Supermarkets are still widely discriminating against older teenagers whose contracts are not renewed when they reach the age of 18, according to research by the CNV shopworkers union.

Many stores prefer to replace 19-year-olds with 15 and 16-year-olds because they earn less, the union says. It blames the supermarket price war for pressuring down wages.
In 2006, the equal opportunities commission ordered supermarkets to stop discriminating against older workers but little has changed since then, the union says. The research shows that 75% of staff who are let go after they have had three temporary contracts are replaced by a younger worker.
Some 80% of supermarket workers are younger than 23, when the official adult minimum wage kicks in, the union says. And 44% are younger than 19. The minimum wage for a 19-year-old is €34.11 a day, for a 16-year-old €22.41.
The union also claims supermarkets are widely breaking rules on call-out contracts, weekend working and sick and holiday pay.