As a disclaimer, I'm not in the UK. I was working mowing lawns, raking leaves, cutting shrubbery and more when I was 8, and mucking out stables when I was 10... Which decidedly is probably not legal here.
However, I was interested by whether this would be legal or not.
So there appears to be limits on when someone who is under 18 works, and what type of work. Additionally, it appears permits are needed for the employer, and the employee.
Yeah, I don't have an issue with teenagers having a job like that. I think it's a bigger issue that they don't work directly under contract, but instead use someone else's account; all the checks and balances that are in place to stop child labor and ensure their safety etc are out the window then.
On the other hand, minors are often underpaid, minimum wage laws (at least in my country) are different for underage people, which in essence is age discrimination if they do the same job.
And what's the minimum age for a kid working on his family's farm?
It's no secret that young people are at high risk for accidents in real-world jobs, and need serious training and tight supervision.
My Reaction: This story is about delivery-app workers because that is one of the few real-world jobs which is still visible from inside the well-gentrified little world-bubbles of the BBC's readers.
Whether we like it or not, delivery is a profession. It requires endurance, alertness and planning ahead (think travelling salesman problem); they also need people skills to deal with entitled customers and bosses.
However, there are incentives in place to not regard it as such: we don't want to pay extra; businesses don't want to pay a grown-ass adult with responsibilities; and adults don't want to make children's live's easier if they had it rough when they were growing up.
Disregarding other's rights of existence and rights of having a labor-free infancy will always come to bite us in the end: it's "fine" until you're replaced by an easily-exploitable teenager that can be underpaid because they're not aware of their labor rights.
Yeah it doesn't seem too bad, if you're earning 100 - 200 a day as a teenager like they say in the article, probably not paying rent to your parents, do that for a year or two, stash that in a savings account and you've got a house deposit ready for later in life
Pizza Hut is a significantly safer job. Delivery drivers have accidents all the time, they primarily work at night. They're also targets for robbery or assault. It seems pretty sensible not to let teenagers do it.
However, I was interested by whether this would be legal or not.
https://www.gov.uk/child-employment/restrictions-on-child-em...
So there appears to be limits on when someone who is under 18 works, and what type of work. Additionally, it appears permits are needed for the employer, and the employee.
I picked Kirklees at random for more specific council laws: https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/employment-information/pdf/...
It appears that things not being done in this scheme:
Sign off by the parent Sign off properly by the employer (in this case, the person renting the account) A risk assessment
However, it appears "leaving school age" is 16, even though adulthood is 18? So I'm not sure any of it would apply to a 17 year old.