Do Paper Rounds Breach European Law?

Allowing children under 15 to do paper rounds before school 'may breach European law.'

16:55 29 January 2016

The European Committee on Social Rights (ECSR) says that allowing children under 15 to do paper rounds before school may breach European law as the hours UK children can work are “excessive.”

 

Some local by-laws allow children to do “light work” like delivering newspapers or shop work and work up to 12 hours a week during term time, with maximum of two hours on school days and Sundays.

 

However, a report said that work that is considered light “ceases to be so if it is performed for an excessive duration.” It also points out that work must be limited “so as not to interfere with their attendance, receptiveness and homework.”

 

For example "allowing children aged 15 years, still subject to compulsory education, to deliver newspapers from 6am for up to two hours per day, five days per week before school is not in conformity with the charter", it adds.

 

It also said that excessive working hours risk children’s “health, moral welfare or education.”

 

The Department for Education said there were "clear rules to protect school-age children".

 

"They limit time that teenagers can spend working - especially within the school term," said a spokesman.