Working Conditions around the World

This worksheet focuses on discussing, reading, and comparing working conditions around the world. This includes discussion about the minimum wage, sick leave, annual leave, and parental leave. This would also be a useful lesson for students who would like to practice negotiations, as the second half of the worksheet asks the class to role-play a situation in which they must negotiate working conditions.

First, the students will ask and answer a series of questions about working conditions in their own country. Next, they must speculate about a series of true or false statements about working conditions in various countries (e.g “Parental leave in Australia is unpaid T/F). Then they will read through paragraphs about working conditions in German, China, Australia, America, and Mexico. This is the main exercise of the worksheet, and students should be encouraged to discuss what they have read.

After that, students will learn some basic vocabulary for negotiations (e.g. “to meet in the middle”), and complete a conversation with the phrases they have learned.

Finally, students will be separated into two groups and  asked to negotiate working conditions (minimum wage, parental leave, sick leave etc) in a country. One group will negotiate from the point of view of the workers, the other from the point of view of the companies.