Employment of Children and Young Persons
A child is a person under 15 years of age. A young person is someone 15 years of age or above but under 16 years of age.
Children below 13 are not permitted to work. Children who are 13 years and above can only engage in light work suited to his/her capacity, and cannot work in any industrial undertaking or vessel unless such undertaking or vessel is under the personal charge of his/her parent.
An industrial undertaking includes mines, quarries, factories, shipyards, businesses and companies carrying out construction work, transport (including bus, ship, car, lorry) operators.
No young person (i.e. between 14 and 16 years) shall be employed in any industrial undertaking declared by the Minister to be one which cannot employ your persons.
Work approved and supervised by the Ministry of Education or the Institute of Technical Education, Singapore ('ITE') carried on any technical, vocational or industrial training school or institute and employment under any apprenticeship programme approved and supervised by the ITE are not subject to the above provisions.
If children or young persons are employed as workmen, they cannot work during the night, between 11pm and 6am the next day. In addition, for a child, their hours of work cannot exceed 3 hours without a break of 30 minutes or 6 hours in any one day. For a young person, their hours of work cannot exceed 4 hours without a break of 30 minutes or 7 hours in any one day (including the period of school attendance (If he/she is attending school). They are also not permitted to work on their rest days without the permission of the Commissioner for Labour.
