated with reduced wages, more problematic health outcomes, increased likelihood of future periods of unemployment and other social problems. It also details how precarious work hurts young people. Although there are lengthy debates about what precarious work means with in the UK context, we can at very least define it as those who are in temporary work when they would prefer a permanent job. By this measure around a third (32.5%) of the young workers who are in temporary employment are there because they cannot find a permanent job. There is mounting evidence from around the EU that this kind of involuntary temporary work may bring with it similar scarring effects if it is a long term feature of employment.
Ensuring that young people are well-prepared for work and that they are presented with good quality work and training opportunities is crucial if we are to try to avoid some of these problems stacking up for the future. This pamphlet looks at what can be done by governments, by employers and by unions to help.
Speaking at the launch Dr Simms said that we needed to put more pressure on employers to provide good quality jobs for young people and encourage better transitions between leaving learning and entering work.
Rachel Reeves MP said that the Government and employers are at fault for pushing ‘risk’ on to young workers through putting up barriers to higher and further education as well and deregulating employment regulation.
You can follow updates from the rest of our fringe events on our twitter account @unions21
