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ITEM EX14 - ANNEX 1

EXECUTIVE – 27 MAY 2003

EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

 

Employment of School Age Children - Summary of the Current Law Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (and others); Oxfordshire County Council Bye-Laws 1998

Children are of compulsory school age until the last Friday in June of the school year in which they reach the age of 16 (usually Year 11)

IT IS ILLEGAL TO EMPLOY CHILDREN UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE

Work is "Any work that is part of a business whether or not the person is paid"

All children below minimum school leaving age :

  • need a work permit;

  • can only ever work between 7am and 7pm;
  • must have 2 weeks free from work each year;

  • must not work more than 12 hours during any school week;
  • can work a total of 2 hours on school days between 7.00 am and 8.30 am and after school until 7pm;

  • can only work for 2 hours on a Sunday;
  • must have a break of one hour after working 4 hours;
  • at age 13 and 14 can work for 5 hours on a Saturday or on weekdays during holidays, but can only work for 25 hours per week during school holidays;

  • at age 15 and 16, can work for 8 hours on a Saturday or weekdays during holidays, but can only work for 35 hours per week during school holidays;

At age 13, children can only do light work in the following areas :

  • agricultural or horticultural work;
  • delivering newspapers;
  • shop work, including stacking shelves;
  • hairdressing salons;
  • office work;
  • car washing;
  • cafés and restaurants;
  • riding stables;
  • domestic work in hotels and other establishments offering accommodation

No child of any age may be employed :

  • in a cinema, theatre, discotheque, dance hall or night club, (unless licensed to perform there);
  • to sell or deliver alcohol: except in sealed containers;
  • to deliver milk;
  • to deliver fuel oils;
  • in a commercial kitchen;
  • to collect or sort refuse;
  • in any work which is more than three metres above ground level or, in the case of internal work, more than three metres above floor level;
  • in employment involving harmful exposure to physical, biological or chemical agents;
  • to collect money or to sell or canvass door to door, except under the supervision of an adult;
  • in work involving exposure to adult material or in situations which are for this reason otherwise unsuitable for children;

  • in telephone sales;
  • in any slaughterhouse or in that part of any butcher’s shop or other premises connected with the killing of livestock, butchery, or the preparation of carcasses or meat for sale;
  • as an attendant or assistant in a fairground or amusement arcade or in any other premises used for the purpose of public amusement by means of automatic machines, games of chance or skill or similar devices.
  • In the personal care of residents of any residential care home or nursing home unless under the supervision of a responsible adult.

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