2 FEBRUARY 2010 – BC is Worse Province For Child Labour and Poverty As More Kids Get Injured in Workplaces

BURNABY, BC – British Columbia is one of the richest provinces in one of the world’s richest nations. Yet it has the country’s highest child poverty rates and the worst labour standards to protect our kids.

To make things worse, injuries to children 15 years old and younger have climbed ten fold since the BC Liberal government of Gordon Campbell amended employment standards law to allow children as young as 12 years old to work 20 hours a week when they are in school and 35 hours a week when classes are out.

All that kids aged 12-14 need is the permission of one parent or a guardian.

And get this: it is legal for kids under 12 to work in BC, as long as there is a permit issued by the BC Employment Standards Branch!

The provincial and federal government keeps no records of how many kids under 15 are working. Nor does any government know where they are working.

WorkSafe BC (the Workers Compensation Board) approved WCB claims for 98 kids between 2004-2008. That was a ten fold increased over the claims accepted in 2003 – the year of the Liberals change to employment standards.

Some of these kids are getting serious injuries, including back injuries. And they are getting hurt in plastics manufacturing, pulp and paper, metal industries and oil and gas.

In a province where the government is committed to deregulation, the lowest minimum wage in the country, contracting out of services and routine attacks on labour, the attack on children’s right has taken place without a large public outcry.

Except for employment in serving liquor, handling explosives, or working in an underground mine, children 12 and over can work in any workplace on any shift.

The BC Federation of Labour has denounced the Campbell government and has called on the federal and all provincial governments to Adopt the International Labor Organizations standard 138 on child labour: No child under 15 or having not completed compulsory schooling should be allowed in the workforce.

Canada has not adopted the ILO convention while 153 nations have. It’s not a good reflection on our political leaders.

The minimum starting wage in BC is $6.00 an hour for the first 500 hours and $8.00 an hour thereafter.

The BC Fed and the NDP are championing the call for a $10 minimum wage but the Campbell government is insistent that it will not change. Although the costs of living are highest in BC, the province has a lower minimum wage than even the Maritimes.

Poor kids come from poor parents. In BC there are over 250,000 workers earning less than $10 an hour. The majority of them are women, of which many are single parents.

That’s one of the major reasons BC has poor kids. In 2007 there were 156,00 children living under the poverty line – during a year of a supposed economic boom.

Some of these kids go to work out of necessity and not just for the work experience or casual spending money. When their parents are struggling, there is more pressure to release kids into the workforce in order to help the family.

It is interesting to note that employer associations, whose members benefit most from the Liberals’ child labour laws – namely the Retail Council of Canada, the Business Council of BC and the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association – have not claimed that they lobbied the government to weaken child labour standards in BC.

Nonetheless the government provided employers a scare commodity: BC kids to fill jobs at low pay rates, many without sufficient levels of training, supervision or monitoring.