Lawyers

Business rules for workers

Modern day equivalents of Josiah Bounderby - the factory owner in Charles Dickens's book Hard Times - are still employing children in factories, on farms and on milk delivery rounds despite this having been against the regulations for decades. But proposals unveiled today hope now to weed out child labour exploiters. Around 1.7 million under-15s do some form of part-time work but most are technically working illegally because they do not have a work permit, according to the Better Regulation Task Force. Part of the reason for that is child working conditions stricture is extremely complex. It dates from 1933 and requires children to register for a work permit with their local authority. One recent survey by the Children's Legal Centre found that some 36 local authorities still allow 10-year-olds to be employed by their parents as agricultural labourers. Just eight out of 136 English councils had their regulations on their website. A separate report, published today by the TUC and NSPCC, reveals that nine out of 10 councils got the regulation wrong on teenage working. The taskforce wants to clarify and streamline the edict. It calls for individual permits to be scrapped and for employers to register with their local authority as an employer of school-age children, rather than applying for the permit for each child. It says the new system will not negatively affect the protection of children as it doesn't remove the employer's obligation to ensure each child's health and safety - such as carrying out risk assessments and providing information to parents - but would remove bureaucracy and reduce illegal child working. Under the proposed scheme, parents would be able to check with their local authority website to see if the prospective employer is registered. Taskforce chair David Arculus says the proposals come with the blessing of local authority child work officers, who were consulted on the changes. "It will be easier and safer for children to work," he says. "The present situation is just not appropriate for this day and age, because nobody knows what is going on." The taskforce recommends that the Department for Education and Skills consults on allowing children to work for more than two hours on a Sunday. Now Arculus says: "In a multi-faith society, the choice of whether school-age children should work on a Sunday is one that is best left to them and families."