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Queensland’s New Child Employment Act
The revisions
to the act and new laws:
-
protect
school-aged children from performing work that may be harmful to their
health and safety, or that compromises their mental, moral or social
welfare
-
limit the
hours of work for school-aged children to ensure that their studies aren't
adversely affected by employment.
Maximum
allowable hours of work for school-aged children are:
|
On a
school day |
On a
non-school day |
During a
school week |
During a
non-school week |
|
4 |
8 |
12 |
38 |
The
2006 Child Employment act and the
2006 Child Employment Regulation makes it clear that school aged
children are only allowed to work the nominated hours listed above. By
definition, a school aged child is a child under the age of 16 and
who has not yet completed year 10 of their schooling.
The new laws:
-
set the age
at which children can work at 13, although those between 11 and 13 can
perform supervised delivery work for items such as newspapers and
advertising leaflets.
-
children
between 11 and 13 are not allowed to work between 6pm and 6am, while all
other school-aged children are not allowed to work between 10pm and 6am.
A
parent consent form must provide by parents to the child’s employer
before employment can occur
With the case
of most school-based traineeships and apprenticeships this should not pose a
problem. Most students entering into a SAT are over 16 and finished
year 10 before they commence their Certificate training. But, what happens
to a student in Year 10 who has commenced a School-based traineeship and is
expected to work 7.6 hours per week to makeup the required amount of time
for their certificate? Simply, the Act does not regulate work carried out
as part of:
As a result
students starting on a school-based traineeships or apprenticeships, and are
by definition considered to be of school age, can start a SAT. This
exclusion on the act obviously allows the students to benefit in nationally
recognized training but it also raises concerns for parents and schools.
Some RTOs in some select industry areas “may” start to actively
recruit students of school age into a SAT arrangement that may not
completely protect young people. Students need to consider the reasons they
wish to start a SAT and parents and schools need to be responsible in the
information that they give to school aged children.
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