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The influence of employment law on child labour power point (1)
- 1. The Influence of Employment Law on Child Labour and the Young Worker of Today Carol Entwisle Diploma in Employment Law 2014
- 2. International Labour Organisation (ILO) define child labour as: • “Work that children should not be doing because they are too young to work, or – if they are old enough to work – because it is dangerous or otherwise unsuitable for them”. • “ Whether or not a particular form of ‘work’ can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed and the conditions under which it is performed”. ILO/IPEC 2008 United Nations Resources for Speakers on Global Issues
- 3. Historical Background ‘Health and Morals of ‘The Cotton Mills Apprentices Act’ 1788 1802 Introduction of the ‘Chimney Sweep Act’ Act’ 1815 1819 Banning of employment of any child under the age of 10 in factories ‘The Mines And Collieries Act’ Outlawing of chimney sweeps under the age of 10 1834 1833 ‘The Factories Act’ 1842 1840 ‘The Factory Act’- Restricting working hours Minimum age for chimney sweep apprentices raised to 16 1847 1844 No child under 8 employed in ‘The Textile Factory Act’ factories or workshops 1867 1863 Publication of the novel ‘The Water Babies’ Chimney sweeps required to be licenced 1875 1872 Safeguards to ‘Health, Life and Limb’ introduced 1933 ‘Children and Young Person’s Act’- UK (Amended 1963)
- 4. Reasons for child labour past and present
- 5. Reasons for Child Labour • The causes of child labour have links in culture, economics (primarily poverty), social actions and public perceptions all of which have made the child’s contribution to the family income necessary. • World Wars made it necessary to return children to the workforce. • Unicef – has produced a series of leaflets highlighting children employed in the workforce of suppliers to British industries.
- 6. Poverty • Poverty is the most compelling reason why children work, as relevant today as in the early days of the Industrial Revolution • Poor households spend the bulk of the income on food, often income from every member of the household is critical to survival. • But UNICEF report “It’s a myth that child labour can never be eliminated until poverty disappears”. They believe as long as people are prepared to exploit them, be it family, employers or governments then there will be child labour. • However poverty is not the only factor, as countries that are equally poor have varying levels of child labour
- 7. Education • Not all countries have free or compulsory education • Even when schools are available the quality of education can be poor • Access is limited for some children • Culturally in some countries education is not seen as productive • Children are seen as a commodity to be sold or traded (bonded labour)
- 8. Market Demands • Children are cheaper to employ them adults ( Young person rates UK) • Can be dispensed with easily, when labour demands fluctuate • More docile and obedient workforce, unlikely to organise for protection or support. (Reluctant to join a Trade Union) • Changes to workforce make –up, with more temporary, zero hour and flexible contracts.
- 9. Income shock on households • Many households do not have the means to deal with income shocks • Natural Disasters – UK alone with flooding to business, and homes without house/contents insurance. • Economic or agricultural crisis • Impact of HIV/Aids pandemic, as more children become head of the household.
- 10. Current Employment Laws on Child Labour • Children's and Young Persons Act 1933 amended 1963 • International Labour Organisations (ILO) Convention of Child Rights • The ILO set the lowest age for legal employment at 15, many countries have applied this law. • Unfortunately some countries have disregarded the ILO protocol and moved to reduce the legal age. Bolivia has reduced the age of employment from 14 to 10 • National Minimum Wage • Working Time Regulations 2010
- 11. Employment for Young Workers or Child Labour in a Modern veneer? • Youth rate abolished in many companies. • But in 2002 some of the highest profile prosecutions for child labour offences, were made against some of these very employers. • £12,400 fine imposed on McDonalds when a 16 year old was found to be working up to 16 hours a day. • Inadequate/poor enforcement of legislation and policies to protect children will enable child labour to persist. • ILO sept 2013 estimated there are still 168 million children working in situations that fit their definition of child labour.
- 12. Modern Child Labour • Small scale manufacturers with families working from home. • Street sellers in tourist areas. • Bonded child labour, common in southern Asia were families either sell or give their children in payment for debts. • Tobacco industry in the United States, children as young as 7 working in the fields. The US Labour Dept in 2011 proposed changes to prohibit children under 16 from working on Tobacco farms, this was withdrawn in 2012. • US logging industry has proposed a bill that would lower the min age from 18 to 16, to be consistent with 16 year olds working and operating heavy machinery on farms. • In the UK around 700,000 children average age of 12 (but can be as young as 5) are thought to be caring for a parent. Research by Barnardo’s 2014
- 13. Is child labour an economic, or a social and political problem? • ILO reported that equally poor countries have varying levels of child labour. But "Child labour persists when national laws and policies are lacking or are not effectively implemented”. • The Walk Free Foundation (WWF) global report sets modern slavery figures at 35 million people in the 167 countries covered by the report. • Modern slavery is a live political issue in the UK, the current draft bill moving through parliament would make Britain's anti slavery laws the best in the world. • Child labour and slavery exists in all three arenas and therefore must be addressed in them all to finally see an end to this exploitation.
- 14. Research from 2011 shows…
- 15. Our children - Our Legacy?
Editor's Notes
- Look at children in employment and the influence of Employment Law and its application. (Not looked at trafficking, prostitution or conflict)
- ILO definition of child labour Age of children I’ve looked at and the young worker
- Important points that have influenced child labour: 1788 – Chimney Sweep Act - parents consent to apprenticeship not bond before 8, ( difficult as a lot from poor house), suitable clothing, living conditions and attend Sunday service. Looked at conditions rather than age 1802 – Health and Morals of Apprentices Act - 20,000 apprentices in cotton mills – The first factory legislation - MP Sir Robert Peel Looked at working standards and conditions – no night work, 12hr max day and basic education 1815 – R Peel campaigned for age of child employment minimum age 10yrs 1819 – The Cotton Mills Act – No child under 9 to be employed in cotton mills – maximum 16hr day for under 16yrs – No enforcement 1833 – Great milestone in Labour Law Factories Act – Limited employment of under 18yrs, prohibited all night work and provided inspectors to enforce the law (factories only) Driven by the battle for political reform and the anti-slavery campaign – “10hr movement” reduce working day for children under 16yrs – provided inspectors to enforce the law. The act only applied to the textile industry. 1834 – Apprentice Chimney Sweeps outlawed under 10yrs – no child under 14yrs to be engaged in clearing chimneys 1840 –Min age for Chimney Sweeps 16yrs – but no enforcement 1842 – First Mines and Collieries Act – excluded women and girl from underground working and limited employment of boys under 10yrs 1844 – Textile Factories Act – strengthened powers of the inspectors and required surgeons to examine all workers physical fitness. 1847 – Factory Act restricted working hrs of women and children in factories to 10hrs per day. Still only applying to the textile industry 1863 – Novel” Water Babies” by Charles Kingsley raised public awareness of the mistreatment of child sweeps which lead parliament to review the Chimney Sweep Act 1867 – No child under 8yrs to be employed in factories or workshops and 8-13 yr olds to receive min 10hrs education per week. 1872 – Safeguards to health, life and limb introduced in Mines and Collieries lead to other Trades coming under the same legislative scrutiny. 1875 – Finally government passes Chimney Sweep Regulation Act which requires sweeps to be licensed and the police to enforce all legislation. Some other possible affects that reduced and or changed child labour and moved more adults into employment 1870 – Education Act – free and compulsory education system ( truancy high) 1889 – National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) founded 1798 Child Tax allowances first introduced abolished 1805, But reintroduced in 1909 – limited to Tax payers 1946 – Family Allowance introduced only paid for the second child onwards. 1933 Children and Young Persons Act amended 1963 is current law – sets out min wage age related breaks, working time directive
- Past and present Cotton Mills Cocoa industry Brick industry
- Home based manufacturing - cultural tradition children follow in parents ‘footsteps’. Child labour is a means to learn and practice a trade. Most child labourers are employed by their parents. Less than 3% of child labour 5-14 yrs across the world work outside of their household World Wars saw a relaxation of child labour laws, due to demand for labour on the home front – 300,000 children used to bring in the harvest during the war years. Summer and Autumn harvests Unicef leaflets to address child labour in the supply chain.
- Income from working children may be between 25-40% of the household income
- Education for girls can be viewed as less valued Leslies school in Africa – Teachers taken away – lack of funding – Nuns returned to Ireland
- Uzbekistan enforcement of a 2008 ban on child labour has forced more adults in the cotton harvest- 4 million adults forced into the state owned cotton industry – new quotas on schools, hospitals and local administrations require up to 60% of their adult staff are sent into the fields. Government picking quotas for college students 50-60kg/day other adults 60-70kg/day.
- Tesco frequently fall foul of working time directive – working nights, incorrect break, long hours etc Child labour offences - Mc Donald's, Tesco, Burger King, Odeon Cinemas and Thorpe Park
- Tea – Ethical Tea Partnership includes Tetley, twinning and Mars drinks, failed to detect trafficking in their suppliers – Plantations paying below min wage, slave traders offering supposed better prospects then selling young girls for domestic service Chocolate – Ghana and Ivory coast produce 60% of worlds cocoa – no safe guards with chocolate marked Fairtrade as Fairtrade Cocoa co-operative in Ghana suspended 7 of 33 farming communities found to be using child labour. Clothing – Primark – Indian clothing firms had children working in their factories Gap – 2006 Delhi sweatshops attaching Swarovski sequins Ethical Shopping the answer? – Monsoon – pioneered ethical shopping but had suppliers in India using child labour and paid below min wage. Ethical Trading Initiative – Only 6% of their suppliers complied with ETI code Tobacco – Children as young as 7yrs harvest tobacco leaves working on farms in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia – US Labour Laws allow children to work longer hours at younger ages in more hazardous conditions than any other industry. With parental permission children as young as 12yrs can be hired for unlimited hrs outside of school hrs on a farm any size. No min age for a child on small farms. Children reported as having Green Tobacco sickness, from nicotine absorbed through the skin Carers – legal child employment in UK?
- Child Labour as claimed by some activists leads to poor labour standards for adults, depresses the wages of adults in developing as well as developed countries and dooms the third world economies to low skill jobs only capable of producing poor quality cheap exports – Or is child labour merely a symptom of a greater disease named poverty? Before the Industrial revolution death by starvation was a common occurrence “It was only as goods were produced in greater abundance at lower cost that men could support their families without sending the children to work. It was not the reformer or the politician that ended the grim necessity for child labour: it was capitalism” Social historian Hugh Cunningham “ Fifty years ago it might have been assumed that, just as child labour has declined in the developed world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so it would also, in a trickle-down fashion, in the rest of the world. Its failure to do that and its re-emergence in the developed world, raise questions about its role in any economy, whether national or global” . WWF 5 countries account for 61% of all slavery – China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Uzbekistan Ethical Trading Initiative to prevent exploitation in supply chains – still not effective – removed children from (soft) clothing trade but reasons still exist therefore children moved into the darker side of exploitation.
- Shows some of the areas of child employment across the world
- Any Questions?