Comments on Canberra working kids
Posted on March 27, 2009 by by valerirojas
The ACT Government is calling for comments on the Employment of Children & Young People in the ACT.
New law about employment of children and young people will commence in July 2009 (Chapter 21, Children and Young People Act 2008). New standards and regulations about employment are required and we would like to know what people think.
The standards and regulations will set appropriate conditions for employment and work experience for children and young people.
Visit the ACT Department of Disability Housing and Community Services to view the discussion paper on the issue, you will also find details about sending them your comments.
Comments will be accepted until 5pm Monday 11 May 2009.
Update – 28 March 2009
Top Typeboarders “TBers” 99 Red Balloon and Loquacity with the support of TypeBoard are urging typeboarders and the community to contribute with any ideas and comments to this article, all feedback will then be added to typeboard as a new article and sent to the ACT Government for their consideration.
Remember, you don’t have to be a parent to provide ideas or comments, you just have to care about the future of our young generation 
45 Comments to “Comments on Canberra working kids”
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Well this is very interesting! I would like to put a brief submission in on this topic. I need to think it all through a bit first, however.
At the moment I think the restrictions on the kids getting a job are stopping them from doing work they would love to be doing, and I think this is unfortunate.
I’m also interested on the points about what rules should or should not surround modeling for young people.
Thanks for this – I would never have known about it!
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99 – would love to collaborate with you on that one. I think there’s some interesting topics in here.
L
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Ok, great! Let’s do it!
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Yep – and I think maybe we should get some feedback from the Typeboarders too. Stick any ideas you have in the comments, and we’ll post the draft up as a new article once we have it. Whaddya think?
L
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I have two young kids, so count me in as well. Lets see if we can get more people to provide some feedback and comments on it. Great initiative guys
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Cool!! How are we going to go about this? Email? Google group? Meeting in person – always a bit harder to organise …?
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I suggest we just gather some ideas here (I’ll think this over while I eat and set them down in writing after the kidlet is in bed), and then one of us can collate them together, post it as a new article, and we can continue from there. How does that sound?
L
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There’s one way to find out, L! Let’s do it!!
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Hey guys, typeboard is happy to create a new category called maybe “draftboard”, so if you find articles like this one. You can then create an article called eg. draft for kids at work and submit it to the daftboard category, typeboards can then follow up with your suggestions adding comments and ideas to them… “oh” we can keep it within the original article and submit a new one later on as suggested by you guys. Either way typeboard is happy to help
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Valeri, I’m happy to go along with how you want to work it. If you prefer to have a new category, then go ahead. Just let us know how you prefer it to be done
L
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Hey L, how about we keep it going here as you suggested first as it probably less confusing.
>Stick any ideas you have in the comments, and we’ll post the draft up as a new article once we have it.
Once you guys think the draft is ready then just post a new article.
You guys have 100% support from me and TB.
Great initiative 99 & L
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From the short discussion paper on the DHCS site:
• What kind of work do you think is okay for children and young people? Does age make a
difference?
• What kind of work should children and young people not be able to do?
• Do you think a parent has to give permission for their son/daughter to work? At what
age?
• Should employers have to make sure young people have a safe way to get to work or
home if you work very early or late at night?
• Do you think there should be a maximum number of hours you can work in one week?
Should this be different for different ages?
• Do you think you should have to have a break (say 10 hours) between each time you
work? Should you be able to work twice in the same day?
• Do the rules need to be different if you work in a family business?
• Should your boss have to provide extra facilities for you, such as access to a telephone for
contacting a parent?
• Do there need to be different rules for working as a model, on television or in other
entertainment? Is this different for a baby or young child?
I think this is as good a point to start as any. I’ll address each question in the next comment …
L
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What kind of work do you think is okay for children and young people? Does age make a difference?
Age makes a difference, for sure. I would say something like anything under 14 needs parental permission. Any lower limit should be quite young, say 8 or 10.
As for the kind of work, I’m also tending towards being fairly unlimited. Things like the sex industry, mining and perhaps forestry should be regulated however, and possibly outright banned for children under 16.
L
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What kind of work should children and young people not be able to do?
I’ve sort of already addressed this. I think children should be permitted to work in any industry that doesn’t involve a high chance of accidental death (like mining or forestry), or in the sex trade (for obvious reasons).
L
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Do you think a parent has to give permission for their son/daughter to work? At what age?
Again, my suggestion would be as follows:
* Under 8/10 – no ability to work in formal paid employment
* 8/10 to 14 – with parental agreement
* Over 14 – no restrictions
L
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Should employers have to make sure young people have a safe way to get to work or home if you work very early or late at night?
This is a tricky one, but I think it falls under the reason why parental assent is necessary. Parents shouldn’t be giving consent unless they are confident that their child has a safe method of transport. I really don’t think employers should be responsible for how an employee travels to and from the workplace. So the short answer is no.
L
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Do you think there should be a maximum number of hours you can work in one week?
This is hard because of school holidays. I see no problem at all with kids working full-time when they’re not supposed to be in school, but certainly wouldn’t advocate it during the term. Perhaps a two-fold strategy is needed here: during the school term, kids can work up to, say 25 hours a week (this allows for 3-4 hours after school weekdays and a whole day on the weekend). During holidays, ordinary limits apply.
Should this be different for different ages?
How old do kids need to be before they can leave school in the ACT? 16? So it should apply to kids under the legal school-leaving age.
L
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Do you think you should have to have a break (say 10 hours) between each time you work?
I don’t really understand what this is trying to achieve. I would say no because I can’t think of a compelling argument for it.
Should you be able to work twice in the same day?
As above. I don’t see why this would be a problem.
L
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Do the rules need to be different if you work in a family business?
Having grown up with parents that ran a small business, and run a not-so-small business myself, I’m inclined to think that there are a lot of liberties given to people who run businesses in this country (I know that’s an unpopular viewpoint, but it’s the only one I have). I don’t see why they should also be above child-labour laws.
L
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Should your boss have to provide extra facilities for you, such as access to a telephone for contacting a parent?
In an emergency situation, yes (but that should apply to all employees, not just children). Not sure what other ‘extra facilities’ this might cover, but I’m inclined to say no.
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Do there need to be different rules for working as a model, on television or in other entertainment? Is this different for a baby or young child?
I think this needs to be treated completely separately to other industries. It needs careful scrutiny as to what the child will actually be doing, and where they are modelling adult clothes or products (that is, products or clothes intended to be used by adults, not ‘adult’ in the sex-industry meaning), they must be over 18, or over 16 with parental permission. Same rules for babies or young children.
L
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OK, I’m officially worn out now!
Over to you …
L
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Nice work L, some extra comments
Do you think there should be a maximum number of hours you can work in one week?
Adding onto L comments:
Kids should not have to work pass 7pm, it wouldn’t be healthy for them, specially during school terms.
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Do you think you should have to have a break (say 10 hours) between each time you work?
In the public sector and some private sector businesses employees don’t work more than 7:21hrs per day and have a break every 4hrs. Similar rules should apply for young people if they are working full-time.
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What kind of work should children and young people not be able to do?
children should be permitted to work in any industry that doesn’t involve a high chance of accidental death and injuries.
Lifting heavy loads could also cause injuries, most young kids under 14yrs have not completely develop physically at that age yet.
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