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Can they work that shift?
Put in a date of birth and the shift you were going to roster. It tells you whether it's allowed under the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996 — and which rule stops it, if one does.
Hospitality runs on sixteen-year-olds, and the rules that cover them are different from everybody else's: different finish times, different breaks, different weekly caps, and different again depending on whether there's school in the morning.
Most of what comes up in a search is UK law. This is the Irish one.
This checker needs JavaScript, and yours is off.
The rule table further down the page is the whole thing in plain text — it doesn't need
JavaScript either.
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The rules, in full
The checker is just this table applied to your dates. It's here in plain text so you can read it, print it, or argue with it.
| Under 16 | 16 and 17 | |
|---|---|---|
| Earliest start | 8.00am | 6.00am |
| Latest finish | 8.00pm | 10.00pm. Licensed premises may run to 11.00pm under SI 350/2001. |
| Max per day | 7 hours (8 for 15-year-olds outside term) | 8 hours |
| Max per week | Term: no work at 14; 8 hours light work at 15. Holidays: 35 hours. | 40 hours |
| Break | 30 minutes after 4 hours | 30 minutes after 4½ hours |
| Rest between shifts | 14 consecutive hours | 12 consecutive hours |
| Days off | 2 days off in every 7 | |
Where this comes from and where it stops. Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996, as summarised by the Workplace Relations Commission. The 16–17 rules here are the same ones our own rota software applies, which is why they're specific. Hours count across every job they hold, not just yours. The under-16 rules are deliberately not decided for you — they shift with age, school term and the type of work, so the checker shows the limits and flags a clear breach rather than issuing a clearance it can't stand over. This is a guide, not legal advice. If it matters, the WRC is the authority.
Why we built it
Because our own rota software checks this every time somebody under eighteen is put on a shift, and it seemed daft to keep that to ourselves. Hospitech is back-of-house software for Irish venues — rotas and clock-in, holidays, HR, food safety and training.
Every one of them runs a real venue every day before it is sold to anyone. The rota side is here if it's useful — and if it isn't, the checker is still free.