Open Letter to Minister Bains on Child Employment Standards

The VDLC is signing on to the Open Letter to Minister Bains on Child Employment Standards, which has been issued by First Call. We need change to protect children and youth. The following motion was adopted at our March regular meeting. 

Subject:  First Call BC, Open Letter to Minister Bains on Child Employment Standards

BECAUSE children as young as 12 years of age can legally work in nearly any occupation in British Columbia; and

BECAUSE due to changes made by the BC Liberal government in 2003, we are now the only jurisdiction in Canada which does not place restrictions on occupations, tasks, or times of day that children can work; and

BECAUSE every year over the past decade, children under 15 were injured on the job seriously enough for WorkSafeBC to pay out over five million dollars in injury claims, sometimes with life-altering injuries,

THE VANCOUVER AND DISTRICT LABOUR COUNCIL WILL sign on to the open letter (https://firstcallbc.org/publications/open-letter-to-minister-bains-on-child-employment-standards/) from First Call BC to Minister of Labour Harry Bains calling for modernization of BC Employment Standards to protect children and youth.