Australia: Cafe hires 11-year-olds sparks criticism over minimum age for workers

Over the weekend, a regional cafe in Australia’s New South Wales garnered criticism after a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) did a story on how they were forced to hire children as young as 11 years. This comes as the Australian state NSW does not have a minimum working age but you have to be at least 11 years old before you can receive a tax file number.

Speaking to ABC News, the owners of Long Track Pantry in the small Australian town of Jugiong, Huw and Juliet Robb said that they opened the cafe a few years ago and faced an employee shortage. Notably, the population of the town is 200 out of which the school kids make up the majority of the factory’s 100-strong workforce, reported ABC.

The school children are paid award wages and mostly work in the hospitality side of the business which includes, washing dishes, making jams and relishes and serving customers. While different states and territories across the country have provisions and laws in place to prevent child labour some of them do not stipulate a minimum age.

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Meanwhile, the Australian government had been considering a recommendation to make the minimum working age 15 or 13 for “light work” with some exceptions for those below 13, reported the Guardian. Thereport sparked outrage as one-star reviews of Long Track Pantry appeared over the weekend on Google while many accused the cafe of “child labour”, added the media report.

One Twitter user wrote, “Understandably, I’ve stopped at this cafe and purchased many of their products. Blissfully unaware that I’m supporting child labour.”

However, many even came to the cafe’s defence saying that children were paid award wages while political and economics writer Tim Colebatch said it was “common sense” and how he got his first job at the age of nine, adding that “it was a great learning experience”.

According to the owners, of the Jugiong jam factory where the children work, they are onboarded with strict training programs devised by staff members with teaching backgrounds, reported ABC News. Additionally, staff members in their late teens or early 20 teach kids who start off by dishwashing and food preparation before they are given “customer-facing roles”.

“So many of our managers now are the ones that have started at 11,” told the factory head of wellbeing and culture Treen Brooker to ABC News. As of last year, about 214,500 children aged 15 and under were legally working in Australia, reported the Guardian citing an employment and workplace relations survey.

The Australian government is yet to ratify the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention concerning the minimum age for admission to employment and would be the 176th country to do so. This also comes after a parliamentary committee, last month, while recommending the government to sign the treaty also said that working may be beneficial for young people.

However, it added, that evidence also suggests “except in cases where a youth works only a few hours per week, child and youth labor is harmful to development, educational success and health”.

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