Hairdressers protest deregulation



By Dale Granger    

Angry hairdressers will be taking their scissors to parliament on August 10 to protest against deregulation of their profession and try to slash a proposed law that will no longer classify it as a trade.

The hairdressers are seething over the Hairdressing Registration Bill, introduced by former state treasurer Troy Buswell.

If passed, the new law, designed to address chronic shortages of hairdressers in WA, will exempt hairdressers from being registered and standards will be slashed as a result, they say.

About 60 hairdressers met this week and vowed to snip the Bill in the bud.

They say if it is passed they will no longer qualify for a guaranteed tradesman wage of $21 an hour, pay could plummet to as low as $10 an hour and it will have a devastating impact on standards in the profession.

Cailin Kehoe, the 19-year-old owner of Cut925 in Bassendean, said: “If our profession is deregulated just about anybody will be able to become a hairdresser with barely any training.

“You’re talking about professionals who have to mix chemicals and put it on people’s scalps.”

Ms Kehoe said she had studied for three years to become a qualified hairdresser, but under the new law people would be able to call themselves hairdressers with little training.

She said some politicians from the Liberal and Labor parties had expressed sympathy for their cause, but only the Greens were backing them.

Article from The Sunday Times, August 1, 2010.