Part Time Work and A-Level Students

Students in VIth Form Colleges and their equivalent have a lifestyle to pay for, and often get part time jobs to cover this.

The trouble starts when the student's employer puts their business ahead of the study schedule of the student.  I recently heard of a student who was told "Work is more important than college" when the shift rota clashed with college attendance.

This won't do.  Most 16-17 year olds have yet to gain the confidence to challenge this sort of pressure from employers, who can "always get someone else".

The current UK law on under-18s states:

For young people above the minimum school leaving age but under 18 years of age:

• Minimum 12 hours daily rest and two rest day seach week.
• Minimum 30 minutes rest breaks if at work for 4½ hours or more.
• No work between 10pm and 6am or 11pm and 7am, unless exceptional circumstances apply.
• Working time must not exceed 40 hours per week or 8 hours per 24 hour period. There is no flexibility or averaging in this.

This is not enough to protect young people who are also studying at college.

The law should be changed.  

• If an employee is also a student, the employer should be required to obtain a copy of the student's timetable, to ensure that work rotas do not coincide with college attendance.
• Employers should also be required to pay transport costs (if over 3 miles) if they schedule rotas for 16-18 year olds to include High Holidays such as Boxing Day and New Year's Day, when public transport is generally unavailable.  This is necessary because it is easy to bully young people into working these shifts so that older, more expensive staff can take those days off.  A taxi to work on New Year's Day can mean a young person receiving negative wages for that day.

Not all employers need this level of control, but enough young people are having their education compromised or being asked to work unreasonable amounts of High Holiday time to make the changes necessary. The changes would have minimal impact on the economy, but a positive impact on individual students who are missing out on course tutoring or being pressurised into working the worst shifts at the busiest times of year.