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Group Discussion$5-an-hour job left Rick disfigured
'Rick' was a month short of his 13th birthday when he finally persuaded his reluctant parents to let him find a part-time job. They flatly rejected his first idea of a morning newspaper round. Riding his bicycle around the pre-dawn streets was simply too dangerous. Finally his mother saw a scrawled note pinned up at the butcher shop in a nearby market saying: 'Clean-up boys wanted.' Still worried about potential risks and not sure whether their son was old enough, his father went along with Rick to see the butcher. Yes, Rick was old enough to work, the butcher assured them. His job would be to wash meat trays and sweep out the shop; he would not be allowed near knives or machinery. So in February 1996, Rick started working three afternoons a week after school and Saturday mornings for $5 an hour and began saving for the surfboard he dreamed of owning. His mother drove him to and from the shop in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs. But the butcher who employed him sold the shop and, without Rick's parents knowing, the new owner had the boy doing other tasks, including cleaning the shop's mincer. A few months later the regular mincing machine with safety guards was swapped for an old, rusty model without guards. On June 29, 1996, Rick and another 14-year-old part-timer were left unsupervised in the shop's back room to flush out the mincer. 'We had been taught to turn it on and pour a bucket of hot water into it while it was running to clean it,' recalled Rick. Somehow his right hand got caught in the mincer. It pulled him in up to the elbow before the other boy could turn off the power. It was horrific; Rick lost the four fingers on his right hand and his forearm was mangled. The mincer was partly dismantled but part of it was still attached to his arm as he was carried to the ambulance. Ten hours of delicate microsurgery saved Rick's thumb and part of his hand. In a six-hour follow-up operation, muscle and skin grafts were used to rebuild his forearm. Rick had 10 operations in his first four weeks in hospital and another four since. In June last year, the company operating the butcher shop was fined $20,000 in Dandenong Magistrate's Court for breaches of occupational health and safety laws. The magistrate said the company had obtained a clear financial benefit by employing children. Rick decided to tell his story as a warning to employers and other children: 'I wouldn't want anyone to go through what I've been through.' *Rick (not his real name) and his family asked not to be identified to protect their privacy. Student Activities:Look at the photo and read the newspaper article. In small groups discuss the questions below and agree on an answer for each question. Your groups will report back during a whole class discussion. Questions:
Model Answers
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