Pay & Conditions for 16 year old

[FestivalFoodwork]

There is a festival on locally and one of the food stall holders advertised on social media for staff to serve food. My daughter and her friend (both aged 16) applied and got the jobs.

On Thursday they started at 2pm for two hours “training” then the food van opened at 4pm. They worked until midnight including helping clean down after the van closed to customers.

Friday was also a 2pm start to prep food and again they worked until gone midnight. Today they were asked to be there at 10am with the van opening at midday and they expect to finish between midnight and 1am. Tomorrow is final day - not sure of those hours yet.

They have not been given any breaks (food stall is really busy when it’s open and there is only them and the owner). The owner told my daughter whilst daughter was chopping carrots as part of her “training” that she wouldn’t be paid for the training. I assume they will get cash at the end of the weekend - how do we best ensure they are paid correctly and fairly?

I am thinking the owner doesn’t know she is meant to give them breaks and pay them for training etc and am worried she will try and get away with not paying them fairly. They are exhausted almost to the point of tears so I really want to make sure that even though it will be minimum wage they get the right number of hours.

I think I see what you are saying but I’m not sure it would work like that unfortunately. I guess there won’t be any right or wrong in law to that as breaks should have been given in law!

Yep otherwise they aren't being paid minimum wage for the shift!

So the employer would fall foul of minimum wage requirements

Hopefully they will be paid properly. I'd also contact the local council the vendor is licensed with as well as the festival organiser if the vendor doesn't pay them for the hours they have done. I wouldn't take this lightly!

I'd also suggest you tell them to go down to the Welfare Tent, as they're quite used to shit like this going on. Festivals really do not like their traders breaking the law and have a lot more clout than somebody's Mum.

I don't think it's down to 16 years or their mum to enforce the law - the employer should be aware of employment law and follow it.
In my experience lots of businesses do not pay 16-year-olds adult minimum wage - some do like supermarkets but certainly, you shouldn't expect it. Report the vendor for not paying min wage - that will get them into a heap of shit with the local council - help your dd stand up for herself - employers who behave like this should be stopped from repeating their illegal behaviour.

Once she is out, and depending on the pay outcome, we will do our level best to report the owner to the relevant places. No chance of them leaving to go to a welfare tent - they are too busy working! Barely have chance to read a message we send and don’t have time to reply. No breaks at all today so far. If there is a welfare tent they won’t know where or have time to find out.

It will be a case of doing all we can to make sure they have the right pay in their hands when they leave and then reporting to the right places afterwards. We have text and said they have our blessing to resign at the end of tonight’s shift and not work tomorrow if they wish but pointed out the risk she may not pay them so it is their choice.

If she pays them appropriately (i.e £6.40 x the hours worked) I’ll report the lack of breaks and length of shifts and if they are not paid their full pay I’ll report that too.

Could you look up where the vendor is from now so if she doesn't pay them, if I was your daughter I would say ' can I just confirm you're licensed with x district Council?' And am I right in thinking the organiser of the festival is x and the official festival website is x?'

What is the update OP? Were they paid correctly?

I think you are right to seek advice and help here OP. Sounds like they are being taken advantage of. I do hope they are paid and paid properly but good for you having a plan in place if it doesn’t happen.

They need a job at Tesco next time!

@saidthebellsofstclements

My dd is 16 and works for TK Maxx and they seem to be an excellent employer.

They only seem to need to recruit once a year for permanent staff (her store anyway) which I guess bears that out. The only people she knows who have left have gone to uni (and often transferred to a store in that town) or transferred to a store more local to them.

She counts herself lucky all the time to have got that job - especially since it's her first ever one.

Their working hours are too long, they're not allowed to work more than 8 hours and should be given a break. Training can be unpaid, it depends on what's in their contract. As far as I know this means that unless it was made clear in advance and agreed to, they must be paid for that training.

If they're not paid for all their hours plus a little extra in compensation for the hours and break violations you should send a letter before action. Don't let them get away with this.

Any update op. I too think a 16 year is too young to deal with such an awful employer. Depending if the security guard was nice, some might let you in temporarily if you explained the it was a case of safeguarding a minor or some such explanation.

I'm wondering how much your daughter got paid?
I would report them to the festival organiser anyway for not letting them have breaks and the hours they were working at that age.

Hi all,
Thanks for all your help and support.

They ended up being paid - thank goodness and days 3 and 4 were better than days 1 and 2.

On day 1 and 2 they didn’t have any breaks but on day 3 they got 1 x 20 min break and 1 x 30 min break (they asked for them as it was quiet during the day). The 2nd break was meant to be 40 mins as she said to take 40 so she could deduct an hour but then she phoned them to come back after 30 mins as it got busy (and still deducted an hour🤦🏻‍♀️). On day 4 (final day) they got a 30 min break and 30 mins was deducted.

She tried not to pay for training but they said their Mum had told them to query that as they were not told in advance it was to be unpaid so said she’d pay it.

They got £280 for working

1 x 10 hour shift (no breaks) 2pm - midnight.

1 x 12 hour shift (no breaks) midday - midnight

1 x 13 hour shift (with one 20 min and one 30 min unpaid break) 10am - 11pm

1 x 11 hours shift (with a 30 min unpaid break) 10am - 9pm

The owner broke the Law. The hours are too long and too late for their ages and I work that out as £6.32/h when NMW is £6.40. I hope you will report them to the festival organisers and for breaching NMW legislation/employment law.

I reckon they have lost about an hour's wages? Not great but not totally horrendous. Still illegal. I wouldn't be going back, that's for sure, and I can't imagine they'd want to. Totally reasonable to report the person if they want to.

It sounds to me like she'd planned to pay them about £270 but then rounded it up by a tenner when they complained about the training not being paid.

Not ideal but not too awful. Shitty rate. But a few lessons learnt.

If they did work 44.5 hours - 10,12,12,10.5. - breaks unpaid which is the norm. Then its £6.29 per 44.5 hours, which is under nmw. But £6.40 @ 44.5 hours would be £284.80, so they lost out on £4.80, which I guess is not too awful.

The whole thing pains and angers me.

It's not great but could have been worse. I would still report them as I think the next time they will do the same thing with other young, inexperienced people, using them for cheap labour.
My 16 year old DD is looking for a part time job, has applied for lot's of things but hasn't had an interview. Its so difficult.