Britain criticised for child labour

By Dominic Kennedy, The Times, 12 December 1996

SOME children in Britain worked for as little as 10p an hour, in some cases in dangerous locations such as sawmills and building sites, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.

They spent weekends working in the cold at street markets.

Seven out of ten British children worked for money outside the family by the age of 16, according to research presented to Unicef. Of those, 90 per cent were involved in work that breached the Children and Young Persons Act, which requires child workers to have a work permit, limits their hours, bans work between 7pm and 7am and forbids employment of under-13s. It is supposed to be enforced by local authorities.

Unicef, beginning a campaign against child labour around the world, highlighted the British problem at a cele bration of the organisation's fiftieth anniversary yesterday. Jim McKechnie, a lecturer in applied social studies at Paisley University, who has done six years of research in Scotland, Northern England and the Midlands, said children were working in adult jobs, not just the traditional milk and newspaper deliveries.

They could be found in shops, hotels, catering and hawking. Some were employed as cleaners, gardeners, garage mechanics and on building sites. A child in Dumfries and Galloway was working in a sawmill. Others had been employed wiring electric lamps.

A 12-year-old in Cumbria was answering the telephone for a taxi firm for 10p an hour. Children were usually paid between z1 and z2 an hour. One was working 30 hours a week; the legal limit is 17, during term time.

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