Government pulls up its socks on children’s work – Caritas welcomes research report and consultation

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand welcomes the Department of Labour’s consultation and associated research report on children’s work experiences – six years after the Catholic social justice agency drew attention to the lack of protection for many children in paid employment.

Caritas research and advocacy coordinator Lisa Beech says the Department’s draft report released this week as part of consultation is a good summary of research and issues identified to date on children’s work experiences. “However, some of the report’s conclusions are based on limited information. There are still huge gaps in our knowledge about children’s work, which we hope will be addressed by the department as soon as possible.”

The Department of Labour report, entitled School Children in Paid Employment: A summary of research findings, includes two studies undertaken by Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand. Lisa Beech says the report is the first comprehensive response the Catholic agency has seen since making its concerns known to the Minister of Labour in 2004.

Caritas says very little was known about employment undertaken by New Zealand school children before the two 2003 “formative” studies cited in the Department’s report. “Certainly there has been no significant evidence base to justify New Zealand’s repeated assertions to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that New Zealand’s working children are adequately protected by current legislation.”

Ms Beech says the research report provides a fair assessment of the reports to date, including those produced by Caritas. Caritas is also pleased to learn of recent research, such as that undertaken by Jo-Ann Pugh into health and safety knowledge by working Taranaki schoolchildren, and the recent analysis of existing research specifically for indications about children’s working experiences.

Lisa Beech says the research summary mirrors information given to Caritas that many children have good working experiences, but that there are also many areas of concern, including a lack of awareness about employment rights, and health and safety.

“For example, the report says one sixth of secondary students in part-time work were injured during the past year, and one fifth injured at some stage during their current part-time job,” said Lisa Beech. “From this, the report concludes that hazardous work is ‘not the norm’ for working children. One could say the same about adults in the workplace, but we take adult health and safety in the workplace very seriously, with a strongly proactive approach. As our youngest and most vulnerable workers, our children deserve no less than such an approach.”

The New Zealand government has a reservation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC) concerning a minimum age of employment. Government agencies and non-governmental organisations are currently preparing for the consideration of New Zealand’s UNCROC compliance by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“As this latest research report shows, there was very little knowledge to inform this discussion prior to 2003. We are delighted that the Department of Labour has provided this summary, and has other research activities in the pipeline,” says Ms Beech.

Caritas encourages young people and parents to take the opportunity to respond to the Department of Labour’s current consultation on information for children in employment available at http://www.dol.govt.nz/consultation/myfirstjob/index.asp. Submissions are due by 19 April.
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 165 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies active in over 200 countries and territories.

ENDS

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