Surf Coast inspections raise awareness of child employment laws, businesses put on notice

In Victoria, kids can be employed in most industries, including hospitality, from the age of 13, provided the employer has a child employment licence and complies with rules around light work, supervision, hours of work and rest breaks.

The campaign focussed on the Surf Coast because of its:

• surge in demand for hospitality services over summer, driven by a spike in tourists
• rapid population growth over recent years
• relatively high proportion of children
• relatively low number of child employment licence holders.

The campaign aimed to detect the levels of non-compliance to inform strategic planning and enforcement activities, and to educate local communities about child employment laws.

Compliance checks

The campaign saw Wage Inspectorate officers inspect 84 businesses by requiring them to provide information about any employees under 15. Officers also conducted 66 unannounced site visits across 2 days.

The campaign inspected businesses in:

• Aireys Inlet
• Anglesea
• Bellbrae
• Deans Marsh
• Fairhaven
• Jan Juc
• Lorne
• Moriac
• Freshwater Creek
• Torquay
• Winchelsea.

Of the businesses employing children under 15, 89% were breaching at least one aspect of the law:

• 56% were employing children without the required licence and were breaching other child employment conditions.
• 33% had a child employment licence but were breaching rules about supervision, work hours and rest breaks.

All unlicensed businesses subsequently applied for a licence.

Investigations

The investigations that resulted from the campaign identified approximately 550 alleged breaches of the Child Employment Act, with most being children working outside allowable hours or not being given appropriate breaks.

The Wage Inspectorate always looks to be proportionate in its compliance activities, and to use the most appropriate enforcement tools. On this occasion the businesses were issued formal warnings, after consideration of the:

• circumstances of the alleged offending
• cooperation of the businesses and their attempts to bring themselves into compliance
• compliance campaign’s focus on educating businesses about the law, these businesses were issued formal warnings.

Education

The educative effects of the campaign were immediately apparent, with a 366% increase in licence applications across January.

The campaign also provided an opportunity for the Wage Inspectorate to raise awareness of child employment laws within local business groups through engagement, and within the broader Surf Coast community through media.

The campaign reached 1.35 million people through media, including Channel 9 News (syndicated across the WIN network), Geelong Advertiser, Geelong Independent and Colac Herald.