Firm convicted for employing manager’s son

Press, 23 October 1980, Page 13

Firm convicted for employing manager’s son

PA Wellington A factory which employed the manager’s son, aged 14, has been prosecuted in the District Court at Wellington under a legal provision arising out of the Industrial Revolu- * tion. In what was described by Judge Beatson as a very unusual prosecution, Original Packs, Ltd, soap converters, of Wellington, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a requirement that a boy or girl under the age of 15 should not be employed in any factory. The edmpany was prosecuted by the Labour Department under sections 37 (1) and 85 of the Factories Act, 1946, and Was convicted and ordered to pay costs and $5O towards the costs of the prosecution. The prosecutor (Mr D. Ryan) said that on June 24 an inspector visited the factory and discovered that the company was employing the boy there. The manager of the company was the boy’s father. He said that he had employed the boy as he could not return to school and his job op-

portunities were limited, Mr Ryan said. The manager, who appeared in Court, said that he had obtained an Early Leaving Certificate from his son’s school.

The department’s inspector had said that he could not condone the factory’s employing the boy but he would not prosecute, the manager said. “The Factories Act provisions were founded in antiquity and arose out Of the abuse of child labour during the Industrial Revolution,” Judge Beatson said. “The reasons for the provisions are quite obvious.

“It appears here that there is ■no question of abuse as far aS the boy is concerned. He was employed at his father’s factory and has been given a certificate of fithess by the department. / “The fathet knew he should not be employing the child but it was a very unusual situation,” the Judge said. He was satisfied that there was nO question of abuse and it may have been in the boy’s best interests to be employed.