Two weeks later, Sainsbury's in Leatherhead, Surrey, was fined 6,600 and ordered to pay 350 costs after pleading guilty to offences of employing school-age workers without a permit and beyond the permitted hours.
These are just two cases of illegal school-age employment that made local newspaper headlines in the past month. But official glimpses into the hidden world of child employment are rare. Only when serious accidents occur, or when big-name businesses are found guilty of exploiting young workers, do we get an insight into the problem.
In January, a Hull trader was prosecuted after employing 14-year-old Peter Parish on a doughnut stall. Working alone and untrained, Parish tried to refuel the stall's petrol-powered generator without switching off the machine or allowing it to cool. Stall-holders helped beat out the flames that engulfed him, but he required six weeks of skin grafts.
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