In Quebec, an increasing number of preteens are filling positions left behind due to labor shortages, particularly in grocery stores and the fast food sector. Faced with this new context and given the risk of stopping the study, some experts are calling for changes to better control child labor.
What do you want to order? Amanda, 11, a petite blonde with glowing blue eyes, asks this. His head almost crossed the counter.
Amanda is the little news from La Grande Gueule canteen, in Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby. Behind him, the fryers were working at full speed. Amanda works in the kitchen between 12 and 18 hours a week. Here, nearly a quarter of 32 employees are between the ages of 11 and 15.
At first, Amanda’s boss, Pascal Lamarche, wasn’t sure she could hire young employees. People said to me: “Are you right?” I have a doubt. […] My accountant sent me the information of CNESST : no age!
In Quebec, unlike most Canadian provinces, there is no minimum age for employment. In British Columbia, for example, that age was from 12 to 16 last year. But here, the employer must only ask for written parental authorization if the child he wants to take is under 14 years old. However, some interviewees we spoke to insisted that employers don’t always ask for it.
He was treated like an old man
In the restaurant kitchen, Amanda seems immune to pressure. I know what it is in a hurry. Usually, at noon or at dinner time, we order a lot […]. I like the atmosphere. Why did he start so young? Because I wanted to work and I thought it was a good place.
The young team seemed to stick together and work in a good mood. You need it, because the tasks are not so simple and the speed is fast. The hardest thing is to withstand the heat and blanch the fries. If you can do laundry one afternoon a week, you can do everything in the canteen, because the baskets are heavy and hot.explained Pascal Lamarche.
At the restaurant, Amanda is an employee like everyone else, her boss says. Right now, he works six hours a day, because I don’t yet know his ability to work. Her parents told me she could work all day. We examine its strong points, its weak points, the endurance it has. […] As long as he wants to work, we will!
Although she was very young, Amanda did not receive a plot adapted to her age, the owner details. Same observation with Marianne, who started serving at 12 at a restaurant in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu last year: They showed me the basics and said, “Go for it!”
He asked to work, his father, Sylvain, explained. His grades are good, we know he loves to learn. If the grades suffer, he stops. But there, they didn’t go down. She shared her joy at having autonomy and learning new things. He has also learned to ignore what some customers say who do not hesitate to comment on his youthful appearance or his stature. One customer told me the table was too high for me!
This experience seemed beneficial to him, even though stress could win him over, his father said, like this time when he dropped a glass tray on the floor. She cried. The boss told him, “If you cry too much, go home!” She was handled like an adult, then we saw her, she responded well, she wiped away the tears and […] he returned.
Without young people, I wouldn’t be able to move forward
At his restaurant, Pascal Lamarche inspired the strong potential from Amanda. This potential is also suited to one context: the labor shortage. Currently, unemployment is less than 4% in Quebec. Without the young people, I wouldn’t be able to move forward, because seniors who want to work on the weekends are hard to find now.explanation of the restaurant owner.
Roxane Larouche, national representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Canada), realizes that age no longer matters when it comes to recruiting in the food sector. Our youngest member is 11 years old. The service representative was shocked.
He observed that more and more young teenagers are working in grocery stores in the province. This is a trend that seems to have been confirmed by the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety and Work (CNESST), which has found more than double the number of injuries suffered by people under 16 at work. between 2018 and 2021, coming in from 85 to 203.
” We are seeing more young people, so the risk of injury exists and it poses many other challenges. This is a whole new reality. We thought we had texts of conventions that could respond to all sorts of situations, but clearly not. […] How to manage these young people? We need to find solutions now, because the problem is happening now! […] We are in an unprecedented situation. “
However, it is difficult to measure the number of workers aged 14 and below. The Quebec Ministry of Labor does not count these employees. In fact, the counting, based on information from Statistics Canada, begins at age 15.
According to the 2016-2017 Quebec Survey on the Health of High School Youth, 22% of high school youth have an employer who pays them. This proportion increases from 6% in the first year of secondary school to 47% in the fifth year of secondary school.
Do you think the school will be his plan A or D?
Roxane Larouche worries about the risk of dropping out when she observes competition from companies taking on very young services, especially outside of Montreal.
” An employer who took a young man about 12 or 13 stole from him through a sawmill he hired to sweep for 26 dollars per hour. […] Our question to ourselves is: have we given way to the fall? […] These questions should be examined, as it is a social problem. “
Mrs. pointed out. Larouche that some parents send their child to work in a grocery store as if it were one day camp Who doesn’t at no cost.
At the Amos school in Montreal, teacher Marie-Betty Desrouillères asked her students, ages 16 to 20, on the topic of youth work. Many entered the labor market in their early teens.
The youth started working at the age of 11 […]do you think school will be his plan A or D? One of the students shouted: His Plan C!
Of those who listen to him, some work at night and come to class without sleeping, like Assitan, 19, braided and surrounded. He has been working for six years now.
These days, he finishes his shift at a convenience store at 7 am and then walks half an hour to school. He didn’t start working by choice: he did it to help his mother. We had four children, he was alone. There were things to buy, but he didn’t have enough [d’argent].
In Quebec, up to the age of 16, employers must make sure school comes first before work. They cannot ask their employees to be absent from school to work and must ensure that young people can be at home from 11 pm to 6 am, with a few exceptions (in child care, specifically).
However, Assitan, since he started working, does not often feel understanding from his various bosses. You will be manipulated by employers. They will make you comfortable. Not a day goes by that my phone doesn’t ring. They will say “we love you” just so you can work more hours.
Jemima, another student at the Amos school, has worked since she was 14 and regrets the lack of consideration from the managers of the fast food establishments where she works. All that stuff fast foodthey boss is not comprehensive. Me, when I said I couldn’t go back to work and I had to study, they cut all my other shifts. I had no shift the following week.
Children cannot be left responsible for their own welfare
For Sarah Denenne, an attorney who specializes in children’s rights, it’s time for Quebec to review its copy in the field. There must be room for reform. There, for now, the state of current law is that responsibility for protection must be assigned to the good judgment of the employer and the child himself. […] In law, it is written that he should not have disproportionate work that is detrimental to his development: it is very vague. And that is something that needs to be addressed.
Quebec is bound by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Canada in 1991. It stipulates that a minimum age must be set for employment. (New window). For Sarah Dennene, Quebec is behind on this issue.
” We are in a system designed for the adult and the child with specific needs: we must protect the specific development of the child. What will be his interest? In the current context, wouldn’t the economic imperative take precedence over child protection? […] Children cannot be left responsible for their own welfare. […] They can’t stand their bosses. The younger you are, the harder it is. “
According to the 2016-2017 Quebec Secondary School Youth Health Survey (New window)among students with work during the school year, those who worked 11 to 15 hours per week or 16 hours and more were proportionally more likely to show high levels of psychological distress than those working less than 11 hours per week. week. in their work (34% and 37% vs. 29%).
The Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Solidarity denied our interview requests. In an email, communications from the ministry disputed that Quebec’s labor laws already regulate the work of young people.
Source: Radio-Canada
