CHAPTER 274
EMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG PERSONS AND CHILDREN ACT

THE EMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG PERSONS AND CHILDREN TO IMPLEMENT THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION CONVENTION ON MINIMUM AGE AND INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION ON THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR ACT

[Am by s 2 of Act 10 of 2004.]

Arrangement of Sections

   Section

PART I
PRELIMINARY

   1.   Short title

   2.   Interpretation

PART II
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

   3.   Definition of “industrial undertaking” for the purposes of Part II

   4.   Prohibition of employment of children in industrial undertakings

   4A.   Prohibition of employment of child

   4B.   Prohibition of employment of child in worst form of labour

   5.   Penalties

PART III
EMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG PERSONS

   6.   Definition of “industrial undertaking” for the purposes of Part III

   7.   Employees under the age of sixteen years

   8.   Prohibition of employment of young persons in night work

   9.   Exception in favour of certain undertakings

   10.   Exception in cases of emergency

   11.   Penalties

PART IV
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN

   12.   Repealed

   13.   Repealed

   14.   Repealed

   15.   Repealed

   16.   Repealed

   17.   Repealed

PART V
MISCELLANEOUS

   17A.   Prohibition of Employment of young persons in Employment or work detrimental to health, safety and morals

   17B.   Prohibition of employment of young person in worst form of labour

   18.   Powers of Labour Officers and police officers

   19.   Penalty

   20.   Regulations

AN ACT

to regulate the employment of young persons, and children; and to provide for matters incidental thereto.

[13th April, 1933]

Act 10 of 1933,

Act 18 of 1936,

Act 40 of 1938,

Act 49 of 1950,

Act 47 of 1963,

Act 36 of 1967,

Act 14 of 1989,

Act 4 of 1991,

Act 13 of 1994,

Act 10 of 2004.

GN 233 of 1964,

GN 499 of 1964.

PART I
PRELIMINARY

1. Short title

This Act may be cited as the Employment of Young Persons and Children Act.

2. interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“child” means a person under the age of fifteen years;

[Am by s 3(a) of Act 10 of 2004.]

“covered worksite” means any public or private undertaking and includes any commercial, agricultural or domestic worksite and any undertaking in which only members of the same family are employed;

[Ins by s 3(b) of Act 10 of 2004.]

“night” means a period of at least eleven consecutive hours, including the interval between ten o’clock in the evening and five o’clock in the morning;

“worst form of labour” includes—

      (a)   all forms of slavery and all practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children and young persons, debt bondage, serfdom, forced and compulsory labour and forced or compulsory recruitment of children and young persons for use in armed conflict;

      (b)   the use, procuring or offering of a child or young person for prostitution, production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

      (c)   the use, procuring or offering of a child or a child or a young person for illicit activities, such as the production and trafficking of illegal drugs; and

      (d)   work that by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children or young persons;

“young person” means a person aged between fifteen and eighteen years old.

[Subs by s 3(c) of Act 10 of 2004.]

[S 2 am by Act 40 of 1938; GN 233 of 1964; Act 36 of 1967, 4 of 1991.]

PART II
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

3. Definition of “industrial undertaking’’ for the purposes of Part II

For the purposes of this Part, “industrial undertaking” includes particularly—

      (a)   mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals from the earth;

      (b)   industries in which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including shipbuilding, and the generation, transformation and transmission of electricity or motive power of any kind;

      (c)   construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, alteration or demolition of any building, railway, tramway, harbour, dock, pier, canal, inland waterway, road, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, sewer, drain, well, telegraphic or telephonic installation, electrical undertaking, gas work, water work or other work of construction, as well as the preparation for or laying the foundations of any such work or structure;

      (d)   transport of passengers or goods by road or rail or inland waterway, including the handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, and warehouses, but excluding transport by hand;

      (e)   cordwood cutting; but does not include commercial or agricultural undertakings.

[S 3 am by Act 49 of 1950.]