Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996

Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996 Skip to content Disclaimer Feedback Helpdesk Gaeilge Léim go dtí an t-ábhar Séanadh Aiseolas Deasc chabhrach English Gaeilge English Produced by the Office of the Attorney General Táirgthe ag Oifig an Ard-Aighne Home Legislation Acts of the Oireachtas Statutory Instruments Pre-1922 Legislation Constitution External Resources Bills (Houses of the Oireachtas) Iris Oifigiúil / Official Gazette Revised Acts (LRC) Classified List of Legislation (LRC) Translations (acts.ie) Translations (Houses of the Oireachtas) Government Publications for Sale EU Law (EUR-Lex) FAQ Disclaimer Feedback Helpdesk Search Baile Reachtaíocht Achtanna an Oireachtais Ionstraimí Reachtúla Reachtaíocht Réamh-1922 Bunreacht Acmhainní Seachtracha Billí (Tithe an Oireachtais) Iris Oifigiúil Achtanna Athbhreithnithe (CAD) (An Coimisiún um Athchóiriú an Dlí) Liosta Rangaithe Reachtaíochta Aistriúcháin (achtanna.ie) Aistriúcháin (Tithe an Oireachtais) Foilseacháin Rialtais ar Díol Dlí AE (EUR-Lex) CCanna (Ceisteanna Coitianta) Séanadh Aiseolas Deasc chabhrach Cuardach TitleTeideal Year(s) or rangeBliain nó blianta nó raon TypeCineál All Legislation Acts Statutory Instruments Advanced SearchCuardach Casta HomeBaile ActsAchtanna 1996 Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996 Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996 Permanent Page URL View by SectionAmharc de réir Ailt View Full ActAmharc ar an Acht Iomlán Bill History Stair Bille Commencement, Amendments, SIs made under the Act Tosach Feidhme, Leasuithe, IRí arna ndéanamh faoin Acht Revised Act Acht Athbh… Open PDFOscail PDF Print Full ActPriontáil an tAcht Iomlán Number 16 of 1996 PROTECTION OF YOUNG PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT) ACT, 1996 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Section 1.

Interpretation.

2.

Industrial work.

3.

Prohibition on employment of children.

4.

Additional provisions in relation to employment of children.

5.

Duties of employer in relation to young persons and children.

6.

Employment of young persons.

7.

Employment of young persons under licence.

8.

Employment of young persons under regulations.

9.

Exclusion from or modification of certain provisions of Act by regulations in relation to employment of close relatives.

10.

Prohibition on double employment.

11.

Time spent on vocational training.

12.

Display of abstract of Act.

13.

Preservation of existing rates of pay and conditions of employment.

14.

Emergency as defence.

15.

Employer records.

16.

Recovery of money due to employee.

17.

Refusal by child or young person to co-operate with employer in breaching Act.

18.

Complaints to rights commissioner.

19.

Appeals from and enforcement of recommendations of rights commissioner.

20.

Enforcement of determination of Tribunal.

21.

Evidence of failure to attend before or give evidence or produce documents to Tribunal.

22.

Powers of inspectors.

23.

Offences by bodies corporate.

24.

Prosecutions.

25.

Penalties.

26.

Repeals.

27.

Expenses.

28.

Regulations.

29.

Short title and commencement.

FIRST SCHEDULE Council Directive 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994 SECOND SCHEDULE Enactments Repealed Number 16 of 1996 PROTECTION OF YOUNG PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT) ACT, 1996 AN ACT TO REVISE AND EXTEND THE LAW RELATING TO THE PROTECTION OF YOUNG PERSONS IN EMPLOYMENT AND TO ENABLE EFFECT TO BE GIVEN TO COUNCIL DIRECTIVE NO. 94/33/EC OF 22 JUNE 1994 ON THE PROTECTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE AT WORK (OTHER THAN ARTICLES 6 AND 7) AND FOR THOSE PURPOSES TO REPEAL THE PROTECTION OF YOUNG PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT) ACT, 1977 , AND CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT ACT, 1936 , AND TO PROVIDE FOR RELATED MATTERS. [26th June, 1996] BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act— “agreement” means a collective agreement, an employment regulation order or a registered employment agreement; “break” means the interval during which a child or young person may not be permitted under this Act to work; “child” means a person who is under 16 years of age or the school-leaving age, whichever is the higher; “collective agreement” means an agreement by or on behalf of an employer on the one hand, and by or on behalf of a trade union or trade unions representative of the employees to whom the agreement relates on the other hand; “contract of employment” means— (a) a contract of service or apprenticeship, and (b) any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person, who is carrying on the business of an employment agency within the meaning of the Employment Agency Act, 1971 , and is acting in the course of that business, to do or perform personally any work or service for a third person (whether or not the third person is party to the contract), whether the contract is express or implied or if express, whether it is oral or in writing; “the Council Directive” means Council Directive No. 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994(1) on the protection of young people at work, the text of which, with the exception of Section II and the Annex thereto, is set out for convenience of reference in the First Schedule ’, “day” means a period of 24 consecutive hours commencing at midnight; “employee” means a child or a young person who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment and references, in relation to an employer, to an employee shall be construed as references to an employee employed by that employer; and for the purposes of this Act, a person holding office under, or in the service of, the State (including a member of the Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces) or otherwise as a civil servant, within the meaning of the Civil Service Regulation Act, 1956 , shall be deemed to be an employee employed by the State or Government, as the case may be, and an officer or servant of a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act, 1941 , a harbour authority, a health board or a vocational education committee shall be deemed to be an employee employed by the authority, board or committee, as the case may be; “employer” in relation to an employee, means the person with whom the employee has entered into or for whom the employee works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment subject to the qualification that the person who under a contract of employment referred to in paragraph (b) of the definition of “contract of employment” is liable to pay the wages of the individual concerned in respect of the work or service concerned shall be deemed to be the individual's employer;

“employment regulation order” means an employment regulation order within the meaning of the Industrial Relations Acts, 1946 to 1990; “hours of work” does not include periods of rest during which the employee is not required to be available for work; “industrial work” means such work as the Minister may declare by order under section 2 to be industrial work for the purposes of this Act; “inspector” means a person appointed by the Minister under section 22 to be an inspector for the purposes of this Act; “light work” means all work which is not industrial work and which, on account of the inherent nature of the tasks which it involves and the particular conditions under which they are performed, is not likely to be harmful to the safety, health or development of children, and is not such as to be harmful to their attendance at school, their participation in vocational guidance or training programmes approved by the competent authority or their capacity to benefit from the instruction received; “the Minister” means the Minister for Enterprise and Employment; “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister; “registered employment agreement” means a registered employment agreement within the meaning of the Industrial Relations Acts, 1946 to 1990; “representatives of employees” means such trade unions as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of the employees in relation to whom the expression is used, or where there is no such trade union, such persons as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of such employees; “representatives of employers” means such associations as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of the employers in relation to whom the expression is used, or where there is no such association, such persons as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of such employers; “rest period” means any period which is not working time; “the school-leaving age” means the age at which the School Attendance Act, 1926 , ceases to apply or in lieu thereof any age set down by or under any enactment, passed and in operation after the passing of this Act, as the minimum age at which compulsory full-time schooling ends; “trade union” means a body entitled under the Trade Union Act, 1941 , to carry on negotiations for the fixing of wages or other conditions of employment; “the Tribunal” means the Employment Appeals Tribunal; “week” means a period of 7 consecutive days; “working time” means any period during which a young person is at work, at the employer's disposal and carrying out his or her activity or duties;

“young person” means a person who has reached 16 years of age or the school-leaving age (whichever is higher) but is less than 18 years of age.

Industrial work.

2.—(1) The Minister may by order declare any form of work to be industrial work for the purposes of this Act.

Prohibition on employment of children.

3.—(1) Subject to this section and section 9 , an employer shall not employ a child to do work.

Provided that— (a) the hours of work do not exceed 7 hours in any day or 35 hours in any week, (b) the work is not harmful to the safety, health and development of the child, and (c) during the period of the summer holidays, the child does not do any work for a period of at least 21 days.

Provided that the hours of work do not exceed 8 hours in any day or 40 hours in any week.

Provided that the hours of work do not exceed 7 hours in any day or 35 hours in any week.

Additional provisions in relation to employment of children.

4.—(1) An employer shall not employ any child on any work between 8 p.m. on any one day and 8 a.m. on the following day.

Duties of employer in relation to young persons and children.

5.—(1) Subject to section 9 , any employer who employs a young person or child to work for him or her shall— (a) before employing the young person or child, require the production of a copy of the birth certificate of, or other satisfactory evidence of the age of, the young person or child, as the case may be, (b) before employing a child, obtain the written permission of the parent or guardian of the child, and (c) maintain a register, or other satisfactory record, containing, in relation to every young person or child employed by him or her, the following particulars— (i) the full name of the young person or child, (ii) the date of birth of the young person or child, (iii) the time the young person or child commences work each day, (iv) the time the young person or child finishes work each day, (v) the rate of wages or salary paid to the young person or child for his or her normal working hours each day, week, month or year, as the case may be, and (vi) the total amount paid to each young person or child by way of wages or salary.

Employment of young persons.

6.—(1) An employer shall not employ a young person on any work except where, subject to this section and sections 7 , 8 and 9 , the employer— (a) does not require or permit the young person to work for more than 8 hours in any day or 40 hours in any week, (b) does not require or permit the young person to work— (i) between 10 p.m. on any one day and 6 a.m. on the following day, or (ii) between 11 p.m. on any one day (provided the day is not before a school day during a school term where such young person is attending school) and 7 a.m. on the following day, where the Minister is satisfied, following consultation with such representatives of employers and representatives of employees as the Minister considers appropriate, that there are exceptional circumstances affecting a particular branch of activity or a particular area of work as may be prescribed, (c) ensures that the young person receives a minimum rest period of 12 consecutive hours in each period of 24 hours, (d) ensures that the young person receives in any period of 7 days a minimum rest period of 2 days which shall, as far as is practicable, be consecutive, and (e) does not require or permit the young person to do for him or her any work for any period exceeding 4 ½ hours without a break of at least 30 consecutive minutes.

Provided that— (a) there are objective grounds justifying the non-application of the provisions; (b) such young persons receive appropriate compensatory rest times at some time during each period of 24 hours and each period of 7 days, and (c) the trade union or representative of the young person is consulted.

Provided that such young persons are allowed equivalent compensatory rest times within 3 weeks of having ceased to engage in the aforesaid activities.

Employment of young persons under licence.

7.—(1) The Minister may, by licence, permit an individual employer to employ young persons on terms specified in the licence in lieu of any of those referred to in section 6

Provided that the Minister is satisfied that— (a) the terms of the licence are in compliance with the terms of the Directive, (b) the health, welfare and safety of the employees affected will not be endangered, and (c) compliance with one or more of the terms of section 6

Employment of young persons under regulations.

8.—(1) The Minister may, by regulations, permit any group or category of employers to employ young persons on terms specified in the regulations in lieu of any of those referred to in section 6

Provided that the Minister is satisfied that— (a) the terms of the regulations are in compliance with the terms of the Directive, (b) the health, welfare and safety of the employees affected will not be endangered, and (c) compliance with one or more of the terms of section 6

Exclusion from or modification of certain provisions of Act by regulations in relation to employment of close relatives.

9.—(1) Sections 3 , 5 , 6 , 10 and 11 shall apply to the employment of close relatives subject to any exclusion or modification of the application of any or all of those sections or any provisions thereof as may be prescribed:

Provided that the Minister is satisfied that— (a) the regulations are in compliance with the terms of the Directive, and (b) the health, welfare and safety of the employees affected will not be endangered.

Prohibition on double employment.

10.—(1) Subject to section 9 , an employer shall not permit an employee to do for him or her any form of work on any day on which the employee has done any form of work for any other employer, except where the aggregate of the periods for which the employee does work for such employers on that day does not exceed the period for which such employee could lawfully be employed to do work for one employer on that day.

Time spent on vocational training.

11.—Subject to section 9 , any time spent, with the consent of his or her employer, by an employee who is a young person working under a combined work/training scheme or an in-plant work experience scheme shall be deemed to be working time for the purposes of section 6 .

Display of abstract of Act.

12.—(1) Every employer shall display at the principal entrances to the premises where any of his or her employees work, and in such other places as an inspector may require, in such a position that it may be easily read by employees so employed, the prescribed abstract of this Act.

Preservation of existing rates of pay and conditions of employment.

13.—Where, in order to comply with the provisions of this Act, the hours of work prevailing immediately before the commencement of this Act in regard to all employees or any particular employee employed in any particular form of work are reduced or are otherwise altered, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say— (a) the rate of salary, wages or other reward payable to any such employee immediately before the commencement of this Act and the repeal of the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977 , in regard to normal working hours (within the meaning of section 7 of that Act) shall not be reduced or be otherwise altered to the detriment of such employee merely because of the said reduction or alteration in the hours of work of such employee; (b) the said reduction or alteration of hours shall not terminate or prejudicially affect the contract of service under which such employee is so employed immediately before the commencement of this Act, and every such contract shall continue in force after such commencement with such modifications only as may be necessary in order to comply with this Act; (c) every agreement which is in force immediately before the commencement of this Act and regulates or restricts the rate of salary, wages or other reward payable to any such employee shall continue in force after such commencement notwithstanding the said reduction or alteration of hours of work but with the modification that every rate of salary, wages or other reward which is fixed by such agreement and every restriction on any rate of salary, wages or other reward contained in such agreement shall remain unchanged in amount; (d) every minimum rate of salary, wage or other reward fixed by statute or under statutory authority which is in force immediately before the commencement of this Act shall, if and so far as it is applicable to any such employee, continue after such commencement in force and unchanged in amount notwithstanding the said reduction or alteration of hours of work.

Emergency as defence.

14.—(1) It shall be a defence to any proceedings taken against any employer for a breach of any of the provisions of this Act in relation to an employee who is a young person if such employer shows to the satisfaction of the court before which such proceedings are brought that any act occasioning such breach was rendered necessary or reasonably proper by the actual occurrence or the threat or reasonable anticipation of fire, flood, storm, violence, a breakdown of plant or machinery or any other emergency:

Provided that— (a) the work is of a temporary nature and has to be performed immediately, (b) adult workers are not available, (c) the young person is allowed equivalent compensatory rest time within 3 weeks of the date of occurrence of the breach concerned, and (d) the young person is paid at the rate of time plus a quarter for any time worked as a result of the emergency.

Employer records.

15.—(1) An employer shall keep, at the place where a young person or child is employed, such records as are necessary to show whether the provisions of this Act are being complied with in relation to his or her employees and such records shall be retained by the employer for at least 3 years.

Recovery of money due to employee.

16.—(1) Any sum of money due to an employee from his or her employer under any provision of this Act shall be recoverable by the employee from his or her employer as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Refusal by child or young person to co-operate with employer in breaching Act.

17.—An employer shall not penalise an employee for having in good faith opposed by lawful means an act which is unlawful under this Act.

Complaints to rights commissioner.

18.—(1) The parent or guardian of a child or young person may present a complaint to a rights commissioner that the employer of the child or young person has contravened section 13 or 17 in relation to the child or young person.

Appeals from and enforcement of recommendations of rights commissioner.

19.—(1) A party concerned may appeal to the Tribunal from a recommendation of a rights commissioner under section 18 and, if the party does so, the Tribunal shall give the parties an opportunity to be heard by it and to present to it any evidence relevant to the appeal, shall make a determination in writing in relation to the appeal affirming, varying or setting aside the recommendation and shall communicate the determination to the parties.

Enforcement of determination of Tribunal.

20.—(1) (a) If an employer fails to carry out in accordance with its terms a determination of the Tribunal in relation to a complaint under section 18 within 6 weeks from the date on which the determination is communicated to the parties, the District Court shall, on application to it in that behalf by— (i) the parent or guardian of the child or young person concerned, (ii) the trade union of the young person concerned, or (iii) the Minister, if the Minister considers it appropriate to make the application having regard to all the circumstances, without hearing the employer concerned, other than in relation to the matters aforesaid or any evidence other than in relation to such matters, make an order directing the employer to carry out the determination in accordance with its terms. (b) In paragraph (a) the reference to a determination of the Tribunal is a reference to such a determination in relation to which, at the expiration of the time for bringing an appeal against it, no such appeal has been brought, or if such an appeal has been brought it has been abandoned and the reference to the date on which the determination is communicated to the parties shall, in a case where such an appeal is abandoned, be construed as a reference to the date of such abandonment.

Evidence of failure to attend before or give evidence or produce documents to Tribunal.

21.—A document purporting to be signed by the chairman or a vice-chairman of the Tribunal stating that— (a) a person named in the document was, by a notice under paragraph (c) of section 19

Powers of inspectors.

22.—(1) The Minister may appoint in writing such and so many persons as the Minister sees fit to be inspectors for the purposes of this Act.

Offences by bodies corporate.

23.—(1) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate or by a person acting on behalf of a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent, connivance or approval of, or to have been facilitated by any neglect on the part of any director, manager, secretary or any other officer of such body or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, such person shall also be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

Prosecutions.

24.—(1) An offence under this Act may be prosecuted summarily by the Minister.

Penalties.

25.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,500.

Repeals.

26.—The enactments specified in column (2) of the Second Schedule are hereby repealed to the extent specified in column (3) of that Schedule.

Expenses.

27.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of monies provided by the Oireachtas.

Regulations.

28.—(1) The Minister may make regulations for prescribing any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed.

Short title and commencement.

29.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996.

FIRST SCHEDULE Council Directive 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994 Section l on the protection of young people at work THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 118a thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1) , Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2) , Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189c of the Treaty (3) , Whereas Article 118a of the Treaty provides that the Council shall adopt, by means of directives, minimum requirements to encourage improvements, especially in the working environment, as regards the health and safety of workers;

Whereas, under that Article, such directives must avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal constraints in a way which would hold back the creation and development of small and medium-sized undertakings;

Whereas points 20 and 22 of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, adopted by the European Council in Strasbourg on 9 December 1989, state that: ‘20. Without prejudice to such rules as may be more favourable to young people, in particular those ensuring their preparation for work through vocational training, and subject to derogations limited to certain light work, the minimum employment age must not be lower than the minimum school-leaving age and, in any case, not lower than 15 years;

The duration of work must, in particular, be limited — without it being possible to circumvent this limitation through recourse to overtime — and night work prohibited in the case of workers of under eighteen years of age, save in the case of certain jobs laid down in national legislation or regulations';

Whereas account should be taken of the principles of the International Labour Organization regarding the protection of young people at work, including those relating to the minimum age for access to employment or work;

Whereas, in this Resolution on child labour(4) , the European Parliament summarised the various aspects of work by young people and stressed its effects on their health, safety and physical and intellectual development, and pointed to the need to adopt a Directive harmonising national legislation in the field;

Whereas Article 15 of Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work (5) provides that particularly sensitive risk groups must be protected against the dangers which specifically affect them;

Whereas children and adolescents must be considered specific risk groups, and measures must be taken with regard to their safety and health;

Whereas the vulnerability of children calls for Member States to prohibit their employment and ensure that the minimum working or employment age is not lower than the minimum age at which compulsory schooling as imposed by national law ends or 15 years in any event; whereas derogations from the prohibition on child labour may be admitted only in special cases and under the conditions stipulated in this Directive; whereas, under no circumstances, may such derogations be detrimental to regular school attendance or prevent children benefiting fully from their education;

Whereas, in view of the nature of the transition from childhood to adult life, work by adolescents should be strictly regulated and protected;

Whereas every employer should guarantee young people working conditions appropriate to their age;

Whereas employers should implement the measures necessary to protect the safety and health of young people on the basis on an assessment of work-related hazards to the young;

Whereas Member States should protect young people against any specific risks arising from their lack of experience, absence of awareness of existing or potential risks, or from their immaturity;

Whereas Member States should therefore prohibit the employment of young people for the work specified by this Directive;

Whereas the adoption of specific minimal requirements in respect of the organisation of working time is likely to improve working conditions for young people;

Whereas the maximum working time of young people should be strictly limited and night work by young people should be prohibited, with the exception of certain jobs specified by national legislation or rules;

Whereas Member States should take the appropriate measures to ensure that the working time of adolescents receiving school education does not adversely affect their ability to benefit from that education;

Whereas time spent on training by young persons working under a theoretical and/or practical combined work/training scheme or an in-plant work-experience should be counted as working time;

Whereas, in order to ensure the safety and health of young people, the latter should be granted minimum daily, weekly and annual periods of rest and adequate breaks;

Whereas, with respect to the weekly rest period, due account should be taken of the diversity of cultural, ethnic, religious and other factors prevailing in the Member States; whereas in particular, it is ultimately for each Member State to decide whether Sunday should be included in the weekly rest period, and if so to what extent;

Whereas appropriate work experience may contribute to the aim of preparing young people for adult working and social life, provided it is ensured that any harm to their safety, health and development is avoided;

Whereas, although derogations from the bans and limitations imposed by this Directive would appear indispensable for certain activities or particular situations, applications thereof must not prejudice the principles underlying the established protection system;

Whereas this Directive constitutes a tangible step towards developing the social dimension of the internal market;

Whereas the application in practice of the system of protection laid down by this Directive will require that Member States implement a system of effective and proportionate measures;

Whereas the implementation of some provisions of this Directive poses particular problems for one Member State with regard to its system of protection for young people at work; whereas that Member State should therefore be allowed to refrain from implementing the relevant provisions for a suitable period, HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

SECTION I

Article 1Purpose

They shall ensure, under the conditions laid down by this Directive that the minimum working or employment age is not lower than the minimum age at which compulsory full-time schooling as imposed by national law ends or 15 years in any event.

They shall ensure that young people are protected against economic exploitation and against any work likely to harm their safety, health or physical, mental, moral or social development or to jeopardise their education.

Article 2Scope

Article 3Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive: (a) ‘young person’ shall mean any person under 18 years of age referred to in Article 2 (1); (b) ‘child’ shall mean any young person of less than 15 years of age or who is still subject to compulsory full-time schooling under national law; (c) ‘adolescent’ shall mean any young person of at least 15 years of age but less than 18 years of age who is no longer subject to compulsory full-time schooling under national law; (d) ‘light work’ shall mean all work which, on account of the inherent nature of the tasks which it involves and the particular conditions under which they are performed: (i) is not likely to be harmful to the safety, health or development of children, and (ii) is not such as to be harmful to their attendance at school, their participation in vocational guidance or training programmes approved by the competent authority or their capacity to benefit from the instruction received; (e) ‘working time’ shall mean any period during which the young person is at work, at the employer's disposal and carrying out his activity or duties in accordance with national legislation and/or practice; (f) ‘rest period’ shall mean any period which is not working time.

Article 4Prohibition of work by children

Article 5Cultural or similar activities

SECTION III

Article 8Working time

Member States shall, by legislative or regulatory provision, determine the conditions, limits and procedure for implementing such derogations.

Article 9Night work

In that event, Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that the adolescent is supervised by an adult where such supervision is necessary for the adolescent's protection. (b) If point (a) is applied, work shall continue to be prohibited between midnight and 4 a.m.

However, Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, authorise work by adolescents during the period in which night work is prohibited in the following cases, where there are objective grounds for so doing and provided that adolescents are allowed suitable compensatory rest time and that the objectives set out in Article 1 are not called into question: —work performed in the shipping or fisheries sectors; —work performed in the context of the armed forces or the police; —work performed in hospitals or similar establishments; —cultural, artistic, sports or advertising activities.

Article 10Rest periods

Where justified by technical or organisation reasons, the minimum rest period may be reduced, but may in no circumstances be less than 36 consecutive hours.

The minimum rest period referred to in the first and second subparagraphs shall in principle include Sunday.

Article 11Annual rest

Member States which make use of the option referred to in Article 4 (2) (b) or (c) shall see to it that a period free of any work is included, as far as possible, in the school holidays of children subject to compulsory full-time schooling under national law.

Article 12Breaks

Member States shall adopt the measures necessary to ensure that, where daily working time is more than four and a half hours, young people are entitled to a break of at least 30 minutes, which shall be consecutive if possible.

Article 13Work by adolescents in the event of force majeure

Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, authorise derogations from Article 8 (2), Article 9 (1) (b), Article 10 (1) (b) and, in the case of adolescents, Article 12, for work in the circumstances referred to in Article 5 (4) of Directive 89/391/EEC, provided that such work is of a temporary nature and must be performed immediately, that adult workers are not available and that the adolescents are allowed equivalent compensatory rest time within the following three weeks.

SECTION IV

Article 14Measures

Each Member State shall lay down any necessary measures to be applied in the event of failure to comply with the provisions adopted in order to implement this Directive; such measures must be effective and proportionate.

Article 15Adaptation of the Annex

Adaptations of a strictly technical nature to the Annex in the light of technical progress, changes in international rules or specifications and advances in knowledge in the field covered by this Directive shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 17 of Directive 89/391/EEC.

Article 16Non-reducing clause

Without prejudice to the right of Member States to develop, in the light of changing circumstances, different provisions on the protection of young people, as long as the minimum requirements provided for by this Directive are complied with, the implementation of this Directive shall not constitute valid grounds for reducing the general level of protection afforded to young people.

Article 17Final provisions

The Commission shall submit a report on the effects of this provision.

The Council, acting in accordance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty, shall decide whether this period should be extended. (c) Member States shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.

The Commission shall inform the European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social Committee thereof.

Article 18

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Luxembourg, 22 June 1994.

For the Council The President E. YIANNOPOULOS SECOND SCHEDULE Enactments Repealed

Section 26

.

Number and Year Short Title Extent of Repeal

(1)

(2)

1977, No. 9 Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977 The whole Act.

Acts Referred to Civil Service Regulation Act, 1956 1956, No. 46 Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 1936, No. 2 Courts Act, 1981 1981, No. 11 Defence Act, 1954 1954, No. 18 Defence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 1960 1960, No. 44 Employment Agency Act, 1971 1971, No. 27 Industrial Relations Acts, 1946 to 1990 Local Government Act, 1941 1941, No. 23 Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851 1851, c. 93 Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977 1977, No. 9 School Attendance Act, 1926 1926, No. 17 Trade Union Act, 1941 1941, No. 22 OJ. No. L216, 20.8.94, p. 12.

OJ No C 84, 4.4.1992, p. 7.

OJ No C 313, 30.11.1992, p. 70.

Opinion of the European Parliament of 17 December 1992 (OJ No C 21, 25. 1. 1993, p. 167). Council Common Position of 23 November 1993 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Decision of the European Parliament of 9 March 1994 (OJ No C 91, 28. 3. 1994, p. 89).

OJ No C 190, 20.7.1987, p. 44.

OJ No L 183, 29.6.1989, p. 1.

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