The owner and operator of Donut King stores located in Rosebud Plaza and Berwick has been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court to 12 charges of breaking Victoria's child employment laws.
Wage Inspectorate Victoria, the state's child employment regulator, began investigating Minto Nominees Pty Ltd, the owner of a number of Donut King stores, after receiving a tip-off that their stores may have been employing kids under 15.
Today, Minto Nominees Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to:
- employing 3 children under the age of 15 without a licence on 28 occasions
- failing to ensure the children are supervised by someone with a Working with Children Clearance
- failing to provide a rest break of at least 30 minutes after every 3 hours of work
- employing children for longer than 3 hours per day during a school term
- employing children for longer than 6 hours per day during school holidays.
The offences took place between 1 January and 6 July 2024.
The children's duties included taking orders, handling sales transactions, making coffee, operating the donut cooking machinery and making toasted sandwiches.
In sentencing, His Honour Deputy Chief Magistrate Tim Bourke noted that children are among the most vulnerable members of society and that parents trust employers to have protective measures in place when their children enter the workforce.
His Honour also stated there is a need in these matters to bear in mind general deterrence – these laws are here to protect children from exploitation and ensure they are safe in the workplace.
His Honour did not record a conviction, taking into account the early guilty plea and the lack of prior offending.
Quotes attributable to Robert Hortle, Commissioner of Wage Inspectorate Victoria
"Big businesses trade on trust, and as the Magistrate noted today, when parents send their kids off to the workforce for the first time, they're putting their trust in these businesses to keep their children protected."
"Donut King is the type of business where kids get their first job. We're looking to franchisors, particularly large, well-resourced corporations to show leadership in this space and ensure their franchisees comply with child employment laws."
"Kids don't have the same mental or physical stamina as adults, so they can't work the same hours and need to have regular rest breaks. It's concerning to see a workplace fail to take the welfare of kids into account."
"Businesses shouldn't expect to get away with breaking child employment laws – community members look out for the wellbeing of kids and will tip us off when they see something of concern."
Background
Victoria's child employment laws require employers of children under 15 to obtain a licence from the Wage Inspectorate before any work takes place. This enables the Wage Inspectorate to check that matters like safety, hours of work, rest breaks and supervision are properly considered before employment starts.
Workers under 15 must be supervised by someone who holds a valid employee Victorian Working with Children Clearance.
Child employment laws restrict when businesses can employ children and how long they can work:
- during a school term, children can be employed for a maximum of 3 hours a day and 12 hours per week
- during school holidays, children can be employed up to 6 hours a day and 30 hours a week.
- Children must receive a 30-minute rest break after every 3 hours of work.
A prosecution is the Wage Inspectorate's most serious compliance tool and decisions to take legal action are made in line with its Compliance and Enforcement Policy.
