Primary school children
RIGHTS AND RESTRICTIONS OF CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 15
Work of children under the age of 15 is forbidden. A child under the age of 15 may exceptionally, against payment, participate in a film shooting, preparation and undertaking of art, scenic and other work in cultural, artistic, sporting and advertising activities.
Children who reached the age of 13 may perform less demanding work for not more than 30 days in a calendar year during school holidays also in other activities in the manner, extent and on condition that the work they will perform does not jeopardise their safety, health, morality, education and development.
The following are examples of non-demanding and non-dangerous tasks regarded as orientation in the approval of work of a child who reached the age of 13:
- Work in the office: typing and calculating by means of a calculator, record updating, sorting, arranging and filling databases, simple courier work, arranging mail, photocopying
- Employment in a shop: simple assistant tasks, arranging shop windows, price labelling
- Work in restaurants, coffee houses and similar establishments: simple work, for example setting and cleaning tables
- Work in agriculture, forestry and horticulture: simple work involved in animal feeding, simple hand work involved in sowing and planting, weeding flower beds and small crops, fruit and strawberry picking
- Delivery or similar work: simple courier or delivery work
- Tailoring, sewing: basic hand sewing, thread knotting, simple tending of sewing machines
- Work on machines: basic hand assembly, hand assembly of small parts (not brazing, welding, testing or working with electrical devices being switched on, nor gluing if it could be hazardous to health)
- Work with electrical devices: hand assembly of small parts (not brazing, welding, testing or working with electrical devices being switched on, nor gluing if it could be hazardous to health)
- Wood processing: hand assembly of small constituent parts (must not work with hard woods - beech, oak, must not glue if glue is hazardous to health)
- Painting: painting (not spray-painting) with paints not hazardous to health
- Printing and similar activities: sorting, selecting, etc. light-weight printing products, hand stacking brush proofs or copies
- Glass industry, pottery: hand stacking products made of glass, chinaware and pieces of pottery
- Wrapping: filling, packaging, wrapping of small products, measuring (not by machine), hand folding and cardboard binding, simple work with glues which are not hazardous to health
- Work in a warehouse and storage: reception, storing and dispatching of light-weight products, measuring and counting
- Cleaning: simple work (e.g. office cleaning), simple cleaning of interiors
- Beauty care: ancillary works at hairdresser’s salons (must not work with hazardous substances)
- Work in laundries: simple sorting of laundry or cleaning (must not work with hazardous substances)
- Photography work: framing or stacking copies.
REMEMBER: The employer has a duty to ensure that you work safely and without risk to health, while you must follow his or her instructions.
Don’t start working or carrying out tasks if you believe you won’t be able to carry them out safely or if you believe that you didn’t get enough instructions.
Talk to your superiors and parents if you have any doubts about the safety of your work.
You have the right to be trained to work safely and without risk to health.
If despite everything you still aren’t sure that your work will be safe and without risk to your health, think about whether the payment you will get for the work done is worth your safety and health at all.
Work is not a game. You may get injured or ill at work, and your colleagues may get injured as well. You must comply with safety measures necessary to ensure your safety and the safety of your colleagues.
You are obliged to use or wear personal protective equipment, if the employer so determines. If you believe that the employer has not taken enough care for your safety, you should bring this to his attention.
Rules on protection of health at work of children, adolescents and young persons (Official Gazette RS, No. 82/2003)
A young person is any person under the age of 18 who is in an employment relationship on the basis of an employment contract, a child is any person under the age of 15 or a person attending compulsory schooling, an adolescent is any person at least 15 years old and not more than 18 who no longer attends compulsory schooling.
Measures the employer has to adopt and take on the basis of the assessment of the risks to health and safety of children.