The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

A TOP grocer opposes increasing the minimum employment age, saying this would produce more idle teenagers who get into mischief rather than perform productive activities or help their families.

The comment of Philip Beneby, president of the Retail Grocers Association, comes as the National Tripartite Council prepares to review raising the minimum employment age in the Employment Act to 16, aligning this with the minimum age for leaving school.

Labour Director Robert Farquharson said raising the minimum employment age to 16 would align the provision with best practices.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) also pushes the country to change.

Mr Beneby said most “packing boys” are between 14 and 16. He said raising the minimum employment age could affect them and society negatively.

“If they were to raise the minimum age to 16, then now it’s going to leave quite a number of the packing boys and girls out of employment, and you’re going to end up with a lot of idle young teenagers moving around and no doubt getting into mischief,” he said.

“You find also that these packing boys and girls in that age bracket as well, they are in many cases the ones who bring in supplemental income in the families to help to take care and to feed the younger siblings in some cases. And also parents, the parents depend on the income from the packing boys to assist in the running of their homes so it’s gonna create a void in the homes and then it can also end up creating problems for society and in the country as a whole when you have teenagers.”

“By (raising the minimum employment age), they’re pushing them out there in the open, making them vulnerable for mischievousness. I think it’s something they need to rethink.”

Mr Farquharson said evaluating the minimum employment age cannot be a Nassau-centric exercise, noting children as young as 14 work on Family Islands in fishing, farming and other activities.

Daphne deGregory-Miaoulis, the Abaco Chamber of Commerce president, said she supports increasing the minimum employment age to 16 but wants children as young as 14 permitted to pursue part-time employment.

She said: “New Providence, it’s very expensive; it’s becoming more and more difficult for families to meet ends, and if there is a youngster who has a supermarket packing job that does not interfere with their education… it should be permissible for a 14-year-old trying to get the family to make ends meet. At 14, they should be starting to understand the value of money and contribute to the household.”