Leticia Harrison tells her story

Hi my name is Leticia Harrison.

I am 17 years old and live in the small town of Terang Victoria.  I worked at the Terang Co-Op in the hardware department, but because of the new 3hr retail award I can't work after school anymore because my place of employment is only opened until 5.30pm from Monday to Friday.

I found this completely ridiculous and decided to try and change the award so me and other youths could work after school and learn how to have work placement skills.

I started off by pulling together a petition that was directed at the House of Representatives. My petition was put in businesses throughout Terang and surrounding towns that all supported my decision to try and change the 3hr award. After a few months on working hard on the petition and the media we decided to present our petition to Julia Gillard. We got 1550 signatures which was great.

After the petition was presented to Julia Gillard it was then considered at a meeting of the committee of the representatives and was certified as being in accordance with standing orders. It was presented to the House of Representatives on June the 2nd 2010 and was referred to the Minister of employment and workplace relations.

During this process I received a letter from Julia Gillard stating that there was nothing she could do to change the award and that she wishes us all the best.This was very disappointing because the Government could change the law if they wanted to.

We then had tribunal with Fair work Australia to fight the award. about 4 weeks later we found out that Fair work Australia had decided that the jobs of Mathew Spencer and I were opposed by the union, solely on the ground that an exception from the minimum 3 hour engagement "would undermine the safety net applying to all casual employees", even though our workplace simply can't do it.

So we lost our afterschool jobs.

This seems so unfair and it doesn't suit country areas like ours and many small businesses. That's why I am pleased to join in with ComeOn Australia so that other young people in our position and people who support us can join in too.

Please help us to get some commonsense in the law and let young people work after school even when shop hours don't allow for the three hour minimum. Sign our ComeOn petition, send an email to your MPs and candidates.

We can't vote yet, but you can help give people like Matthew and me a voice - and our jobs back.