A long, hard summer

`People got sacked for talking. The boss was very strict. He knew he could get other kids in to replace the ones he sacked. He knew we had to put up with him being cranky. We had no choice."

Anne (15) from Dublin is talking about the summer job she had last year in a factory. She worked from 5.30 to 9 p.m., Monday to Friday, operating certain machines. She doesn't want to go into detail describing them, for the same reason she won't give her real name: "You had to be 16, but I know the boss. That's how he let me in. There were three other people there who were 15 as well. I look 18, which was handy." The money was good: "On an average week I got £55, and if I worked on Saturday I got overtime. I had money to buy clothes and CDs." But there were problems sometimes: "Once we didn't get the right wage packet. I was short £6 and one fella was short £13. The boss gave us a reason but people said that's stupid. Some of them walked out. I only stuck the place myself for six weeks." She is not working in the factory this summer: "I wouldn't do it again. This summer I'm staying at home and minding my sister. I clean the house every day. My ma gives me money for clothes and playing pool." She has a friend who is 14 and works in a pub: "It's not right. She doesn't get home until late and only gets £10 a night, plus what she can make on tips."

All over Ireland, whether babysitting in a neighbour's house, or working in shops, pubs and farms, young people aged between 14 and 16 are earning money from summer jobs. It's a welcome chance to earn money to buy clothes and music, and to get a taste of the independence wage-earning adults take so much for granted. Not all have the negative experience described by Anne.

Cathal, who has just turned 17 but was 16 when he got his job in a leading Dublin department store, is happy with his first summer job which involves working in the fruit and vegetable department. "Helping customers gives you much more confidence dealing with people. I've also learned a lot about the different kinds of potato." He is paid £4 an hour and works different hours each week. He is particularly pleased that his job will still be there for him when he returns from the three-week holiday he is taking with his family later this month. "I'm lucky," he concludes. "Although the store manager is rude and walks around like Hitler, my own manager is understanding, and I think I get paid really well." "Young people should have the right to earn their own money and to learn about money," says Cian O Tighearnaigh, chief executive of the ISPCC. "But they need to be given work that is appropriate and does not interfere with their development." He is concerned that some young people are being paid rates as low as £2 an hour in the catering trade: "It's fine to give jobs to young people if you pay them the right rate, and not try to pay them less because they are kids and you think you can get away with it."

As for pubs: "A lot of people end up working in pubs for a pittance because they are attracted to the buzz of the place. They think it's a grown-up place to work in, and they'll put up with lower pay just to be able to work in a pub." He doesn't think that anyone under 18 should be allowed to work in a pub: "If we are saying young people under 18 can't drink in pubs, we are making a nonsense of the licensing law if we are allowing under-18s to work there." He believes the most exploitative form of teenage labour is probably the least visible: "A lot of young people end up caring for younger siblings or elderly relatives at home, or working on the family farm. This should not happen if the child is under 16. It is too much responsibility, particularly in an emergency. Also, farming is a dangerous game: grown men have been known to drown in silage pits."

A spokesman for the IFA points out that with regard to the safety of youngsters working on farms, there is a scheme for safe tractor-driving skills in the 14 to 16 age bracket: "These programmes are run free of charge through centres all over the country, and are designed to address the reality that you're going to get 14- to 16-year-olds driving tractors on the farm. We came up with the scheme last year in conjunction with the Health and Safety Authority."

When it comes to babysitting, Cian O Tighearnaigh refers to the Louise Woodward case, and notes that hiring under-age babysitters can be a double-edged sword: "It involves a potential risk to the client as well. Even grown parents can lose it with a colicky baby. We run babysitting courses for 16-year-olds to help them cope." He adds: "I'd like to know what happens in private nursing homes and creches. Young unskilled people can be exposed to levels of illness that they'd have no training to cope with."

Sarah (15) who lives in the midlands, has done the ISPCC babysitting course: "I'm not too young to babysit. I have a young sister and I mind her sometimes. I'm babysitting this summer and I did it last summer, too." She works during the day and at night for between £2 and £3 an hour. "I like the work but next summer when I'm 16 I want to get a job in a supermarket. My friend told me it's really hard work, but you get to meet more people."

Cian O Tighearnaigh is very much in favour of the Protections of Young Persons Employment Act of 1996: "In a European context, it's probably fairly enlightened." The Act permits 14- to 16-year-olds to do "light work during school holidays provided it is not harmful to safety, health or development". Under the terms of the Act, the prospective employer must see the teenager's birth certificate: 14- and 15-year-olds are not allowed to work more than 35 hours per week, and under-16s are not allowed to work before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. (16s and 17s can start work at 6 a.m. and finish as late as 11 a.m.). During summer holidays under-16s must have three work-free weeks.

Some young workers are even younger than 14. Marie (14) from the north-west had a summer job in a pet shop when she was 12. "I asked the boss if he needed anyone for the summer. I knew him and the shop and I liked the animals. I liked playing about with them. I want to be a vet when I'm older." The job didn't last more than three days, however: "He only paid me £10 for three full days," says Marie indignantly. "He told me he couldn't pay me any more than that because I was under age." And Seamus (13) from Cavan had a job picking raspberries last summer which only lasted two weeks. "It was very hard work - six hours a day, five days a week - and after two weeks I only got £10. I told my mother how hard it was and she said I could give it up if I wanted."

Meanwhile David (13) from Dublin is spending his summer picking strawberries and raspberries. His is a tough station: the job is in Meath, a 45-minute cycle from his home. He works between 8.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, and does a half day on Saturdays and Sundays: "If you work seven days a week you get a bonus." At least he is paid well for his work: "I get £120 a week. The rate is £1 a box, and there are 10 punnets in a box. There is a lot of pressure to work fast, but we all get paid the same, it doesn't matter about our age." When the season is over in August he will relax and spend some of his hard-earned cash on clothes and music. He will also give some of it to his parents for his schoolbooks, and to pay for any school trips he wants to take during the coming year.

Even if the widespread summer employment of the young in this country is sometimes exploitative, there is no doubt that teenagers prefer to have work in the holidays.

"I'd love to work in a shop. I do it voluntary at our local soccer club, selling sweets and stuff to soccer fans," says Seamus (13) from Cavan. "There are hardly any jobs for someone my age. It's not fair. I don't like begging off my mother."