Did you know it’s illegal to be drunk while in charge of a cow, or drunk in a pub? Perhaps you weren’t aware you could still be prosecuted for firing your cannon within 300 yards of your neighbour’s garden or considered treasonous for placing a stamp upside down. And you better not be caught handling a salmon while looking suspicious in Tesco this weekend.
Finally, are you aware children can only work between 7am and 7pm, and for no more than two hours on a school day?
Daft laws? Maybe, but they all have a sensible purpose: to protect us from harm. The problem is that these laws are all out of date with modern society - and particularly the one concerning the employment of children. Remember, in education terms, “children” means any young person under 18 still at school.
Why should we be concerned by a law that seems out of date and does not lead to prosecution anyway? To protect our children from mental and physical harm through working so many hours in part-time jobs, while also attending full-time education, that they feel stressed, unable to learn and so fatigued that their relationships at home and school are negatively affected.
School prepares our children for life after school, for work. And so encouraging our children to work part time is a good way to support their development. Part-time work helps reinforce responsibility and routines; it gives children a window into a variety of workplace settings; it provides a greater level of opportunity to engage in interpersonal experiences through working with colleagues and customers.
It also allows children to become aware of the real value of money and how tax, national insurance and banking work in reality. It provides them with a manageable degree of stress, balancing different environments: school; work; social life. These are great experiences towards becoming well-rounded young citizens.
Part-time work also helps children learn at school. Students undertaking additional experiences in a workplace setting linked to their Foundation Apprenticeship or Skills for Work courses are helped greatly through undertaking part-time employment in connected environments, for example.
And yet, in many rural or semi-rural towns where hospitality and tourism are predominant, and low-skilled, high-staff-turnover jobs are prevalent, schoolchildren often make up a significant number of the workforce - that’s even more pronounced since Brexit and Covid saw the departure of many workers from Europe and beyond. Consequently, local businesses now invest more heavily in the recruitment and training of young workers. No bad thing, one might think, until the reliance on them means they begin to work far beyond the legal limits, many indeed working almost a full working week in some hotels, bars and restaurants - while still attending school full-time.
It is simply not physically or mentally healthy for any young person to do two full-time jobs. In seeking the views of other headteachers on this issue, many report that there are those who do cleaning at 7am (which means getting up at 6am, to then be in school from 9am to 4pm, even 5pm if attending clubs or study support) then heading off to work again in the evening. Those working in the bars and restaurants may not begin their shifts until after school at 5pm or 6pm, but are then closing up around 11pm or even later, several evenings a week. Some of these same children work another 8-16 hours at weekends.
These are very common occurrences across the country and may explain to some degree the reduced percentages in attendance noted in Tes Scotland recently.
Why are children working these hours? Why do employers and parents permit them to do so? Employers need staff: in hospitality, for example, there are drastic shortages of workers. Parents may need the money: their children are either bringing in extra income to the family pot or at least not asking for extras to buy their own trainers, clothes and make-up. No doubt, some children and those who see the impact in school - mainly guidance teachers - are raising concerns with the families, but hard cash is difficult to ignore for those without it.
The United Nations, the European Union and Scottish legislation all make clear that children’s education should not be affected by working during their school years; and that employers, liaising with parents and schools, must ensure this is the case.
The problem lies with the model hours and occupations noted, for example, in the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937, Section 28. This law is ignored because few really expect children to only work two hours after school, or be prohibited to work in hairdressers, chip shops, bars and restaurants, for example. This law and the model it provides need updating to recognise the financial benefits and wider-learning opportunities that part-time working brings - while still ensuring legislation is in place to protect our children, both physically and mentally.
In short, they shouldn’t be doing more than a normal 40-hour working week, when combining school and employed hours together.
Here, then, are some suggested next steps:
- Change the law to ensure the maximum combined hours of school and employment has the same legal maximum that we expect of adults.
- Provide more modern model examples of accepted roles our young people may undertake.
- Make clear the legal responsibility of employers to comply with the law and keep our children safe.
- Make clear whose responsibility it is to enforce the law when employers do not follow the law.
- Provide support and guidance to local authorities, schools and parents to help them understand the benefits of part-time working within the constraints of the law.
- Recognise the additional burdens many communities face, particularly those associated with rural poverty, and provide support.
Peter Bain is executive headteacher of Oban and Tiree schools, vice-president of School Leaders Scotland and chair of the BOCSH group of headteachers
