Traineeships and systemic discrimination against young workers

In recent decades, the development and implementation of policies that are directly or indirectly linked to the pressure to liberalise labour regulation have increased the prevalence of systemic age discrimination. Systemic discrimination is a pattern, practice or policy of discrimination that has a broad impact on a class or category of persons within an industry, profession, company or geographic area. For example, older workers are pushed out of labour markets because of age and younger workers are inserted with unfavourable conditions such as unpaid or precarious contracts. Using the perspective of systemic discrimination, the chapter analyses the regulation of traineeships and apprenticeship in Spain. It proposes to apply ILO regulations and understandings as to the types of worker who should be entitled to labour rights in order to break the vicious circle of discrimination against the young.