Youth pay protest turns riotous 

Several hundred Auckland students skipped school on Monday afternoon to protest youth pay rates.  A 17 and 28-year-old were arrested as the protest turned riot-like in the middle of the city.

It was due to be held in Aotea Square but up to 500 students from a range of schools took their views down Queen Street.

Smaller groups also made forays into some of the fast food restaurants targeted by the pay rates campaign.

Police squads were called to the scene to calm down agitated protesters who started sitting down in the middle of major intersections.

"I say this is education...this is the real education on the streets," Green Party MP Keith Locke Green said.

Monday afternoon's rally organised by the group Radical Youth at Western Springs' College with support from the Unite Union, has been criticised for encouraging those who take part to skip classes.

"This is not truancy...this is activism.... no more youth rates," a protester rallied.

Senior sergeant Donovan Clarke says the organisation of the event was poor.

"I think one of the organisers was 12 or 13-years-old," he says.

But students say they will plan more action until their voice is heard and youth rates are abolished.

"I get paid $6 an hour and I'm 17-years-old...I think that's atrocious," a protester said.

Principals at Mt Roskill Grammar and Western Springs' College had earlier told students they were expected to attend classes and those who didn't would have to make up the work.

However both said they supported the abolition of youth rates.

Mt Roskill Grammar principal Ken Rapson says the protest organiser and Grammar student Nista Singh is likely to receive a commendation for her involvement.

Singh says young part time workers are fed up with lower minimum pay rates for under 18s.  She says the rally will demand the government do something about it.

She says that although Union Unite supports the action, Radical Youth is independent from the body. 

John Langley from the Faculty of Education at Auckland University told TVNZ's Breakfast programme the students who have organised the protest are showing leadership and courage.  However he does have concerns that people are being encouraged to cut school.

"In a way this doesn't have anything to do with schools... and I think it will put schools in an ambivalent position because there will be many teachers and dare I say, principals, who probably secretly quite admire and support what they are doing, but they can't be seen to be condoning students walking out of school," says Langley.

The Secondary Schools Principal's Association says while young people should not be exploited, the walkout is inappropriate.

Prime Minister Helen Clark says while we live in a democracy where students are able to express their rights, they also have obligations to their school community and shouldn't be leaving school for a protest.

A member's bill to abolish youth rates is currently before parliament.