Protection of young people at work

• What requirements must be complied with in terms of the protection of children and young people at work?
• What legislation regulates the protection of children and young people at work?
• Minimum age for employment
• Working time
• Breaks and rest periods
  • Breaks and the daily rest period
  • Rest period at weekends and on public holidays
  • The following public holidays are observed nationwide in Germany:
  • The following public holidays are observed regionally in the Länder (Germany’s federal states):
• Working time Employment at weekends and on public holidays
  • Employment on Saturdays
  • Employment on Sundays
  • Employment on public holidays
• Exceptions in special cases
• Holiday entitlement
• Hazardous work
• Organisation of working conditions
• Healthcare
• Penalties for non-compliance

What requirements must be complied with in terms of the protection of children and young people at work?

EU Directive 96/71/EC (the Posted Workers Directive) requires each Member State to ensure that its own national protective measures with regard to the terms and conditions of employment of children and young people also apply to young workers posted to that Member State.

Compliance with the German rules on the protection of children and young people at work is also required when it comes to the posting of workers and assignment of temporary agency workers to Germany from other EU Member States and non-EU members.

What legislation regulates the protection of children and young people at work?

• In general, the Act on the Protection of Young People at Work (Jugendarbeitsschutzgesetz) and the Ordinance on Protection Against Child Labour (Kinderarbeitsschutzverordnung) apply to children and young people up to the age of 18 in Germany.
  Act on the Protection of Young People at Work (Jugendarbeitsschutzgesetz - JArbSchG) (in German)
  Ordinance on Protection Against Child Labour (Kinderarbeitsschutzverordnung - KindArbSchV) (in German)
• Special rules exist for young people in seafaring professions (Maritime Labour Act - Seearbeitsgesetz).
  Maritime Labour Act (Seearbeitsgesetz - SeeArbG) (in German)

Minimum age for employment

• For the purposes of the Act on the Protection of Young People at Work, anyone under the age of 15 is defined as a child, while a young person is defined as anyone who is of at least 15 years of age but less than 18 years of age. The rules for children also apply to young people who are subject to full-time compulsory education.
• In general, the employment of children and of young people subject to full-time compulsory education with equivalent status is prohibited.
• Children aged 13 and above and young people subject to full-time compulsory education may, subject to certain conditions, be employed to perform suitable light work. Employment in the commercial sector is not permitted, with the exception of the delivery of newspapers, magazines, advertising magazines and leaflets.
• Young people subject to full-time compulsory education may be employed during the school holidays for a maximum of four weeks in a calendar year.
• Children and young people who are subject to full-time compulsory education may be employed in the cultural and media sector if this is permitted by the occupational safety and health authority.
  Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• The rules below apply to young people who are no longer subject to full-time compulsory education.

Working time

• Young people may not be employed to work more than eight hours per day and 40 hours per week. In principle, the five-day working week from Monday to Friday applies to them.
• If, in connection with public holidays, no work is performed on business days so that employees can have a longer consecutive period of time off work, the time not worked can be spread across the business days of five consecutive weeks, including the week(s) in which the days not worked fall, in such a way that the average weekly working time for those five weeks does not exceed 40 hours. In this case, the daily working time may not exceed eight and a half hours.
• If the working time is reduced to less than eight hours on individual business days, young people may work for up to eight and a half hours on the other business days in that week.
• In the agricultural sector, young people aged 16 and above may not be employed for more than nine hours per day and 85 hours per fortnight during the harvest.
• When young people are employed, the duration of their shift (working time plus breaks) may not exceed 10 hours (11 hours in the hospitality sector, agriculture and livestock farming, and on building and installation sites; 8 hours in the mining sector when working underground).
• Young people may only be employed between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Exceptions exist in the baking industry (16-year-olds: from 5 a.m., 17-year-olds: from 4 a.m. (does not include confectioners)), in the agricultural sector (16-year-olds: from 5 a.m. or until 9 p.m.), and in the hospitality sector and fairground industry (16-year-olds: until 10 p.m.).
• Young people aged 16 and above may be employed until 11 p.m. in businesses with shift work. In businesses where work is done in high temperatures to an exceptional extent, young people may be employed from 5 a.m. during the warm summer months.
• In the cultural and media sector, young people may do creative work until 11 p.m. Afterwards, they must receive an uninterrupted rest period of at least 14 hours.

Breaks and rest periods

Breaks and the daily rest period

• Young people must receive a predetermined rest break lasting:

  • 30 minutes if they work more than four and a half hours, and
  • 60 minutes if they work more than six hours.
• This rest break can be taken as multiple breaks adding up to the total duration set out above; each individual break must be at least 15 minutes long.
• Young people must receive an uninterrupted rest period of at least 12 hours after the end of their daily working time.

Rest period at weekends and on public holidays

• Young people may not be employed on Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays, or after 2 p.m. on 24 and 31 December.

The following public holidays are observed nationwide in Germany:

• New Year’s Day (1 January)
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Ascension Day
• Whit Monday
• Labour Day (1 May)
• Day of German Unity (3 October)
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

The following public holidays are observed regionally in the Länder (Germany’s federal states):

• Epiphany (6 January) in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt
• International Women’s Day (8 March) in Berlin
• Corpus Christi in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony (only partly observed), Thuringia (only partly observed).
• Augsburg Peace Festival, only in the city of Augsburg
• Assumption Day (15 August) in Saarland, Bavaria (only partly observed)
• World Children’s Day (20 September) in Thuringia
• Reformation Day (31 October) in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia
• All Saints’ Day (1 November) in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland
• Day of Prayer and Repentance in Saxony

Working time Employment at weekends and on public holidays

• In certain sectors, exceptions allowing young people to be employed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are possible.

Employment on Saturdays

• The employment of young people on Saturdays is permissible:

  • in medical institutions, as well as in care homes for the elderly, nursing homes and children’s homes,
  • in open sales outlets, in bakeries and confectioners, in the hairdressing sector and in market trading,
  • in the transport sector,
  • in agriculture and livestock farming,
  • in the family household,
  • in the hospitality sector and fairground industry,
  • at musical performances, theatrical performances and other performances, at recordings for broadcast (radio and television) and audio and video recordings, as well as filming and photography,
  • at training sessions outside of the workplace,
  • in the sports sector,
  • in the emergency medical services sector,
  • in repair shops for motor vehicles.
• Young people should have at least two free Saturdays per month.
• If young people are employed on a Saturday, they must be given another business day off in the same week to comply with the five-day working week.

Employment on Sundays

• The employment of young people on Sundays is permissible:

  • in medical institutions, as well as in care homes for the elderly, nursing homes and children’s homes,
  • in agriculture and livestock farming, in the case of work which must also be performed on Sundays and public holidays,
  • in the family household, if the young person is part of the household,
  • in the fairground industry,
  • at musical performances, theatrical performances and other performances, as well as live broadcasts (radio and television),
  • in the sports sector,
  • in the emergency medical services sector,
  • in the hospitality sector.
• Young people must have at least two free Sundays per month, which should be every second Sunday if possible.
• If young people are employed on a Sunday, they must be given another business day off in the same week to comply with the five-day working week.

Employment on public holidays

• On public holidays, young people may be employed to perform work which is also permitted on Sundays. The exceptions are 1 January (New Year’s Day), the first Easter public holiday, 1 May (Labour Day) and 25 December (Christmas Day).
• For employment on a public holiday which falls on a business day, young people must be given another day off in the same week or the following week.

Exceptions in special cases

• The Act’s fundamental standards on working time and rest periods do not apply to the employment of young people to perform temporary tasks which cannot be postponed in emergencies if adult employees are not available.
• If additional hours are worked in emergencies, they must be offset within the following three weeks by a corresponding reduction in working time.

Holiday entitlement

• Employers must grant young people paid annual leave for each calendar year.

• The amount of annual leave is

  • at least 30 business days, if the young person is 15 years old at the start of the calendar year,
  • at least 27 business days, if the young person is 16 years old at the start of the calendar year,
  • at least 25 business days, if the young person is 17 years old at the start of the calendar year.

Young people working underground in the mining sector receive an additional three business days of annual leave.

• The above information on annual leave refers to “business days” (Werktage), i.e. it is based on a six-day week; the business days must be converted into "working days" (Arbeitstage). For example, a 15-year-old young person who is employed to work five days per week is entitled to 25 working days as annual leave, based on a pro-rata calculation.

Hazardous work

• Young people may not be employed to perform hazardous work, and in particular not to perform work

  • which is beyond their physical or psychological capacity,
  • in which they are exposed to moral dangers, or
  • which is associated with a particular risk of accidents.

• In addition, young people may not perform work

  • in which there is a risk to their health from extreme heat or cold, or very wet conditions, or
  • in which they are exposed to the harmful effects of noise or vibration, or to radiation or hazardous agents.
• Exceptions are permitted in certain circumstances, if they are indispensable for the young person’s vocational training.
• Piece work and other types of work where pay depends on how quickly the work is performed are prohibited for young people; their employment in adults workers’ piece-work groups is also prohibited.
• In exceptional cases, young people may be employed in piece-work groups – without themselves being engaged in piece work, however – if the work takes place under supervision and it is indispensable for their vocational training.

Organisation of working conditions

• When setting up and maintaining the workplace, including the machines, tools and equipment, and when setting the conditions of employment, employers must take the precautions and measures necessary to protect young people from safety and health risks and to avoid adverse impacts on young people’s physical, moral or mental development.
• Employers must conduct an assessment of the hazards to young people in connection with their work before young people begin work and when there is any major change in working conditions.
• Before young people begin work and when there is any major change in working conditions, employers must inform young people of the risk of accidents and health risks they face in their work, and of the systems and measures adopted to prevent these risks.
• Before young people perform work for the first time using machines or in hazardous settings or work which brings them into contact with substances which pose a health risk, employers must instruct young people about the particular risks of this work and about the rules to follow when performing this work.
• This instruction must be repeated at suitable intervals, but at least every six months.
• Employers must protect young people from corporal punishment and mistreatment and from risks to their moral development.
• Employers may not give young people any alcoholic drinks, tobacco products, substitutes for tobacco products (with and without nicotine) or other products containing nicotine, electronic cigarettes or electronic shishas, unless the Protection of Young Persons Act (Jugendschutzgesetz - JuSchG) allows them to be given to young people.
• Anyone who has been sentenced, in a final and binding conviction, to at least two years in prison for committing a crime, is not permitted to employ, supervise, instruct or train young people. The same applies in the case of certain criminal offences, including specific criminal offences committed against children or young people, criminal offences against the right to sexual self-determination, criminal offences in connection with drugs and narcotics, and criminal offences in connection with youth protection matters.

Healthcare

• Young people entering working life may only be employed if they have previously been assessed by a doctor and they submit a medical certificate to their employer.
• The assessment is intended to ensure that young people are not asked to perform work which is beyond their capacity in terms of their health and development. A follow-up assessment must take place one year after they begin work to examine the potential effects of the work on young people’s health and development.

Penalties for non-compliance

• Compliance with the Act on the Protection of Young People at Work and the Ordinance on Protection Against Child Labour is monitored by the occupational safety and health authorities. Breaches of the rules on the protection of children and young people at work can result in a fine of up to 15,000 euros.
  Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Prison sentences may also be imposed in particularly serious cases, especially if the breaches endanger young people’s health or ability to work.