Businesses throughout the City of Thompson are hiring students as young as 14 years old, but many of them are divided on whether or not these students make for good employees.
Amanda Sanders, a Service Canada Centre for Youth worker in Thompson, says she's had kids as young as 13 and 14 years old coming in trying to find jobs, but she says there's not many jobs for them because usually businesses in Thompson don't start hiring until around 15 or 16 years of age.
Sanders says she thinks this is because of the maturity students show around the age of 15 or 16 as compared to 13 or 14 and the different rules and regulations that are in place for young workers under the Province of Manitoba's Employment Standards.
"When someone is 18, you can almost guarantee that they're going to show up for work, and when you're 13 and 14, you may not understand the responsibility of having scheduled shifts and showing up. When you're a bit older you have more responsibility," she explains. "I have had a few employers come in saying they have kids telling them they can't work a certain amount of hours or they can't work yet because they have to get forms filled out."
The province's employment standards for young employees have different regulations in place to ensure the safety and health of young workers. Children under 12 years of age may only work for an employer under special circumstances, while employees under the age of 16 must have a permit from the Employment Standards Branch before they are able to work.
The standards also say that people under 18 aren't allowed to work alone between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and not allowed to work in the forestry and saw or pulp mill industries, confined spaces, underground in mines or on the face of open pit quarries and in asbestos abatement and removal positions. Employees under 16 may not work, alone or supervised, between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and cannot work on construction sites, in the industrial or manufacturing industries, drilling or servicing rigs, on scaffolds or swing stages or in the pruning, repairing, maintaining or removing of trees. There are also limits to how often young people can work. During a school week employees under 16 can only work 20 hours or less, but during summer or winter vacation they can work more. People who are 14 or 15 working in the restaurant industry can use the restaurant employee permit process they can submit to Employment Standards. A terms and conditions document is also necessary for young people to work in a restaurant, and is an agreement in which the employer acknowledges their responsibilities when hiring young workers.
Employees under the age of 16 years must have approval from the Employment Standards Branch before thy begin work. To do this they apply for employment permits which require information from the applicant, a parent or guardian, their school principal and their employer. If a permit is approved but the employees job responsibilities change, the worker or employer must call the Employment Standards Branch to update the permit's information. Employees who look for a new job with a new employer, even if the job duties and hours do not change, must still apply for a new permit.
All of these rules can create confusion or even a reluctance to hire young people. Chauntelle Preteau, manager of the Chicken Chef restaurant in Thompson, says that although the rules do mean you have to be extra diligent when you hire young people, it hasn't stopped her from employing students, with two people on her staff right now 14 years old.
"That seems to be a good age. They generally haven't had jobs before that age so it's a good time to instill the proper work ethics and everything if you catch them that young," she explains. "I always like to meet with them. It does require some degree of maturity, and sitting and meeting with them for the first time, you can tell if they have that degree of maturity or not."
Samargit Ghai, store manager at Extra Foods in Thompson, says the youngest age they'll hire students at is 16 years old. He says he has no issue hiring people that young but has often found that they don't have the proper attitude in the work place.
Dan Brown, owner of the McDonald's restaurants in the city, says he hires employees 14 years old and up. He also says it's very important to hire students and give them the opportunity to work.
"We'll hire some people that are 14 that are well above their age maturity wise, and they seem more like an 18 year-old. They do well, they're not nervous. They want to work, so they're responsible, they show up to workthen you get some where age-wise they're fine but not so much maturity-wise," he rationalizes. "You do need some part-time employees, and they bring a lot of enthusiasm and they're good workers."
Sanders says job postings that have sought employees who are currently enrolled in university haven't garnered that much of a response in Thompson, and have led to the employers lowering the education standard to high school instead.
