Canteen services company facing 139 criminal charges for allegedly breaching child employment laws

A business supplying canteen services to community sports clubs has been served with 139 criminal charges for alleged breaches of Victoria’s child employment laws.

The owner of the business supplying canteen services to a variety of community sporting clubs has been served with more than 100 charges in the Magistrates Court of Victoria over alleged breaches of child employment laws.

Prosecution is the Wage Inspectorate’s most serious compliance tool, and decisions to take legal action are made in line with its jurisdiction.

The state’s child employment watchdog, Wage Inspectorate Victoria, alleges that between 3 June and 10 September, the owner contravened the Child Employment Act 2003 by employing:

• Ten children without a permit or license on a total of 64 occasions.
• Three children were employed who were below the minimum age of employment on 19 occasions.
• Ten children were employed for more than three hours a day during the school term on 56 different occasions.

Victoria’s child employment laws aim to help protect children under the age of 15 from work that could be detrimental and harmful to their health and wellbeing, including ensuring that employers aren’t taking advantage of vulnerable workers, and are in place to hold employers to account by ensuring that they have a safe working environment.

For example, the law states that a child must be 11 to deliver newspapers and advertising material and 13 to do other types of work, such as in retail and hospitality.

Businesses are required to ensure that they have a child employment license to employ someone under 15 years of age, whether the work is paid or voluntary. Therefore, employing a child without a license is a crime, and employers will be penalised.

Child employment laws restrict when businesses can employ children and how long they can work:

• During a school term, children can be employed for a maximum of three hours a day and 12 hours a week.
• During school holidays, children can be employed up to six hours a day and 30 hours a week. Children can only work between 6am and 9pm.
• Children must also receive a 30-minute rest break after every three hours of work and have at least a 12-hour break between shifts.

The maximum penalty for a person employing a child without a permit and for employing a child below the minimum age of employment was $11,095 in the 2022–23 financial year. However, this has now increased to $46,154 in 2023–24 following amendments to the law, which saw a licensing system replace permits.

This matter is listed for mention in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, 5 August 2024.