
Lack of workers? Bring in the teens!
31 July 2024
For some a relic of the past, Czechia is introducing legal work for 14-year-olds, but only during summer holidays. Children could do undemanding jobs for no more than seven hours a day. Their wage would be the national minimum hourly wage set at €4.44. Overtime and night work for this age group are to be prohibited. The government has approved the proposal, which now awaits parliamentary approval.
According to the ministry of labour and social affairs, the new measure will aid businesses by alleviating summer labour shortages. "Children must also be educated primarily during the year and have more free time during the holidays anyway," their official said.
Some government officials and industry groups believe that the initiative contradicts existing legal child protection. Nevertheless, some parents welcome the decision, as many Czech children under 15 are already working illegally to earn some extra cash for the family or cover the wage gap between urban and rural areas. The state does not report on the number of illegally working children under the age of 15. In 2017, there were 3,457 applications for work permits for 14-year-olds. However, many more likely work illegally without government oversight.
Many European countries, however, have already set their approach to legal child labour. In Sweden, for example, a child must be 13 years old in order to legally work. It must not include night shifts, heavy lifting or selling goods with an age limit, such as alcohol. In Bulgaria, boys aged 13 and girls over 14 can also work in circuses or as film and theatre extras. In some countries like Denmark, Latvia, and the UK, teenagers have to obtain either parental consent or police permits to be able to work.
![]() | Jakub Roubíček When I told my friends and family about examples of legal European child labour, they thought it was like something from the Austro-Hungarian era: many children in the Czech lands were forced to work even after the ban on child labour during that time. The Czech attitude to such work also differs depending on whether you come from the city or the countryside, where children tend to start working at an earlier age. Although Czechia has the lowest unemployment rate in the EU, at 3.6%, some teenagers struggle to find work and have to find lower-paying jobs through agencies or family contacts. Employers sometimes argue that they will simply not pay temporary workers the same as regular employees. The new legislation could increase the number of available jobs and thus help them find possible future employment. Nevertheless, it will take some time to assess the actual impact of this new initiative on the labour market. |
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