During the school holidays, if you employ a "young worker" what restrictions should you be aware of?

If you are considering employing school age children or young workers over the holiday period then there are different restrictions applying to both categories.

In law, a "child" is a person who is not over "compulsory school age"; who has not yet lawfully left school. Most local authority by-laws prohibit the employment of school age children in occupations such as hotel kitchens, fish and chip shops and restaurants. I would urge you to contact your local education authority to see if your business would be prohibited from employing school age children.

The employment of school age children is regulated and under the legislation:

• no child may be employed if they are under the age of 14
• They may not be employed for more than 35 hours (or, if under 15, for more than 25 hours) in any one week where the child is not required to attend school
• They cannot be employed before 7.00 am or after 7.00 pm
• They may not be employed for more than eight hours (or, if under 15, for more than five hours) on any day or for more than two hours on a Sunday
• They must receive a rest break lasting at least one hour if they work for more than four consecutive hours.

Note; these apply when the child is not required to attend school, such as during school holiday periods. Please be aware that the restrictions differ during term time.

Before employing a school age child you must apply to the relevant local education authority for an Employment Certificate.

Young workers are those who are over the minimum school leaving age but have not yet reached the age of 18. You must ensure that young workers receive a 30 minute rest period if they are required to work over 4 and half hours in any one shift and also when assessing any risks to health and safety take into account lack of experience, lack of awareness of risk and lack of maturity.

What should you have in place when you start recruiting people?

We recommend as a minimum that you ensure you are able to provide your employees with a written statement of particulars of employment or ‘contract of employment’. This is a legal requirement and must be provided within 2 months of them starting employment with you.

Employees are also entitled to access to certain policies and procedures, such as the rules on discipline and grievance and any conditions relating to sickness or injury, including sick pay.

In addition, you must check that your employees are eligible to work in the UK. If you hire an illegal worker then you could face a £10,000 fine for each worker. Certain documents confirm an individual’s eligibility to work in the UK and if you need to check what they are, a full list can be found on our homepage.

You should look at the rate of pay which you are proposing to pay any workers as you will need to ensure you comply with the national minimum wage rates. These rates, which are banded dependent on age and increase in October each year can also be found on our website. You must ensure that these rates are met or exceeded in order to be compliant as individuals have a right to make a claim for non payment of the national minimum wage.

You also have obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It is your duty to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of your employees. Will your employees be provided with Health and Safety instructions? Are your risk assessments current and action plans in place? If your employees are expected to use a computer, will they be given a display screen assessment?