Drugs, alcohol, the developing brain & legals around first jobs

Some really valuable interviews today - with Brian Williamson about employment law and new jobs, David Citer, drugs and alcohol and the pressure faced by teens.

---

Have you ever wondered what your rights are when it comes to getting a job?

Check out our interview with Brian Williamson from WilliamsonLegal. Brian was one of the first 5 solicitors in the NSW law society to become an accredited Specialist in Industrial Relations and Employment Law and recently celebrated 20 year of service in this area. Brian is most used to working with employers but today his focus was on offering employees the tools to enter into their working lives with more support and understanding of both their Rights and their Responsibilities. Good ol' R&R!

When it comes to this particular interview we looked at the rights dependent on the type of work you were undertaking. Therefore the most important thing to understand was how you were being engaged

Are you a casual, a part time or a full time fixed period worker (such as during a gap year or christmas period)

Are you working in the volunteer sector, the work experience and the 1st job?

• You cannot do full time work till you have finished year 10
• There are minimum start provisions - i.e the number of hours you can be called in to work for - there are exceptions in the retail sector
• You can only do 5 hours work before you are entitled to a break - thereafter, if you do not get a break you should be paid overtime
• Get a pay slip - check it carefully. Try to  ensure you are in the tax system and not cash in hand. It makes a huge difference if something goes wrong.

Check out the interview for more incredibly helpful tips

There is no such thing as trial shifts. Work is work and should be paid

What a week and what a privilege it was, once again, to have the guests I did today. This blog post cannot be short because the show was full of gems and calls to action. If we don't want to see the projected statistics on depression come true, then we have to ask tough questions and make changes now.

Sam was my co-host, he is at Uni now and shared with us some important insights from his days at school.  I will come back to some of Sam's gems as they will only make sense in the context of what we were talking about.

My guest for the first half of the show was David Citer, Counsellor for Ku-ring-gai ward who has hands on and truly 1st hand lived experience of the effects of drugs and alcohol on the young people he has worked with as well. David calls the problem of alcohol an epidemic and one that needs to be addressed from the top down. 

We talked about expectations  and connections. 

There were a number of calls to action to the NSW and Federal ministers to do something about alcohol advertising in sport which seems to have stepped into the space left by cigarette advertising as the lesser of two evils. 

David Citer came across as a man who is prepared to say it straight and stand by his convictions based on the effects he has witnessed to young people's health from his current work to his experiences of working in emergency departments and juvenile justice.

Sam was able to add a lived experience to this. His experience of the pressures faced by teens, their coping mechanisms and their support networks were valuable colour to the very graphic picture painted by David.

The upshot:

We need to remember how to connect with each other, not just by doing what is needed with each other but getting in and connecting on a young persons level - what they are interested in.

Please feel free to share the link...when I get more hours in my day I will make smaller podcasts :-)

Resources

Working Rights
www.fwc.gov.au
www.lawstuff.org.au
www.williamsonlegal.com.au


Drugs and Alcohol and David Citer
www.drinkwise.org.au
www.headspace.org.au/media/839631/factsheet.pdf
www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/Your_Council/People/Mayor_councillors/Cr_David_Citer



You can hear Lucy on Stay in the Loop with Lucy 
on Triple H 100.1 fm. 
Either listen live on Thursdays 4-6pm AEST, 
stream live through the Triple H website or radio app 
or you could just wait 
and listen to the show through this website.
http://www.triplehfm.com.au/


A big thank you to Glorious Music for giving me permission to use their music 
for the show
http://www.gloriousmusic.com.au/