Akiko's blog #3 - "Child Labour"


June 13, 2016

 

June is a very wet month for Japan; most part of the country has entered the rainy season, and most days are rainy or cloudy. We can’t wait for sunny spells but then again, a dry June will make us worried about water shortage in summer and farm produce’s growth. On a cheerful note, June is also a month of bonuses. Governmental and municipal agencies and many companies provide the summer bonuses at the end of this month.

 

For the ILO, June is the month for ending child labour, as June 12 marks the World Day against Child Labour. So, this month’s topic is Child Labour, and we’ll explore the labour issues related to the youth that Japan is facing now. Child Labour is defined as work done by children younger than the legal working age (the general minimum age for employment is 15, and 18 for employment that poses potential harm to workers’ health, safety and morals). The ILO pursues this issue under the two pillars of conventions and technical assistance programmes. Our efforts in this area were covered by the media the other day, when Nobel Peace laureate Mr. Kailash Satyarthi visited Japan last month. Many well-attended events were held throughout Japan to act against child labour, and I presented the ILO’s activities at some of them.

 

According to a 2012 estimate, 168 million children in the world are still engaged in child labour (including 85 million children engaged in dangerous, hazardous labour). Asia and the Pacific has the largest number of children engaged in child labour—78 million, 9.3 % of the child population, while Sub-Sahara Africa has the highest rate at 21.4 %, which equates to 59 million children (reference - click here). Child labour is concentrated in agriculture (58.6 %) and services (except domestic work, 25.4%); other sectors include industry (7.2 %) and domestic work (in a third party household, 6.8 %). The number 1 cause of child labour is poverty, but there are also various other factors such as lack of educational opportunities, practice in the local community, discrimination, armed conflict, and natural disasters.

 

The ILO has two conventions on this issue, both of which are core labour standards: “Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment” (C138, adopted in 1973, ratified by 168 nations) and “Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour” (C182, adopted in 1999, ratified by 180 nations).

 

The ILO began a technical cooperation programme called International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in 1992. IPEC aims to ultimately eliminate child labour in all its forms, in particular, focusing on eradication of the worst forms of child labour. IPEC implements actions in partnerships with governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, NGOs, schools, the media and other related parties.

 

The World Day against Child Labour started in 2002; based on a given theme each year, promotional activities are conducted throughout the world to garner public attention on the issue and the efforts to combat child labour. This year, the World Day focused on child labour in supply chains. Companies run the risk of having their reputations tarnished or receiving negative impact on their business unless they watch over their supply chains to keep out child labour.

 

Child labour occurs in the rural and informal economies, potentially outside of labour inspection, where labour unions and employers’ organizations do not exist or do not have much influence even if they do. The top management of companies that run supply chains may not be aware of what is going on in small factories and homes, even more so if proper educational system does not exist. Therefore, member states need to make dedicated effort to address this problem. We, as consumers, may be part of this through purchasing products that were born out of child labour. So, the ILO asks you to think about what you can do to eliminate child labour from supply chains. What would be your answer?

 

As for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that need to be achieved by 2030, Target 8.7 is to “take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.” The ILO takes the initiative here to call on international agencies to form an alliance for SDG Target 8.7 in September.

 

Happily for Japan, child labour is a rare case in this country nowadays. A social problem has emerged, however, for the youth: exploitative part-time jobs. Young people, mostly college students, are forced to accept sudden change in work shifts at a drinking establishment or a convenience store where they work. What is supposed to be just a part-time job often ends up taking up much of their time and energy, straining their academic life, as they miss classes or fail to earn credits. The MHLW has started working on this problem in cooperation with related agencies, to grasp the situation of student part-timers and to secure favourable working conditions for them. Increasingly more young people hesitate to claim their rights, out of compassion for store managers in some cases. Shouldn’t we provide an opportunity for students to learn a basic attitude towards work so that they could speak with employers and demand decent work, even for a part-time job?