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Alberta eases rules for pre-teen workers No permits needed to hire 12-year-olds in restaurants

12-year-olds join Alberta labour force

Your server today is a 12-year-old Children unable to stand up to abuse or recognize safety hazards, critics say

   

Go figure, the jobs 12-year-olds will be able to get will be the ones that rarely obey labor laws.

   

This isn't much of a change really. Lots of young kids work out here all the time; in coal mines, digging ditches, cleaning out chimneys. Plenty of work to go around...just kidding.

The only real difference now is that they don't have to get a waiver from the government to employ someone, just a note from the kid's parents. These children could always work in certain occupations.

Plenty of kids out here deliver flyers and the Examiner newspaper every week. When I was a kid, they still let kids deliver the Journal and Sun too. Many get paid about $30 a week for 4-5 hours work, so they aren't really being exploited. My girlfriend's son does this and bought a new X-Box after working for only three months. I think that was a good life lesson for him. Kids nowadays are way too spoiled and/or have a problem with instant gratification. I think working to earn the finer things in life will help them realize money has to be earned, not that it comes out of an ATM for free.

EGAD...I sound like a Conservative...yikes!

   

Wow. The USA, for a change, is more progressive than Canada in protecting children from exploitation.

I guess your government is hard up for money and needs the payroll and income tax revenue those otherwise lazy twelve-year olds would deny the government!

   

Has a whole lot more to do with the fact labour is in shortage here due to having the hottest economy in North America. And the second largest oil reserve in the world. Alberta removes obstacles to working rather than places them in your way. You seem to imply that a forced labour situation is being created. Hardly. Getting summer help/students is not a cheap proposition. McDonalds pays $2.50 above minimum wage and can't get people. Starting laborer wage with driver's license is $5.00 or more above minimum wage. Laws such as this enable people, especially immigrant families, to get ahead quickly. If working for a living bothers you, don't come here.
You caught the part about needing parental consent, right? No one is being forced to do anything. Quite the reverse. People are being enabled to use thier freedom of choice and personal judgement rather than being nannied by thier government. Also a good thing.
And what age exactly do you think farm kids start working at? I was 5 when I was expected to help to the limits of my abilities. Maybe a little more work and a little less time in the mall would do some good. Maybe I wouldn't read in the paper daily about some 17 year old crack dealer from the most expensive neighbourhood in town killing someone with his car while trying to outrun the cops if he had a job to go to instead of searching for other ways to make money. Believe me, kids like money and will always find a way to make it. Your choice is to give them legal alternatives or watch the delinquents move in to your neighbouhood.
Pick one.

   

Having twelve year old children in the workforce is wrong. Not even the Germans in WW2 had twelve year old kids working and they had a WAR on!!!!

Let them be kids. Sheesh.

   

exroofer,
I read your post again and I'm just aghast that you would put children in the workforce for any reason. If Alberta has a labour shortage they need to pay more money to attract workers, not stoop to making poor kids work in industry.

You fall back on the 'parental consent' but that argument is empty. If parents can put their kids to work so they can have extra money for a new car, a jet ski, or a gambling or drug habit then they will do so.

These abuses of poor children is why we passed child labour prohibitions in the first place!!!

   

Yep, same. Then at the age of about... 10? Dad started paying me for the hours I put in on condition I started to buy all my own clothes. Learned a few lessons there, how to bust my ass for that new bike, how to save for that new bike, and how to make my clothing last longer (i.e. not wearing good school clothes while working on the farm). Don't think I started working for the neighbors untill 12 or 13 years of age.

Lead to all kinds of horrible things like me buying my own first car, then insuring it, then putting gas in it. It also lead to me completing (and paying for) my private pilots license by the age of 18. Yea, turned me into a real shit disturber.

From Scapes article: And there you have it.

If I ever spawn some rug rats they are going to grow up knowing what it means to earn cash.

   

Bart, this is also the kids CHOICE on whether they want to work or not. They get paid, they use that money for whatever THEY want. If they have parents who would do something like that then thats their problem. This also brings in more economy as those kids work, they also have to pay income tax. This isnt Charles Dickens England you know. That is why we have this thing called freedom of choice. Its not like these kids are going to be working on the oil rigs or secretarial positions.

   

When I was about nine I started to literally 'work my way home' from school every night. I carried water for five or six households; split, carried and piled wood for a few; got the mail for a bunch of old people and if their cheques were in I would take the cheques to the store for them, get them cashed and do their shopping for them. Quite often they would have other chores for me, especially in winter when I shovelled driveways. Of course, when I got home I had my 'chores' there. I'm all for kids working.

   

The only problem with 12 yr olds working is that they don't know their rights as workers and don't have the experience or maturity to avoid unsafe working conditions.

Hopefully their parents will inspect their worksplace and inform their children about the dangers at work and their rights in the workplace. Do not believe for a second that every employer will be looking out for their safety while at work.

The other problem here is that many parents don't have a clue about what the dangers and rights are in the workplace so you can't always count on the parent to pass on the necessary information to their kids about working safely.

   

You just went and kinda contradicted yourself. If most of the parents wouldn't know what the dangers would be what use would it be for them to check the work sites out except for them to waste themselves pissing around in dangerous places so the kids could collect insurance and not have to work?

   

many does not mean the same thing as most

Hopefully most will not let their kids work in a dangerous environment. But many undoubtly will.

   

That's the parents responsibility.

That's why the kids need a note from their parents.

There is nothing wrong with kids having summer, or weekend jobs. There IS something wrong with a highschool grad who has never had to work...

   

i think it depends on the jobs that the 12 year old would do....like working in a pet store sweeping up or delivering newspapers or helping on the farm, pet sitting, etc is probably okay (with parent permission)....i think it builds character. i don't think a child should be allowed to work in a factory on the production line or in some similar job--the govt probably has set regulations for the types of work to be performed and the amount of hours acceptable for under 18 years.

in the US a person can legallay work at 14 if they are working for a family member and paying taxes, but there are regulations on the amount of hours a person at that age, or 16-18 can work.

   

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