Youths know ”shockingly little” about employee rights

The topic of employee rights has been making headlines in the past week, sparked by an anonymous hotel worker.

There have also been stories of many young people being underpaid and treated unfairly in their after-school jobs.

To get a feel for how well the country’s young people understand what rights they have in their workplaces, KVF today did a vox-pop at Tórshavn’s Glasir college.

If the 30-40 students KVF spoke to can be regarded as being representative of the general Faroese youth, it is probably fair to say that Faroese teens don’t know much about how the labour market works.

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Most of them said they have part-time jobs, mainly in restaurants, retail stores and hotels.

But “I don’t think so” or “I’m not sure” were by far the most common answers to the question of whether they had signed any form of a work contract in their jobs.

Only a couple of the 30-40 students knew which trade union represented them in their respective jobs, and very few even knew what a trade union is.

“Shocking” 

After hearing the vox-pop, Pætur Niclasen, chairman of trade union S&K, which serves retail and office workers, said he was shocked to hear that young people know so little about the labour market.

“This is shocking to hear. Trade unions really should do more to inform young people of their rights and duties in the work market,” he says.

“But unions cannot do everything; workers also need to show initiative and contact their union if they are experiencing problems in their jobs or if they have any questions.”

Read the Faroese version of this article here and here.

Translated by prosa.fo.

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