Yolanthe Cabau performs her son Xess Xava in her much -discussed soap series on Netflix, but is that actually allowed? Or should she be on the mat at the Labor Inspectorate?
Children up to the age of 13 are not allowed to work in the Netherlands and in that age group the 9-year-old son of Yolanthe Cabau and Wesley Sneijder also falls. Yet the boy can be seen continuously in her soap series on Netflix, but is that all allowed? “Does Yolanthe have to deal with the rules in America or the Dutch rules?” Tina Nijkamp wonders.
Strict rules
It is a ‘good question’, according to the TV authority in its podcast Tina’s TV UPDATE. “In the Netherlands, those rules are very strict. If you portray a child, you must immediately have a form of the Labor Inspectorate with exemption, because children under the age of 13 are not allowed to work in the Netherlands.”
“If you want to do that, then you can do something for a maximum of four hours, for example if you play as a child in a commercial, then you can work for four hours and you have to have an exemption at the Labor Inspectorate. That all goes very officially. Well, how does that work with that series by Yolanthe?”
On the mat?
Does Yolanthe have to be on the mat at the Labor Inspectorate? “Netflix is of course an American company and I think that Yolanthe – I am actually sure – has to do with the American rules, and that the Dutch Labor Inspectorate actually has nothing to do with this. Also because Yolanthe naturally resides in LA”
There is the official home address of Yolanthe. “She will also have to pay taxes there and so, so I think she is dealing with the American labor inspection and how does that work there? Well, they are pretty easy there. There are actually few rules for it in many states.”
Just in the picture
Tina has looked for it for a while and they deal with it fairly smoothly in America, she says. “It is not that this just comes out of my brain, that I know it all, but I looked up this.”
“Of course there is not really work here, because yes, the son is just in the picture, so I actually think that Yolanthe is not dealing with this, I have to say very honestly. I don’t know exactly, but let me say: I think the Dutch Labor Inspectorate is not going to interfere with this.”
Do not work
What does the Labor Inspectorate itself say? Spokesperson Dylan Romeo says in the Story: “When participating in film and media productions, we test whether the applicable rules with regard to working hours, working conditions and child protection are complied with.”
He continues: “Only under special conditions, such as artistic work in a film or on TV, is an exemption possible. This exemption must be requested by the employer from the Dutch Labor Inspectorate. But we do not make any statements about individual cases.”