Sunday, 22 June 2008

Child Labour @ Oporto's?

During today's D&D session, we had lunch at Oporto's at St Ives on Mona Vale Road, just up the section from the Pattersons Patisserie. The girl behind the counter was a bit suspect. She was very short, looked extremely young, and her actions indicated she wasn't quite up to scratch. It seemed that the skin tone and appearance of the manager meant that she was his daughter. Which, in most circumstances would be fine if it wasn't for the age thing. I believe (but I'm not 100% certain) that the legal age to work is 15 in NSW, but I think depending on the job, you can be younger with parental/guardian consent. In this situation, if it was one of those jobs, then I guess with your father being the manager, they would have consent to the situation.

That being said, she didn't do a great job. I bought a meal of some kind, and she didn't give me the recipt for the order number, and she also gave me the wrong size drink. I didn't complain because it was the larger size.... She also did this to some of the other who were with me and their orders, but those that served by her dad got the right size drink. It was also blatently obvious because one woman after us ordered just a can of softdrink, and the girl nearly gave her a bottle too before the woman indicated lower in the fridge direction to the cans..... If she was properly trained and the right age, perhaps this kind of thing wouldn't be so obvious to the casual eye that she shouldn't have been behind the counter. In another point, if she is blood related, then she is probably not getting paid award wages, if at all, and if she was getting paid, it would probably be through her father and not through official payroll....

I could be wrong of course, she could be of appropriate age, and paid above board. But, this is just my thoughts and observations from the 15minutes I was in this place.....

No comments: