A regional cafe which employs children as young as 11 to make jams and relishes has been criticised amid a push for a national minimum age for child workers, but others have defended the cafe against social media uproar.
The federal government is considering a recommendation to make the minimum working age 15, or 13 for “light work”, with some exemptions for those under 13.
On the weekend, the ABC reported on a cafe in country New South Wales where most of the 100 workers are school-age children. The Long Track Pantry in Jugiong, faced with a workforce shortage, hired children aged 11 and older to work in the factory kitchen and cafe.
The children are paid award wages to wash dishes, make jams and relishes and serve customers.
States and territories all have different laws governing child employment and to prevent child labour, but not all of them stipulate a minimum age. NSW does not have a minimum age. The minimum wage for children under 16 is 36.8% of the national minimum wage.
Despite the employment of the children being legal in NSW, one-star reviews of Long Track Pantry appeared over the weekend on Google accusing the cafe of “child labour”, but they were later taken down.
Others were supportive of the move, pointing out that the children were paid award wages. A Twitter user, Nathan Lee, said it was an “entirely normal and healthy aspect of growing up”, the political and economics writer Tim Colebatch said it was “common sense” and the historian Sue Hodges said the...
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