VANS 4 BUTCHERS

The expression “mother knows best” seems not to apply when it comes to deciding whether her child can work out of school hours and any desire for this to happen can simply be overridden by the local education authority.

When, in 1998, the Government introduced new model by-laws for child employment to ensure compatibility with the minimum standards contained in the EC Directive on the protection of young people at work, most local authorities adopted the model which states that no child of any age may be employed “in any slaughterhouse or in that part of any butchers shop or other premises connected with the killing of livestock, butchery, or the preparation of meat for sale”.

The Federation fully supported this because it left the door open for children to be employed in butchers shops on non hazardous tasks. There is no constraint in the Children and Young Person Acts on young people working in butchers shops, nor is there in any other national legislation, so it is entirely down to the local education department to interpret their own by-law.

On the basis that the employment of children as “Saturday people” is vital to the future of butchers’ shops in the UK as being one of the main means of interesting young people in a career in this sector of the industry, the Federation takes these issues up on behalf of members when they arise.

The latest of these was unusual in that it involved a member’s daughter and rather than employ her himself, he asked if another local butcher member would take her on. The butcher duly applied to Suffolk County Council for a work permit and in response got the raspberry of all raspberries. Shock, horror, we cannot allow a child to work in a butchers shop and if you thwart us you can be fined lots of money, said the reply. Ok, these are my words but that was the meaning.

Swiftly, out to them went the Federation’s stock response outlining the “safe” tasks that children can do and saying in as many words that you can’t just refuse the permit simply because it is a butchers shop. To be fair to Suffolk they did not counter this with an “oh yes we can,” they actually decided to visit the butchers premises.

They were given a comprehensive tour of the facilities and found it clean and well ordered as, of course, all butchers are. Fortunately, in this case, the carcass cutting room and the kitchen were separate areas of the premises so the authority were able to accept that her re-stocking the counter duties and, once trained, serving customers and operating the tills, did not breach the bylaws and the work permit was subsequently granted.

Therefore, well done to Suffolk County Council for pulling the stops out on this one. However, the moral of this story, if there is one, is how butchers can counter (sorry about the intended pun) the perception that because there are knives around the place is a no-no for young people to work in. With the proper care and attention, required risk assessment and genuine supervision it should be as safe as any other shop and will give the child a grounding in skills other than just thumping the living daylights out of a computer.

Sept 2006 - Source: NFMFT