|
||
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
Issue No. 225 | 18 June 2004 |
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
No Place Like Home
Interview: The New Democrat Bad Boss: The Ugly Australian Unions: Free Spirits and Slaves Industrial: National Focus History: A Class Act International: Across the Ditch Economics: Home Truths Review: No Time Like Tomorrow Poetry: Silent Note
The Soapbox The Soapbox The Locker Room Politics
 Flexed To Death
|
|
|
News Aussie Kids Die on the Job
The call comes as a new report reveals that almost half of all young workers in the fast food industry have suffered an injury or illness and that children as young as eight are known to work for families engaged as outworkers in Australia's clothing industry. Research shows that a child is killed on an average of one every 13 days -- and 575 are injured and require treatment in a hospital. A significant proportion of these deaths and injuries occur while the child is working. "The use of child labour on farms varies from offensive slavery to something trivial and simple, such as getting a child to bring in firewood," says Yossi Berger from the Australian Workers Union, who represent workers in the rural sector. "On one end of the scale you get outright mongrels, who are a minority, to average people under pressure using whatever pairs of hands they can," says Berger. Berger says that eight out of ten farms he conducts inspections of have life threatening risks, often associated with the mobile nature of the work and the use of chemicals, and that the use of child labour can increase those risks tenfold. "While the exploitation of children is not as widespread here as overseas, more action is still needed to protect children and young people in Australian workplaces," says ACTU President Sharan Burrow A recent Jobwatch survey of young people working in fast food outlets in Australia showed almost half had suffered an injury or illness at the workplace and nearly one third said they had inadequate health and safety supervision. WorkCover NSW statistics show that, at least four children under 18 are killed, 377 suffer permanent injury, and more than 1300 suffer temporary disabilities each year from work in NSW alone. Almost a quarter of a billion children are child labourers world-wide with around 22,000 children die in work-related incidents Every year. The ACTU has accused the Australian Government of dragging its heels on ratifying important international conventions that ban the worst forms of child labour and require a minimum age for child labour.
|
| Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
|
© 1999-2002 Workers Online 
|
|
