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More than half of young Australians do unpaid work

Anna Patty

More than half of Australia's young adults have done unpaid work as part of an internship or a job trial, raising questions about the need for greater regulation of unpaid work to prevent exploitation, a landmark national study has found.

The study of 3800 people aged 18 to 29 from across the country is the first to investigate the prevalence of unpaid work in Australia and suggests it is becoming a pervasive norm in an increasingly competitive labour market.

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An eight hour shift without pay

Frances Johns worked an eight hour trial shift finishing at 1am not knowing she wouldn't be paid.

Unpaid work experience now extends beyond traditional student placements in medicine, nursing and teaching to all areas across the workforce, including law, finance, creative arts, retail and hospitality.

The study findings have been released as the federal government prepares to introduce 120,000 internship placements over four years from this year as part of its Youth Jobs PaTH youth employment program. The University of Sydney is also planning to make work experience compulsory for all undergraduate students from next year.

Worth doing?

While one in four people doing unpaid work experience were offered a job and many were highly satisfied with the experience they gained, the study said it was unclear if unpaid work improved a person's chances of getting a job.

Commissioned by the Federal Department of Employment, the study found 58 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 had done unpaid work experience in the past five years. It estimated a third of Australians aged 18-64 had done some unpaid work.

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The researchers from the University of Technology Sydney, Queensland University of Technology and University of Adelaide raised concerns about the need to improve access to work experience for young people from poorer backgrounds or in regional areas.

 

"There's a great degree of willingness from young people to participate in internships," lead study author Damian Oliver from the UTS business school said.

"The challenge is ensuring that those who struggle to afford an unpaid placement aren't excluded from employment opportunities."

Costs mount

The study showed that many young people had to pay for their own insurance, travel, equipment and other costs to secure an internship. It found those from poor backgrounds were less likely to participate in an unpaid internship.

Professions, including law, finance and journalism, had been generally dominated by people from privileged backgrounds because social networks promoted job opportunities and because wealthy families could afford to support their children while they did work experience, the researchers said.

If I'd known it was a trial shift I wouldn't have stayed as long as I did.

Frances Johns

Young adults living in a capital city were more likely to have done internships or other work experience placements than those in regional areas. Men were more likely to participate than women.

 

Paula McDonald from the Queensland University of Technology said, if unpaid work continued to expand as an essential prerequisite for getting a job, it could contribute to higher levels of social and economic inequality.

Study co-author Andrew Stewart from the University of Adelaide law school said, while internships could provide a useful bridge between education and work, the more common they became, "the more important it is to ensure that they are properly managed and regulated".

About half of unpaid work experiences were connected to a formal tertiary, high school or vocational education or training.

Unsupervised training

But 43 per cent were outside the supervision of any formal education or training system. This included the 13 per cent of people surveyed who had done an unpaid work trial or unpaid training or work orientation.

Professor Stewart said it was OK for a prospective barista to be asked to demonstrate they could make a cup of coffee, but an unpaid trial that lasted for days could be illegal.

Fairfax Media recently reported on Wollongong University students doing several days of unpaid work as part of a job trial at many local restaurants and cafes.

 

Frances Johns, 21, worked an 8½ hour shift on a Sunday night at the Bella Portofino function centre in February last year in the hope of getting a permanent job.

"We were serving food and drinks and cleaning up," she said. "It was flat out the entire time.

"At the end we had to pack up the event and put chairs and tables aside and clean up the decorations.

"If I'd known it was a trial shift I wouldn't have stayed as long as I did."

The national study found 8 per cent of young adults it surveyed were doing unpaid work as part of requirements for youth allowance or welfare payments.

More than a third said their unpaid work experience lasted more than a month. A similar number said they had only participated in one episode.

One in five said they had taken part in five or more episodes in the past five years.

The study did not include volunteering work for organisations such as a church, charity or club.

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