Keelia Fitzpatrick on fighting for the rights of young workers

Wages paid illegally below award rates, dodgy individual contracts, unpaid penalty rates, summary dismissal. Such exploitative practices are suffered by many a worker in many an industry. But what if you’re a young worker, new to the world of work, with no understanding of your rights and entitlements in the workplace, and no knowledge or experience of what collective struggle can achieve? That’s where organisations like the Young Workers Centre have a crucial role to play, providing an entry point in to the labour movement for vulnerable and disenfranchised young workers. Alex Whisson caught up with the director of the Young Workers Centre, Keelia Fitzpatrick. He began by asking how the centre first came into existence.