Working Schoolchildren in Britain Today

Abstract

In the scary media world of abused childhoods, child labour has become a major journalistic event. The news headlines record children working in conditions thought to have been abolished by social democratic reform. In spite of this mounting documentary evidence—supported by research undertaken by trade unions and pressure groups such as the Low Pay Unit—Tory ministers argued that child labour was not a problem. The Government's interest in youth was not the demoralisation of young workers at work, but the insubordination of youth, expressed as, among other things, crime, drug-taking and classroom disorder. The problem for conservative policy is the remoralisation of young people through the imposition of a new authority and the production of guides to the virtuous life.

Part-time work and delinquency among Finnish adolescents

“…) The extent and nature of adolescent employment are influenced by the structure of and the opportunities available on the local labour market (mizzen, 1992). In the UK and Portugal the employment rates of school children are significantly above all other EU countries (Rikowski & Neary, 1997).…”

Working Children in England and Wales: Waking up from Inertia

“…Now, as in the 1990s, there is 'enough evidence to demonstrate that British child workers are at considerable risk -of injury, wage exploitation and unsafe and inappropriate work -within a context of inadequate legal protection and law enforcement and patchy local authority monitoring.' 116 This obviously requires a complex, multifaceted reaction from authorities and society alike. 117 This is all the more the case following the increase in child poverty in the UK over the last decade, owing not only to the 2008 economic crisis, but also UK policy measures relating to cuts to the real value and coverage of child benefits and tax credits for families with children, as well as the total benefits a household can receive.…”

“…Crucially, in the light of the small amounts of fines and insufficient resources dedicated to registration, inspection and prosecution in the UK, 'the risks and costs of flouting child labour laws for employers are negligible. '105 The fact that so many children work unlawfully (as seen in section IV) seems to be evidence of the inadequacy of the enforcement (not) carried out by local authorities. It is also a reflection of lack of awareness of existing regulations by all actors involved and of lack of prioritisation of this area by local authorities 106.…”

Useful and Priceless Children in Contemporary Welfare States

“…In Britain, for example, between one-third and one-half of school-age children are in employment at any one time; before they leave school between two-thirds and three-quarters of teenagers will have held down a paid job. Some researchers and activists put most emphasis on documenting the extent of child employment, the links between poverty and child labor, and the hazardous, badly paid, and frequently illegal nature of the tasks young people perform (Lavalette 1996;McKechnie et al 2000;Rikowski and Neary 1997). Others focus on the cultural significance of work in young people's lives.…”

“…Here again, there was considerable disparity within countries. The 1995 EU survey showed an average of 7 percent of thirteen-to seventeen-year-old people in full-time education also in paid work; in the United Kingdom, the proportion was 35 percent (Rikowski and Neary 1997). In Germany, 9.3 percent of students over age fourteen worked for pay the previous day, 17.5 percent in Norway and 8.4 percent in Poland, but none did in France and Russia (Alsaker and Flammer 1999).…”