Eliminating and Preventing Child Labour Copyright © International Labour Organization 2016

International Labour Organization

Checkpoints for Companies

Eliminating and Preventing Child Labour

Copyright © International Labour Organization 2016 e designations employed in ILO publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the International Labour Oﬃce concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers.

e responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Oﬃce of the opinions expressed in them.

Reference to names of firms and commercial products and processes does not imply their endorsement by the International Labour Office, and any failure to mention a particular firm, commercial product or process is not a sign of disapproval.

About

is is the complete text of the mobile app Checkpoints for Companies – Eliminating and Preventing

Child Labour, available for download from the Apple Store and from the Google Play Store. is Checkpoints app allows you to create interactive checklists to help you eliminate child labour in your company. ere are 18 checkpoints in total, divided into six diﬀerent categories. Each checkpoint provides best practice recommendations for taking action. is document aims to ensure that the content of the app is available to all users, including those who do not own smartphones or tablets.

Checkpoints for Companies – Eliminating and Preventing Child Labour was created by the International

Labour Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations. Its main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.

Contents

Concepts and deﬁnitions

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Analysis of the situation

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1. Review national laws regarding child labour

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2. Refer to your buyers’ requirements 3. Check the age of your employees 4. Identify hazardous work
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5. Carry out workplace risk assessment

Immediate actions

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6. Stop hiring children below the minimum age

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7. Remove children from hazardous work

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8. Reduce the hours for children under the minimum age

Strategic actions

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9. Apply a safety and health management system

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10. Use collective bargaining agreements

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11. Use the link between labour inspection and workplace

Occupational Safety and Health Committee

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12. Compose a code of labour practice

Support of child household and welfare

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13. Provide support to children found in child labour

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14. Support education

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Elimination of the need for child labour

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15. Adapt your business to a child labour-free reality

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16. Let your suppliers know your requirements

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17. Ensure your new suppliers do not use child labour

Monitoring

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18. Establish one or more monitoring systems

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Concepts and deﬁnitions

Child

Anyone under the age of 18 is considered a child, according to the United Nations.

Child labour

Child labour is work that children should not be doing because they are too young, or if they are old enough to work, because it is dangerous or unsuitable for them. Whether or not work performed by children is deﬁned as child labour depends on the child’s age, the hours and type of work and the conditions in which the work is performed.

Decent work

Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that aﬀect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.

ILO Convention

An ILO Convention is an international agreement on an important labour-related issue that has been reached by governments, workers and employers meeting at the annual International Labour Conference of the ILO. After the adoption of a Convention at the Conference, each country is then asked to ratify the Convention through its legislature (parliament, congress, etc.). Ratification may involve the inclusion of provisions specific to the circumstances of the country. Once ratified, the country is bound to carry out the provisions of the Convention (as ratified). e ILO reviews the implementation of Conventions and holds countries accountable.

Hazard/risk

A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm. Risk is the chance or probability that a hazard will actually result in injury or illness along with an indication of how serious the harm could be.

erefore, risk = severity of harm x probability of harm. Even if workers are exposed to the same hazard, risks may be greater for young workers than for adult workers because of high severity (e.g. immaturity of immune system) and high probability (e.g. lack of experience).

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Checkpoints for Companies Eliminating and Preventing Child Labour

Concepts and Deﬁnitions

Hazardous work

Hazardous child labour is work in dangerous or unhealthy conditions that could result in a child being killed or injured/harmed (often permanently) and/or made ill (often permanently) as a consequence of poor safety and health standards and working arrangements.

Light work

Light work may be permitted for those between the ages of 13 and 15 (or 12 and 14 in developing countries). e Convention No.138 on Minimum Age for Work deﬁnes light work for these children as that which is:

a) unlikely to be harmful to their health or development b) not such ndentas to prejudice their attendance at school, their participation in vocational orientation or training programmes approved by the competent authority, or their capacity to beneﬁt from the instruction received.

Microﬁnance

Microfinance refers to financial services offered to low-income individuals who, otherwise, would be excluded from market transactions. Financial services that the working poor need and demand include different types of credit, savings, guarantees, insurance, transfer payments, remittances and other transactions; these services must have a sustainable basis.

Minimum age for work

ere isn’t just one minimum age for work; in general, it should not be less than 15 years, with light work permitted from the age of 13. In countries with insuﬃciently developed economies and education systems, those ages may be provisionally set at 14 and 12 respectively. But there is no age distinction when it comes to the Worst Forms of Child Labour. No child under 18 should be engaged in a Worst Form of Child Labour: hazardous work; forced labour; commercial sexual exploitation; or criminal activities. It is important that the minimum school-leaving age and the minimum age for full-time work are the same.

Social auditing

A social audit is undertaken by a company to evaluate the working conditions existing in a facility or supply chain. Unlike monitoring, it lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few days. e performance of a social audit tends to involve three related processes: the document review, the site inspection and interviews with workers, management and third-party stakeholders. An auditor or team of auditors generally conducts the document review, site inspection and interviews. Social auditing does not involve continuous monitoring, although follow-up procedures are not uncommon.

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Concepts and Deﬁnitions

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) helps learners to acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to enter the world of work.

A quality TVET programme plays an essential role in promoting a country’s economic growth and contributing to poverty reduction as well as ensuring the social and economic inclusion of marginalized communities.

Worst Forms of Child Labour

e term “Worst Forms of Child Labour” comprises:

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All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and traﬃcking of children,

debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including recruitment of children for use in armed conﬂict.

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e use, procurement or oﬀering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances.

e use, procurement or offering of a child for unlawful activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties.

Work which, by its nature or the environment where it takes place, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children (referred to as hazardous child labour).

Youth employment

Not all work done by children under the age of 18 is classified as child labour. Participation in decent work which does not affect their health, personal development or education can be a very positive experience for children or adolescents who have reached the required age. Indeed, millions of young workers around the world between the ages of 14 and 18 are desperate to find decent youth employment.

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Analysis of the situation

1. Review national laws regarding child labour

Why

It is essential to know how your national law deﬁnes child labour. An employer needs to understand the content of the national Labour Code and other laws that relate to child labour. It is against the law for a company to break the rules concerning minimum age and hazardous work.

e international definitions of child labour define the minimum age for different types of work, the worst forms of labour for those under the age of 18 and the criteria for light work. ese definitions are set out in two International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions on child labour: Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age for Work and Convention No.182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

How

1. Obtain information from the website of the Ministry of Labour on the national law regulating employment of children, more speciﬁcally:

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provisions regarding the minimum age for employment that will enable you to meet legal

requirements;

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a hazardous child labour list that will enable you to revise the tasks for children above

the minimum working age and reassign them to work in safe, non-hazardous conditions while securing their access to appropriate education or training.

2. Obtain information on national policies and programmes about child labour. You can get this information from the Ministry of Labour and also from local government authorities.

3. Consult your national employers’ organization or your Trade Association oﬃce for information about speciﬁc buyers’ requirements regarding child labour.

4. Obtain information from ILO experts on child labour at your country’s ILO oﬃce or on the
ILO’s website.

More

Ensure that all workers in your business know how child labour is deﬁned: in international standards, in the law of the country and in the sector in which your business operates. For example, you can look at the Constitution, child labour laws, regulation and ordinances, forced and bonded labour laws, occupational safety and health laws and regulations, minimum age legislation, etc.

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2. Refer to your buyers’ requirements

Why

Buyers may expect you to have strict policies about child labour (perhaps stricter than national law and international standards). International buyers and brands want to meet accepted international labour standards and also avoid bad publicity and potential damage to brand image and share value. Foreign companies, or local plants and plantations owned by multinational companies, may use other suppliers if you fail to meet their requirements.

How

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Ask buyers or an industry representative body to state their requirements. Look for international industry codes or initiatives that relate to child labour. Comply with industry codes, local law or international standards − whichever provides the higher protection for children.

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Inorderthatemploymentforchildrenabovetheminimumagewillbeofbeneﬁttothem, promote

transition to youth employment, ensuring adolescents are employed in decent conditions (e.g. decent pay, job contract, working hours, etc.).

More

Brand name companies no longer produce – they buy. Many common brand name companies in footwear, clothing and other sectors have stopped manufacturing their own products. For example, in the mid-1990s, a clothing and sporting goods company changed from being primarily a producer of goods, to a marketing company buying from local ﬁrms located mainly in Asia. It currently sources from hundreds of independent businesses. International buyers look for producers in developing countries that do not use child labour and that have worked hard to ensure that child labour is not used in turn by their own suppliers.

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3. Check the age of your employees

Why

e International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), obliges ratifying States to set a minimum age for employees, in line with the minimum school-leaving age. is must not be less than 15 years of age (or 14 in developing countries).

Almost all countries have set a minimum working age of 14, 15 or 16 years of age, in accordance with this international standard.

Without proof of age, you cannot decide if a certain type of work is suitable for an individual. Beware: sometimes it is not possible to obtain a birth certificate to confirm age (and falsified documents may be easy to get on the black market).

For example, in Cambodia, two types of documents (family book and birth certiﬁcate) have no photos attached; and voting cards, which have photos, are easily falsiﬁed. e labour code of the country requires companies to ask for a medical check-up before hiring anyone. Even so, sometimes companies hire children who are underage.

How

Reliable techniques to check age include the following:
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••••medical examination prior to employment; multiple written documents and affidavits; culturally sensitive interviews with employees and applicants who appear to be too young; end of compulsory schooling certificate for those above minimum age; school enrolment certificate for those in light work.

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In some cases, families may have been unable to register a birth (distance from the village to the district capital, transport and document fees). is is a serious issue, both for employees who need proof of age, and for children who are too young to work and should remain in school. In these circumstances, you could contact the relevant authority to help your young employees gain their birth certiﬁcates.

Often national law requires employers to keep records that document the age of workers and/or to keep a register of young workers under the age of 18. Such documentation is required under the relevant international standards. ese practices can provide evidence to show that the employer is complying with laws against child labour.

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4. Identify hazardous work

Why

Identifyinghazardousworkinyourcompanyisanimportantstepinpreventingchildlabour.Ifyoungpeople (of a legal working age) work in safe, non-hazardous conditions, then this is called youth employment.

Eachcountrycreatesalistofhazardousactivitiesbyconsultingwithworkers’andemployers’organizations (social partners). is list describes types of work that must not be carried out by children, focusing on work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals. When this list has been ﬁnalized, it is usually attached to the country’s labour law.

ere are reported cases of children doing hazardous work with grave consequences. For example, in the United States, a 15-year old farm worker was fatally electrocuted when a 30-foot section of aluminium irrigation pipe he was moving came into contract with an overhead power line.

How

1. Obtain the list of hazardous work. If you are unclear how the law applies to your company, you can consult national employers’ organizations and labour inspectors.

2. If a list of hazardous activities is not available, you can consult the International Labour
Organization (ILO) website, medical personnel or safety and health experts. Guidance can be found in ILO’s Recommendation 190 supplementing the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).

3. Consult with your workforce. Your employees and their elected representatives are best placed to assist you in understanding what hazardous work is in your workplace.

4. Consider pursuing a workplace safety and health risk assessment to determine hazards at the workplace.

More

Guidance for governments (and social partners) on work that may be hazardous for children, and could therefore be included on a national list, is given in the ILO’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190), Paragraph 3:

In determining the types of work referred to under Article 3(d) of the Convention [No. 182], and in identifying where they exist, consideration should be given, inter alia, to:

(a) work which exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse; (b) work underground, under water, at dangerous heights or in conﬁned spaces; (c) work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involves the manual handling or transport of heavy loads;

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(d) work in an unhealthy environment which may, for example, expose children to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or to temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations damaging to their health; (e) work under particularly diﬃcult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work where the child is unreasonably conﬁned to the premises of the employer.

Children up to the age of 18 who work in hazardous conditions or perform hazardous tasks are considered to be child labour.

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5. Carry out workplace risk assessment

Why

Businesses have a key role to play in the elimination of child labour, in particular by assessing and controlling safety and health risks in the workplace. Risk assessment plays an important part in protecting workers and businesses, as well as complying with the laws of many countries.

Risk assessment plays an important part in protecting workers and businesses, as well as complying with the laws of many countries. ese assessments can prevent accidents from happening. In Zambia, when the Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE) conducted an assessment in Kaoma Farming areas, one conﬁrmed case of food poisoning was reported by the Kaoma District Environmental Health Specialist. A farmer from Kamuni, being unaware of the hazards associated with farming, had stored pesticides close to an area where food was also kept. e food became contaminated and was later consumed by a family of 23 people. Of the 23 who were poisoned, 12 children aged below the age of 13 had to be hospitalized.

How

A risk assessment is simply a careful examination of what, in the workplace, could cause harm to people. Its purpose is to make sure that no one gets hurt or falls ill.