Newsagents have welcomed an employment tribunal ruling that lifts the threat of young newspaper deliverers being entitled to paid leave.
The London hearing, brought by a 15-year-old boy against his employers Addison's in Selby, North Yorkshire, ruled that deliverers under the minimum school leaving age are not entitled to holiday pay, said the National Federation of Retail Newsagents. The case tested the Working Time Regulations which the NFRN has consistently said do not allow for the entitlement.
The federation said it was a major victory for its members, which employ 192,000 newspaper deliverers in 30,000 stores.
NFRN president Colin Finch said: "The home news delivery that our members provide has always been more of a convenient community service that especially benefits the elderly and people with problems of mobility.
"Further costs would have eroded the availability of the service, which certainly would have led to huge gaps appearing in the home news delivery network."
n Last week the Leicester Mercury paid a reported £1,000 to a paperboy who threatened to take it to an industrial tribunal, claiming he was sacked for failing to find someone to cover his paper round while he was on holiday.

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