Plain language law

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Crimes Act 1961

Crimes against the person - Duties tending to the preservation of life

153: Duty of employers to provide necessaries

You could also call this:

“Employers must give young workers food, clothes, and a place to stay, or they could go to jail.”

If you are an employer who has agreed to provide necessary food, clothing, or lodging for a servant or apprentice under 16 years old, you have a legal duty to do so. If you don’t provide these things without a lawful excuse, and it causes the death of the servant or apprentice, puts their life in danger, or permanently harms their health, you can be held criminally responsible.

You can be sent to prison for up to 5 years if you neglect this duty without a lawful excuse, and it endangers the life of the servant or apprentice or permanently harms their health.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM329294.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
Work and jobs > Worker rights
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152: Duty of parent or guardian to provide necessaries and protect from injury, or

“Parents and guardians must give kids what they need and keep them safe from harm.”

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154: Abandoning child under 6, or

“It's against the law to leave a young child alone or in a dangerous place.”

Part 8 Crimes against the person
Duties tending to the preservation of life

153Duty of employers to provide necessaries

  1. Every one who as employer has contracted to provide necessary food, clothing, or lodging for any servant or apprentice under the age of 16 years is under a legal duty to provide the same, and is criminally responsible for omitting without lawful excuse to perform such duty if the death of that servant or apprentice is caused, or if his or her life is endangered or his or her health permanently injured, by such omission.

  2. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years who, without lawful excuse, neglects the duty specified in this section so that the life of the servant or apprentice is endangered or his or her health permanently injured by such neglect.

Compare
  • 1908 No 32 s 168