Businesses ‘hiring underage workers’

MORE inspections are needed to catch business owners who illegally employ second level students as young as 12, researchers said yesterday.

A quarter of children in first-year secondary schools work part-time.

Under 1996 laws governing young people in the labour force, children under 16 are generally prohibited from being employed, although a child over 14 years can do light work during school holidays, or for up to eight hours a week during term from the age of 15.