Last weekend, a 16-year-old boy was severely beaten in Nieuw Schoonebeek in Drenthe. While working as a volunteer behind the bar of a youth club, he refused to serve drinks to a peer. Since 1 January of this year, the age limit for alcohol consumption has been raised to eighteen years.
The young bartender was met after hours. The ensuing abuse left him with a concussion, some bruises and broken teeth. Trade unions such as FNV Horeca, CNV Youth and FNV Jong fear several similar incidents, especially in the summer when a lot of young people will work as a holiday job in the catering industry.
Laura Kapper of FNV Horeca has the following to say about this in Metro: “The raising of the drinking age is experienced as difficult by many young people behind the bar. A sixteen-year-old can now serve alcohol, but not drink it. And must therefore refuse alcohol to his or her peers. Sometimes that leads to unpleasant incidents.” There is no quick solution to the problem. “It's not very satisfactory, but with the law change still fresh, there are likely to be more incidents. Getting used to it will have to change this.”
As mentioned, the increase in the drinking age leads to unpleasant situations. This requires a lot of resilience and resilience from the (young) catering staff. There are voices for a resilience course, in which they learn how to say no and how to deal with different situations. In any case, a senior 21-year-old parent must be around when a young person works behind the bar. Robbert Coenmans of FNV Jong: “I think it is sensible that this older staff member always intervenes if there are problems with the age identification. This problem should not be blamed on young bar staff.”
The unions do not like a ban on serving alcohol to employees under the age of 18. This would be at the expense of the young people's side jobs.
Author: R. Beens
© Horecagroningen.nl
