Budget 2016: intern plan "just about the worst idea ever"
Unions say that the Coalition government’s internship scheme, announced in the federal budget, is “just about the worst idea ever.
Without safeguards, they say, it will simply be a job destruction, not a job creation, plan.
Under the PaTH scheme, employers would be paid $1,000 by the government (ie the taxpayer) to take on young job seekers.
The employer wouldn’t have to pay any wages and if the “interns” worked 25 hours in a week, they would be given $200 ($4 an hour) by the government on top of their Newstart allowance.
The minimum wage is currently $17.29 per hour, saving business a total of $432.25 for 25 hours work per week per employee.
So why take on an entry level employee when you can have access to a pool of free labour as part of a taxpayer funded young worker exploitation scheme?
“Subsiding long term unemployed to perform low skilled work in supermarkets is not a plan to create, real lasting jobs,” says ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver.
“The government should be investing in TAFE, higher education and apprenticeships - but these have all been cut.”
