A 15-year-old minor signed an authorisation agreement with the employer. The content of the work is to bring warm meal from the restaurant to the customers’ homes. The applicant himself/herself and the parent believe that this is one of the best opportunities for a minor to work, as the employee can decide for himself/herself the work method and working hours without notice. The employee only needs to log into the app, notifying the employer that he or she is ready to immediately accept and complete the tasks. The employer assigns tasks based on available orders. If the employee has logged out of the app, no duties will be assigned to him or her during this period. Remuneration is agreed for the work actually done. The family has also invested in the work of the minor to ensure that it would be safe, good and easy for him or her to work.
The Labour Inspectorate sent a memorandum to the employer explaining the requirements of the Employment Contracts Act concerning the work of minors. The employer understood the memorandum in a way that the Labour Inspectorate prohibits minors from carrying out a specific job under an authorisation agreement, but allows the employment to be performed under an employment contract. According to both the employee and the employer, this work cannot be done under an employment contract, as planning of working time and scheduling before the start of the calendar month is not possible on either side. The Labour Inspectorate did not comment on the work of adults in the memorandum.
The Commissioner found that if both the employee and the employer were of the opinion that a particular job could not be planned in advance and the employee could independently decide on both the working time and method, it could be a contract for providing services under the Law of Obligations Act. While adults are working under an authorisation agreement and it can be considered the right type of contract, denying the same contract for service provision to minors, which makes it impossible to obtain this work without the prohibition stated in the law, can by definition be discriminatory on grounds of age.
