EDITORIAL: A high price to pay for a little extra cash

The subject of work and young people is a tricky one. Most teenagers can't wait to get a job as soon as they possibly can. They relish the freedom and independence a part-time job gives them. And there is no doubt that working can be beneficial for young people in terms of personal development.

But you can have too much of a good thing.

The story of Sam Crosby is a salutary reminder of what can go wrong if young people are exploited in the workplace (see p14). He worked long hours for low pay in a butcher's shop near Stafford to get some cash together.

Sam no doubt enjoyed the 20 he received for a full day's work on a Saturday, supplemented at busy periods such as Christmas when he worked five days on the trot. But this was all placed horribly in perspective when he got his hand caught in a mincing machine that had had its safety guard removed, subsequently losing the fingers of his right hand and part of his knuckle. The butcher was fined 8,000; Sam has to live with a permanent disability.

This isn't an isolated incident. Every year, children are killed and injured on farms in the UK, often while working. Our feature also describes the case of Peter Parish, another 14-year-old, this time from Hull, who required six weeks of skin grafts after being badly burnt while refuelling a petrol generator on a doughnut stall without turning the machine off first. Untrained and unsupervised, he paid the price of his employer's laissez-faire attitude towards safety.

And it's not just small businesses that are abusing the system: large companies such as Sainsbury's, Tesco and McDonald's have all been prosecuted for breaches of child employment law.

No-one wants to see the option of part-time jobs for teenagers removed.

Statistics show that up to five hours a week can help their performance in exams. There are personal and social benefits on top of this.

But this must be set within a safe, regulated environment. Youth workers and teachers can help, by picking up early on signs of young people being exhausted by their part-time jobs, or anecdotal evidence of dangerous working conditions.

The regulatory system isn't catching all the culprits; we owe it to young people to highlight bad practices before more Sam Crosbys are maimed in horrific accidents in the workplace.