|
What
can Trade Union do to Combat Child Labour?
Presented to the "Urban
Childhood Conference",
Trondheim, Norway, June 1997 by Geir Myrstad,
Chief
Technical Adviser
(October 1996 - January 1998)
CONTENTS
Part I
Part II
Appendix III
Part III
Part IV
PART I
History
In presenting the International Labour Organization, I would like to
focus first on its history. You will see from this that the history of the ILO,
the history of the Trade Union Movement, and the history of the struggle against
child labour, not only run parallel through history, but is actually intertwined,
so that you can not study one of them without learning a lot about the two
others.
Although the ILO is by far the oldest of the organizations
in the United
Nations family, founded in 1919, I shall start my historical overview even
before that.
The idea that children should be protected from abuse and exploitation by
laws is not a new one:
In 1396 the Italian State of Venice prohibited child labour under 13 yrs of
age in certain trades. In Great Britain child labour was prohibited in 1833 for
children under the age of 9 and limited work for older children. In 1836 in the
State of Massachusetts in the United States the first American child labour
reform law was adopted and in 1839 Prussia passed a law regulating child labour.
(1)
Socialistic ideas were born before socialist organizations, so the first
initiatives to protect workers' rights and children's rights came from
individuals. One of the pioneers of socialism was Robert Owen, a socialist
employer, who regulated the working conditions in his mill, and provided for
leisure and education for the children of his workers. Through his efforts, a
law was passed in Britain in 1919 to limit working hours in the cotton mills.
The first persistent advocate of the idea of international labour legislation
and the precursor of the work of the ILO was Daniel le Grand (1783-1859), a
French manufacturer who from 1840 to 1853 addressed appeals to British, French,
German and Swiss statesmen and civil servants, aimed at an international
agreement on labour legislation. He argued that a country's prosperity was
closely linked to the physical well-being and morality of its working class. His
proposed international labour laws covering hours of work, a day of rest, night
work, unhealthy or dangerous occupations an the employment of children were very
carefully drafted, after le Grand had studied the legal position in different
countries (in much the same way as the ILO prepares proposed standards today).
Le Grand warned that if such agreements were not reached, governments would be
faced by a growing tide of popular discontent.
notes
- A. Fyfe, M. Jankanish: Trade Unions and Child Labour- A guide to
action, ILO 1996
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International Trade Unions are born
It was from 1860 onwards that workers
from various trades began to unite to form "International Trade
Secretariats." Up to 1900, around 20 were established and most of them are
still in existence. Amongst the core demands that sparked off the birth of these
international workers' organizations were:
- freedom of association
- shorter hours
- abolition of child labour.
As early as
1866, the International Workers' Congress called for an international campaign
against child labour.
International trade secretariats are still fighting for the same issues
today,
but today they also finding themselves with a special status within the
structures of the ILO. A list of International Trade Secretariats can be found
in Appendix I.
During this period, more and more countries developed national laws on labour
issues including the child labour issue. These laws regulated rather than
abolished child labour.
In 1890, the Berlin Conference was held as a factory and
mine labour conference. The outcome was indirect rather the direct, since only
recommendations were made and governments were not committed to take any
specific action. Nevertheless, the very fact that two weeks had actually been
spent on international discussion on issues such as child labour had a profound
effect on the debate on labour laws both nationally and internationally. (2)
Progress in many fields continued, both concerning trade
unions, labour laws,
and the establishment of the first International Labour Office as a
non-governmental organization,
in Basel, Switzerland. This progress was
unfortunately shattered due to the outbreak of the first world war.
Since they had not been able to prevent the war from breaking out, the trade
union movement put all their energy into ensuring that post-war societies would
build themselves on the principle of social justice. This resulted in a "Labour
Charter" being drawn up by a Commission created by the Paris Peace
Conference, which was included in the peace treaty resulting from the Conference.
The Paris Conference also recommended the creation of an International Labour
Organization, which was brought into effect by the treaty of Versailles. One of
the nine principles of the "Labour Charter", which were guidelines for
the member states of the new organization, was the abolition of child labour.
notes
- For further discussion on the history of the debate on child
labour,
please refer to "Child Labour - to regulate or abolish? The historical and
present conflict". Presented by Björne Grimsrud to the Urban Childhood
Conference, June 1997.
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The establishment of the ILO
(3)
The recommendations of the Commission formed
the basis of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles, thereby creating the
International Labour Organization. Most of its provisions are still in effect
and (with amendments) remain the Constitution of the Organization; one
of those
provisions is the passage in the Preamble to the ILO Constitution, which
declares that universal and lasting peace can be founded only on the basis of
social justice.
The First Session of the International Labour Conference was held in
Washington in October 1919. Forty countries sent delegations, including most
European countries together with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
China, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Japan,
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Persia (Iran), Peru, Siam (Thailand), South Africa,
Uruguay and Venezuela. Thus, from earliest days, the International Labour Office
had a truly international dimension, in which the interests of workers in
developing countries alike were represented.
The first international labour Conventions established by the Washington
Conference concerned
(1) Hours of Work, (2) Unemployment, (3) Maternity
Protection, (4) Women and Night Work, (5) the Minimum Age for Industrial
Employment, and (6) Night Work for Young Persons.
Between the two wars, the ILO became more and more active in regulating the
labour conditions in the colonies, despite strong resistance from the colonial
powers. This was
the background for Forced Labour Convention (1930), aimed at
suppressing all forced, bonded and compulsory work within the shortest possible
period.
During the Second World War, the International Labour Office moved to Canada.
In 1944 the International Labour Conference was held in Philadelphia, USA. There,
the ILO prepared for the callenges of the post-war world. The "Declaration
of Philadelphia", which is now an annex to the ILO Constitution, again
emphasized the abolition of child labour as part of the creation of social
justice. It also states that "poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to
prosperity anywhere."
Let us just trace the post-war history of the child labour combat very
briefly. (4)
- 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by United Nations
General Assembly.
- 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, the
Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery adapted by United
Nations. The Supplementary Convention identifies child labour as a form of
slavery for the first time.
- 1959 United Nations adopts Declaration of the Rights
of the Child.
- 1973 New, comprehensive international instruments on minimum age
for admission to employment - Convention No. 138 and Recommendation No. 146 -
adopted by
the International Labour Conference.
- 1979 International Year of the
Child. United Nations begins drafting a convention on the rights of the child.
International Labour Conference adopts resolution on the progressive elimination
of child labour and transitional measures.
- 1989 United Nations adopts Convention
on the Rights of the Child.
- 1990 The World Conference on Education for All sets
a target of universal basic education for all by the year 2000. The World Summit
for Children sets the goal of universal primary education.
- 1991 ILO creates The
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).
- 1993 The
Commission on Human Rights adopts the United Nations Programme of Action for the
Elimination of the Exploitation of Child Labour.
- 1994 European Union members
sign a directive protecting young Europeans at work.
- ICFTU Child Labour campaign
launched at the ILO's 75th Anniversary International Labour Conference.
notes
- Trade Unions and the ILO , 2nd edition, ILO 1988.
- ETUC: Child Labour in Europe, Brussels 1994.
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Top
Part II
Trade Union Strategies
The following is a presentation of a
theoretical framework for trade union action but this should not be taken as
pure theory. The intention is to show that we do not have so far sufficient
experience in all the different methods outlined to say that they can be
considered "best practice". The examples I am going to use will come
mainly from real life trade union experience, but some may be taken from the
drawing board.
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Investigation
Finding out the facts is the first step in any initiative
against child labour. Trade unions can take part at various levels:
- observing child labour where trade union members themselves work. This is
less common than one would imagine, since it is typical that child labour is
much more prevalent where trade unions do not exist.
- discovering child labour on
the production line. This is common practice and workers are close to the
problem. Child labour is often found in sweatshops who subcontract work from
larger companies, or in home work. Some industries actively use subcontracting
and home work as a way of hiding the use of child labour.
- conducting surveys themselves. Small scale surveys can be carried out by the unions alone or in
co-operation with NGOs who have experience in survey methods. For instance, ICEM
has supported their affiliate in Peru to carry out a survey in co-operation with
an NGO. The result is that since the union was directly involved in discovering
the facts, they became extremely committed to finding solutions to the child
labour problem they had uncovered. (5)
- some workers have close relations with
and are better informed about local communities. Health workers, social workers
and of course teachers are the prime examples amongst this group, but also
postmen or bus-drivers can act as the eyes and ears of the trade unions in the
areas they service.
In large-scale surveys, trade union involvement is also
valuable. For instance, in connection with the nation-wide child labour survey
to be carried out in South Africa in June 1997, a group of so-called "stakeholders"
has been established. The trade union movement is represented through the
national centres, as well as by agricultural unions. (6)
The trade union
contribution to the survey is:
- in the design of the survey, they can contribute their knowledge of where
child labour exist or is likely to exist
- in the analysis of the data, they can
ensure that the facts needed for trade union action are extracted from the
material.
notes
- Seminar for International Trade Secretariats on "Developing national
and international trade union strategies to combat child labour". ILO
report (to be published)
- A Proposed Child Labour Survey for the Republic of South Africa. The
challenges and intricacies of design and implementation. ILO report. Geneva/Pretoria
- January 1997.
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Documentation
While statistics and numbers can be very convincing to some
groups of people (and indeed it is difficult to be convincing without them), for
a general mobilization it is often necessary to give names and faces to the
tragedy of child labour. Visual documentation in the form of photographs and
video footage is important but difficult to get hold of.
The people who exploit
child labour will do everything to hide it, as many a frustrated journalist can
bear witness to. Here again, trade unions can be invaluable because they know
what is going on and where. The movie "Angels with Dirty Faces" is an
excellent example of what can be achieved when a professional journalist works
together with local unions. (7)
notes
- The movie can be obtained from: Parachute Pictures (David
Browne, Managing
Editor) 1, Navarino Grove, London Fields, Hackney, London E8 1 AJ, UK.
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Institutional Development
Trade unions can set up permanent structures to
deal with child labour. These structures can be:
- "focal points" - persons at different levels of the union cadres
who are given a
special responsibility for child labour activities
- committees
- networks (within the organization and with other organizations)
- units (of
professional child labour activists)
But most important of all: strong unions,
with educated members, and a clear policy on the child labour issue, is perhaps
the best bulwark against child labour. Therefore, recruiting and organizing to
increase the union's strength and presence are important contributions
in
themselves. Trade unions should not feel any guilt if they combine recruitment
and organizing concerning the issue of child labour in their efforts to place a
union in a new area. They might feel that they are exploiting the workers'
emotions, whereas in reality they are attacking the real exploiters from two
sides!
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Policy Development
Updated policies and plans of action are necessary tools
for trade unions who want to combat child labour. Experience has shown that it
is often the first step, as shown by the following examples:
- In a resolution at the 21st FIET World Congress in
Lomé, Togo, in 1987, FIET
demanded that the abolition of child labour be recognized as a "central
goal in
efforts to achieve a fairer economic and social order in the world"
and that "ILO Conventions and Recommendation be fully applied in all
workplaces, even when child labour is involved". FIET action in the field
of child labour has grown from there, starting with activities of the Youth
Committee.
- Education International also adopted a resolution on child labour at
their first world congress in Harare in July 1995. The resolution can be found
in Appendix II. Following this resolution, several affiliates, notably in Latin
America and Asia, developed child labour projects. Activities in the field of
education are examined in the next chapter, and examples will be given there.
-
The Commercial Workers' Summit, held in Washington, DC, in June 1996, concluded
that Codes of conduct are the most effective way for unions in the commercial
sector to contribute to the struggle against child labour. FIET has since put a
lot of effort into developing and negotiating codes of conduct. Codes of
conduct
are examined in the next paragraph.
Policy documents are often produced by
unions who already have some experience in combating child labour, and the
policies and action plans of these unions should be updated regularly.
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Collective Bargaining
Collective bargaining is a traditional tool of the
trade union movement, and is one of the ways to relate to the employer and which
only trade unions can use. It is one of the main trade union strategies to use
this avenue to combat child labour. The bargaining process can be as follows:
- the child labour issue can be included in general collective agreements
-
negotiations can establish Codes of Conduct. These can concentrate on the child
labour issue, but ideally they should treat the child labour problem in the
general context of trade union rights and human rights.
- trade unions and
employers can issue joint policy statements
- trade unions and employers can agree
on joint Plans of Actions, agreeing on both joint and separate commitments to
action to eliminate child labour
Other parties such as government agencies and
NGOs can sometimes join in these partnerships. The most interesting example at
this time (June 1997) is the Apparel Industry Partnership being negotiated in
the United States between the industry, government and the trade unions.
One of the most well known Codes of Conduct is the FIFA agreement. This
agreement has served as a model for other agreements, and a Code for the whole
sporting goods sector is being considered at the moment. A background paper on
the agreement as well as the agreement itself is included as.
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Appendix III
Codes of Conduct are one of the best tools that trade unions
have in a country to influence the situation in another country. The diagram
below shows how this could be applied in the metal industry.
It is extremely important to note, however, that the demands unions bargain
for need not be "child-specific" in the goal to eliminate child labour.
If successfully negotiated, many "traditional" demands have a positive
effect, and are sometimes are essential towards solving the child labour problem.
The following examples can be mentioned:
- Trade unions promote social justice and a living
wage, thereby weakening the
dependence of poor families on the income of their children.
- Bargaining to abolish the piece-rate system and replacing it with a normal
wage system ( on many plantations or for instance in the brick-making industry
of India) the piece-rate system of payment is the single strongest force in
keeping child labour alive. (8)
notes
-
Fyfe, Alec: Bitter Harvest - Child Labour in
Agriculture. ILO April 1997
"12 hours a day every day" - Child Labour in Brick Kilns in India.
International Federation of Building and Wood Workers. Geneva, March 1995.
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Monitoring
Once agreements of any kind have been agreed upon, the challenge
is to make sure they are adhered to. Monitoring systems often seem to be the
weakest link in many agreements - from some they are actually missing. Putting
monitoring mechanisms into place is an important area of experimentation. In
Bangladesh the ILO is currently trying out a system where a corps of inspectors
are trained, and this same person will visit both factories and schools. Trade
unions, however, can contribute to monitoring from the inside, and through their
organizations teachers can be mobilized (rather than commanded) to participate
actively in the monitoring of the education part of rehabilitation programmes.
It is important also to be aware of the scale of numbers involved when a
union has to monitor a situation. A union can monitor a case involving twenty or
fifty suppliers. However, if a "Code" was signed with a major retailer
for example in the textile field where there are many small subcontractors and
long lines of production, it can be an impossible task for the union. In such a
case "social audits" must be carried out by independent evaluators,
and the trade union involvement must be at the level of setting up a structure
and ensuring the independent status of the evaluators, etc.
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Raising Awareness
This is probably one of the most important parts that trade
unions can play, and can be divided into two parts:
- raising the awareness of
the unions own leaders and members through workers' education, and
- awareness-raising
for the general public.
Amongst trade union members, there are of course exceptions to the
rule, but
one of the essential rules is to raise the awareness of its members. The tragedy
of child labour has been going on for years and years while most of us did
nothing. "Awareness-raising" does not just mean "being aware"
in a vague sort of way, it refers to learning in its true form:
to have learnt
something also means to have changed one's attitudes and behaviour.
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Direct support for working children
Prevention is better that cure, but where
cure is necessary, we must make very sure it does not kill the patient.
Especially when trade unions use the strength they have through their
international relations, or when they use their influence over consumers in
developed countries, they must make very sure that children actually end up in a
better position than before.
The support can take on different forms:
- establishing new schools
- providing non-formal training centres that can lead
children liberated from child labour into mainstream education
- vocational
training combined with basic literacy for those who are already to old to join
the formal school system
- stipend, school lunches or other forms of financial
assistance to the children or their families
- alternative job creation for adult
members of the families
- income-generating plans for adult members of the
families
These activities have several things in common:
- they are essential to successful campaigning
- they cost money
- they are
work-intensive
- they are not in the mainstream of trade union experience
In
short, even though it is evident that trade unions must concentrate on these
various activities in the future, it is equally evident that trade unions cannot
do everything since so much is to be done. Included in this list there are,
however, many things that only trade unions can do, or that trade unions can
best accomplish. This again illustrate the great importance of having alliances
with partners to share the responsibilities and the work,
and that all parties,
including the trade unions, must identify and concentrate on the areas where
they can do the best job.
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The Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No.138) and the Role of Trade Unions
Convention No.138 is a dynamic instrument. It is general in scope, as opposed to
sectorial, and takes a comprehensive approach towards the effective abolition of
child labour. Therefore, C.138 provides a basis for "a coherent strategy
against child labour at the national level." (9)
However, C.138 does not offer a whole set of pre-determined standards ready
for implementation. Many things have to be decided by each ratifying State,
starting from the general minimum age, the list of hazardous work, to the exact
scope of application and so on. This is intended to give flexibility to the
instrument, and requires a pro-active approach and continued endeavour on the
part of ratifying States, i.e. not only the governments but also the social
partners.
The Convention explicitly requires consultation with employers' and workers'
organizations prior to most of the national decisions to be taken in application
of the Convention: for instance, at what age should the general minimum age be
fixed, whether exclusion from the scope should be made or not, what exactly
should be the types of hazardous work to be prohibited to higher age, etc. Thus,
the reality and specific practices of various sectors in each country could be
reflected in the national standards regarding child labour. In addition, such a
tripartite consultation on each issue would certainly contribute in itself to
the awareness raising in the country.
Apart from the above "built-in" role of trade unions in C.138, more
generally, trade unions are always expected and encouraged to play an active
role in the ILO's standard-setting and application. The Constitutional
procedures of representation and complaints can be initiated by trade unions or
their delegates in extreme cases of non-observance. Before getting to such a
last resort, the Committee of Experts has never stopped paying full attention to
the observations received from employers' or workers' organizations on the
application of ratified Conventions (10) .
This role is all the more important
concerning an issue like child labour, where legislative provisions are often
far away from a full application in practice.
Unfortunately, there have so far been only very few occasions that trade
unions submitted comments on the application of child labour Conventions, except
for the cases of forced labour under C.29 involving children among others. If
C.138 has not been ratified by the country in question, it is still possible to
invoke other ratified Conventions that relate to child labour, such as earlier
Conventions on minimum age on particular sectors concerned. C.81 on labour
inspection could be useful regarding a failure to ensure the practical
application of existing national labour legislation about children and young
workers. C.117 on Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) also includes
provisions requiring the prescription of the school-leaving age and the minimum
age of employment by national legislation. Thus, there are only a handful of ILO
member States, including very new members, that have not ratified a Convention
that has a bearing on child labour.
It is also important for trade unions to be actively and fully involved in
the elaboration of the new instruments on child labour in 1998-99. However,
there should not be any waiting for the adoption of new standards. Efforts must
be given to the existing Conventions connected with child labour. Any new
instrument should not attempt to revise Convention No.138, but should be a
complement. Convention No.138 will remain as the framework in the combat against
child labour.
In countries where Convention No. 138 has not yet been
ratified, campaigning
for its ratification is an excellent way to start a general discussion on child
labour, since the convention itself encourages an analysis of the child labour
situation in relation to the country's level of development.
A list of countries that ratified Convention No. 138 and other core ILO
conventions is provided in Appendix IV.
notes
- Child Labour - targeting the intolerable". First report to the 86th
Labour Conference 1998, ILO, Geneva, 1996.
- Between its sessions in Nov-Dec 1995 and in Nov-Dec 1996, the Committee
of Experts has received 245 observations (13 by employers' and 232 by workers' organizations), compared to 153 observations received during the year preceding
its 1990 session, for instance.
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Utilizing
the supervisory machinery of other international instruments
The
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, has supervisory machinery
in the form of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, with their headquarters
in Geneva.
Complaints can be sent both through UNICEF and through the ILO. Reports can
be also be sent directly to the CRC, who also accepts responses to government
reports. However, it is important to study closely in advance exactly what the
Convention says, and whether the countries in questions have reservations
against any of the clauses in the Convention. It must be noted that the
Convention on the Rights of the Child grants liberal rights to reservation to
ratifying States.
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Part III
The Importance of Education
In providing more examples of trade
union strategy and action, I have selected those which illustrate in different
ways the importance of education in the struggle against child labour.
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A Brazilian
Experience: Tracing the link between child labour and school
drop-out
The Confederação Nacional dos Trabhaladores em Educação (CNTE) is
an EI affiliate in Brazil. 700 000 out of the 2 000 000 teachers in Brazil are
member of CNTE.
In spite of compulsory education, Brazil has some 4 million children who are
not schoolarized. The majority of these children attend school at some stage but
drop out, and the number of drop-outs is increasing at an alarming rate.
The aims of the CNTE action programme are:
- To test the CNTE thesis that there is a link between
children's dropping out
of school and premature work
- To design a strategy to decrease the drop-out rate
by reducing the number of children who start working too early
- To educate a core
group of educators and union staff to mobilize the majority of the members
behind this strategy.
The CNTE decided to track down the achievements of pupils
who combine school attendance with work. The survey was carried out within the
six cities with cases of the most premature work carried out by children in the
country. The survey took place during the years 1994 - 1996 and included over 7,
000 children in 44 public schools. The survey formed part of the CNTE Action
Programme with IPEC.
The survey report formed the basis of material for an awareness-raising
campaign, targeting teachers, working children's families and their communities.
Members are being mobilized through a training
programme. To influence
national policy on children's rights, in particular the right to education, CNTE
promoted a "mobilization day" where they used mass media to influence
authorities and sensitize society at large.
As a result of this campaign, more and more teachers are becoming active in
influencing parents and local communities to encourage children to stay at
school and concentrate on their education. They demonstrate how premature work
can cause school failure and eventual dropping out of school altogether. (11)
notes
- Alec Fyfe with M. Jankanish: Trade Unions and Child Labour - A guide to
action, ILO 1996.
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Vocational Training as Prevention
Today, the diamond, gems and jeweler industry has the largest share of the total export of India. This share rose
from 1% in 1960-61 to 17% in 1994-95.
A small, but rapidly increasing category is the processing of precious
stones.
India contributes 95% of the emeralds in the world market, 85% of the rubies and
65% of the sapphires. This gemstone industry does not fall under any Labour
legislation in India. Work is carried out on a piece-rate system, and there is a
complicated system of middlemen between the worker and the exporter (12)
With some few exceptions, workplaces in these industries are normally
congested, poorly lit and poorly ventilated. Conditions such as these, long and
irregular hours, cramped working positions, continuous stress and strain, all
contribute to workers suffering from sickness and injuries caused by the
workplace.
Children are also working under these same
conditions. In the Surat area, one
out of ten workers in the diamond polishing industry is a child. The 1996 survey
carried out under the National Child Labour Policy Project showed that in this
area, up to 40% of the wage-earners in a family are children. (The highest
figure only applies to areas with a high concentration of child labour.) In
addition to the children who live at home and are sent to work, there is also a
group of children in Surat who live within the workshop itself and work from a
very early age. These children are migrant workers who have come from other
areas, mostly in the company of adult workers.
Interviews with workers in the diamond industry in Surat who send their own
children to work revealed that these were the workers who were not artisans and
who were at the bottom of the ladder both economically and socially. Their own
work was very irregular and dependent on the power supply to the industry: no
electricity, no work. They prefer that their children work in the diamond
industry and perhaps acquire the skills of an artisan rather than go to school,
because they have no faith that education from the school system will help their
children find regular jobs (13)
However, it is mostly workers from the lowest steps of the ladder in the
diamond industry who send their children to work at an early age. Children of
artisans, like diamond polishers, normally go to school for several years before
starting their apprentice-ship, and children of workshop owners and traders
never work as children, even though they normally enter the diamond trade after
completing their education.
In the gem polishing industry, children are engaged ostensibly as apprentices
while in fact they are a source of cheap labour. During the first two years, the
child does not get any wage at all but works ten hours a day. During this period,
the master contractor saves 150 to 200 rupees per month. After two years, the
child is paid 50 rupees a month for work which would an adult worker would have
earned almost 300 rupees. By the time the child is 14 he earns 100 rupees
whereas an adult would earn 500 or 600 rupees for the same job. (14)
As can be seen from the above, cheap or free labour seems to be the main
reason why employers in the diamond and gemstone industry in India prefer to use
children. The savings involved where child labour can replace adult workers are
considerable. In this respect the diamond and gemstone industry is different
from other industries in India. A recent ILO study indicates for example that
the labour-cost saving from using child labour are less that 5% for bangles and
between 5% and 10 % for carpets (15) .
Small costs like these could be added to
the consumer price of the end product, and consumers would probably be willing
to subsidize the cost of operating without child labour in these sectors. For
diamonds and gemstones the picture is different. A continuation of these
industries without child labour would probably not be possible without a
different division of the profits between the different operators in the chain
of production, or with a restructuring of the industry as a whole. Some
restructuring is probably needed anyhow, since it is also necessary to be able
to establish more clearly than today the employer-employee relationship.
For parents, and possibly also for the children themselves, career
possibilities seem to be the most important reason for endorsing child labour
and even preferring it over school. In the gemstone sector, unions in Brazil
have opened vocational training centres for gemstone polishing. Results show
that six months of training is sufficient to learn the skills required to enter
the gem polishing industry. (16)
If such vocational training centres could be established, where young people of school-leaving age could be
trained, this
would clearly demonstrate that it is not necessary to spend your childhood in a
sweatshop to work in the gemstone industry as an adult worker. Opening some
vocational training centres for gemstone polishing is therefore an important
part of the trade union strategy to combat child labour in the gemstone industry
in India.
notes
-
- Chandra Korgaokar: Working Conditions in the Diamond Industry in India -
a Note. 1996.
- Child Labour in the Gem Polishing Industry in
Jaipur. National Labour Institute, India, 1991.
- Levison et al: Is child labour really necessary in
India's carpet industry?
Labour Market Paper No 15, ILO, Geneva, 1996.
- Country Report to the UADW 2nd World
Congress, Tel Aviv, May 1997.
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A general education policy to combat child labour
In May 1997, the ILO hosted
a Round Table conference on "Mobilizing teachers, educators and their organizations
to combat child labour". This conference was attended by
UNICEF, UNESCO, Education International and the ILO. One of the things discussed
there was a general approach to basic education that can combine the perspective
of child labour and the trade union perspective.
This a very rough and unfinished sketch of such a
policy:
- Consistent education policy at the national level should include quality free
basic education for all takes elimination of child labour as one of its starting
points values early childhood education values "non-formal" methods
and institutions ("diversity in a unified framework") actively
promotes transitional paths of education includes child labour issue in
curriculum promotes the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ILO Convention
no. 138.
- Education policy must be part of a consistent development
policy.
- Minimum
income programmes or other schemes to make education accessible to poor families.
Hopefully, the cooperation between the four organizations will continue in an
international programme to promote education as tool to prevent and remove child
labour, and to mobilise teachers and their organizations to combat child labour.
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Part IV
ILO Technical cooperation with the trade union movement to combat
child labour
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
(IPEC)
This programme has already been presented to you by my colleague Mr. Tabusa.
From the beginning in 1992, trade union involvement in IPEC programmes was
limited, and NGOs were the most frequent partner for IPEC. Lately, an effort has
been made to increase trade union involvement. In 1992-93, ten programmes or 7.1
% of all IPEC programmes were implemented with trade unions. This percentage
rose to 11.9 % in 1994-95 and to 15.6 % in 1996. The ILO is still actively
promoting stronger trade union involvement in IPEC programmes.
IPEC activities started in Asia, so Asia has the largest number of IPEC
programmes with trade unions. The highest numbers of programmes are found in
India (22) and Bangladesh (12). There is also good trade union participation in
IPEC countries in Latin America. Brazil has 18 programmes with trade unions.
It follows from the structure of IPEC that most IPEC programmes must be at
the country level. This leaves little scope for the international trade union organizations. Therefore, a separate project has been funded by the Norwegian
Government to deal specifically with this area.
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Developing National and International Trade Union Strategies to Combat Child
Labour
This project is not part of the IPEC organization. It is being
implemented by the ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV)
The project is designed for three years in two phases and will concentrate on
developing an awareness in selected international trade secretariats and sectorial industrial unions of the scope and extent of child labour in the most
important sectors where it is to be found. In its first, twelve month phase, the
project will provide technical, advisory and resource support to international
trade union organizations to enhance their capacity to act on child labour in
their respective industries and sectors. This phase will be used to prepare the
ground for the field activities in phase two, and in particular it will identify
research concerns from a workers' perspective, which have a critical bearing on
developing policy leading to effective action by trade union organizations.
The second phase will focus on developing the capacity of workers'
organizations at the national level in selected sectors as designated by the
participating organizations, as part of their campaign to create a better
understanding of the ways to combat child labour in the context of their own
overall workers' education programmes, awareness campaigns and human rights
programmes. A particular feature of the project will be the selective testing
and demonstration of the complementarity of action at the international and
national level which will establish the foundations for future activities by the
ILO.
Target groups
- The intended beneficiaries are those children most at risk - those working
under forced labour conditions and engaged in hazardous work.
- The direct recipients of the project will be trade unions and their leaders
in selected sectors at the international, national and local level.
Institutional framework
- The project will work with international trade union
organizations,
particularly the International trade secretariats, and utilize their existing
networks.
- National counterparts designated by the participating trade union
organizations will provide practical support to the project in the delivery of
activities. In addition, support and backstopping will be provided by the ILO
Regional and Area offices, MDT specialists as well as relevant ACTRAV staff at
Geneva headquarters.
Development objective
To contribute to the elimination of child labour in those sectors represented
by international trade union organizations so that they would be able to
ascertain the magnitude of the problem, identify the needs and possible
solutions aiming at the elimination of child labour in certain industrial
sectors such as commercial agriculture, food, hotels and tourism;
textile and
clothing; construction, building and brick kilns; mining or other areas where
child labour is prevalent.
Immediate objective
By the end of the project to have enhanced the capacity of international
trade union organizations to provide technical and advisory support concerning
the elimination of child labour, including information campaigns, to national
affiliates in industrial sectors where child labour has been identified as
prevalent.
This project is still in Phase One were work on the international level is
most important. Regional activities in Southern Africa is starting from August.
Some activities are already taking place in Asia as part of the development of
international campaigns.
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