Its not only the young being exploited. I can relate to a specific firm who practice these exact exploitations on the more senior workers. Employment opportunies shrinking - should be happy to have a job. I myself until recently was working 'permanent part-time' on a 3 month trial, getting paid $6.00 p.h. less than full timers and then 3 days before the trial period ended, called in to area supervisors office and finished on the spot. No reason given, he refused to even give a hint. Just escorted off premises. Now they wont even pay the 31 hours holiday pay due. I understand this firm is well known Australia wide for the practice.

This happened twice to my daughter when she was looking for work, once with a local and very famous hairdresser and then with a children's photography business. The hairdresser actually had her work for a week from 8 am to 8 pm every day and then at the end of the week told her they would be in touch. The photography crew was even worse, she had to travel from Hamilton to Bateau Bay, Nord's Wharf and Taree at her own expense with the promise of reimbursment which never happened. I now have a 14 year old son who is eager to get a job, and unfortunately as this behaviour seems to be the norm, I am expecting it to happen to him as well.

I have been teaching my son (well under 10 years of age) NOT to ever want or have a job. Working your whole life for a slave's remuneration is for the birds. This sort of treatment can't happen if you REJECT the notion of becoming a wage slave. [I only realised this after 20 years of economic acitivity, including a trade apprenticeship and various jobs thereafter]. Of course, the huge majority of people out there can't fathom life without someone else (your boss) "looking after you", so they'll never change. I reckon there's a fair chance my kid will never have a job, because he'll never need one. If he chooses to pursue some sort of professional career, it certainly will not be for money. Don't teach your kids to be victims.

These unscrupulous "employees" should be named and shamed. I've heard of many young people who have been scarred by promises of wages for hard work which never eventuates. To take action against them individually is expensive, time consuming and fruitless by these young people. These employers are still out there, advertising for new "employees" and getting away with it - what action can be taken?

as a job seeker, it's always disappointing to have put the time into applying for a position and not even getting a thanks but no thanks. Why is it that businesses demand the very best from us and out of this world perfection and yet on their behalf don't even hold up principles that should make us want to go anywhere near them. A print and framing place in a Newcastle suburb got me in for a "trial". This was because I followed up an application that had been unanswered and the manager got me to go in for a day. By the end of the day she was booking me in for further days but I could tell she was lying to me. Sure enough, she called me the night before going in and she said she was "busy, and she would call me soon". She didn't of course. I did get paid for that, but businesses are weird, they don't let you know where you're at. I turned up for her and surprisingly, I ended up being there all day, but she was not up front how long she was keeping me for. I then got a lecture from the second in charge about not bringing lunch with me as apparently there aren't enough people there to be able to go wandering off for the half an hour you got for lunch. Heck, at least i got paid but I had to go back another day and collect it and i never knew how much it would be because it was unknown by the manager and all i knew was that it would be less than everyone else, because I was just on trial. Now what part of this business showed me that they were worthy of my commitment and honesty? Here's another one. I found an ad for a cake decorator that I thought would be perfect for me. I applied by mail and heard nothing(as per usual)so I called them and had a long conversation with the owner, he said yeah i like your ideas, I will tell my wife about you and then there was never any reply. Months later as i had been let down by many businesses and was still looking for work, I walked past the shop and saw they were once again advertising the position. I spoke to a girl there, she said to bring in the application the next day at 9am to catch the owner. I did. The owner said, today we don't have the chef in, will you come in tomorrow morning? So I did..at 6am this time. So on the 3rd trip, it's 6am and I'm there again and as soon as I got into the kitchen the chef handed me an apron. I did all sorts of things and was told all sorts of store setup things, the kind you wouldn't need to know if you weren't coming back so I thought things might have been going well. I thought I was just going to talk to the chef but as 10am appraoched(yes 4 hours later) I said you know "I'm going to have to move my car because of parking limitations." Chef said to me well I was going to let you go at 10 anyway. And that was it, the owner came to the kitchen, said strangely and condescendingly so "you want to be a cake decorator do you?" I said um yeah and then they let me go and I heard nothing. Not a thanks for coming in, not a thanks here's pay for your efforts, not even a freakin coffee for turning up so early. Now I knew that the reason the job was readvertised was because no-one was found to be reliable and so aftera couple of weeks I called and spoke to the chef to see what was happening. I was told yeah she still had my number but was waiting for other people to come in who had other stuff on and hadn't found a time to go in yet. IT SICKENS me that businesses will throw such crap around and then advertise their "great" talents. From the examples they set..why would we want to work for them anyway??? I'm still looking, I have a degree, am creative and have a wealth of experience in many areas, so if anyone is looking for a lateral thinker that would like some work here I am. Why is it so hard?

It's not a new thing. I remember being exploited in my first job, years ago. They offered to "train" me, in exchange for my acceptance of an hourly rate well under the minimum wage. They somehow convinced me that they were doing me a favour, and that I was lucky to be paid at all during the "training" period. In the end, I worked there for more than a year, before I finally realised that they had no intention of ever paying me more than that.

I suppose if you HAVE to have a job where you are at another person's beck and call, at least know what you want. What are you good at? What do you like? What is unacceptable? Personally, I would never set foot in a business that wanted me to turn up and work on a trial basis, free OR PAID, especially if there was no written agreement in place for me to do that, even if only for a few hours. [However, if I had chosen to go and work on the understanding that I got paid from the value I created ~ different story, the parable of the figs. But I digress.]. All job seekers need to get much smarter, in double quick time. Frank Lowy arrived in Australia in 1952, without a single dollar, but he was smart and knew how to work, and wasn't going to be anyones slave. He's still one of the richest men in Australia. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me".

ello ~ do yourself a real favour, becasue you deserve it. Go and buy a book called "What colour is your parachute". Do not apply for another job until you have read it cover to cover, and diligently done the exercises it contains. You will receive what you seek, and what you deserve.

I have heard of that book(what colour is your parachute)and heard the author talk about the principles. It's easy to digest and makes sense but I tell you what abundance, it won't make a lick of difference if i read it. Your idea, whilst i appreciate the thought, it sounds a bit like a chain letter, do this, read this...and you will get your desires will appear. Is there a book out there I can read that magically will stop motorists from running me over whilst on my pushie?

A few months ago, a certain opinion writer at the Herald stated that "a great deal of the behaviour of soccer's fans and players can be fairly described as infantile" as a consequence of the chants targeted at Mark Bridge. Your journalist was scathing in regard to the round ball code and made some very rash statements that "this puerility is soccer's culture and it is a more pronounced difference between soccer and real football than the shape of the ball." He then went on to state that "At a Jets game your children are subject to the crowd chanting obscenities; at a Knights game your children will be respected as children and young Knights fans". I have done my research and have discovered that the journalist in question is a certain Jeff Corbet (alias name - Directeur Sportif). Interesting how quite you are about this incident. I wonder if were in the crowd at Cessnock, having a few quite beers and "singing we are the world" over the weekend!!!! I bet you don't publish this.