BUSINESSES SHOULD UPHOLD THE EFFECTIVE ABOLITION OF CHILD LABOUR.
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What can companies do?
Developing awareness and understanding of the causes and consequences of child labour is the first step that a company can take toward action against child labour. This means identifying the issues and determining whether or not child labour is a problem within the business. Companies sourcing in specific industry sectors with geographically distant supply chains need to be particularly vigilant. However, child labour also exists less visibly in developed, industrialized countries where it occurs, for example, in some immigrant communities.
Discovering if child labour is being used can be difficult, for example in the case where documents or records are absent, and companies may consider using local non-governmental organizations, development organizations or UN agencies to assist in this process.
If an occurrence of child labour is identified, the children need to be removed from the workplace and provided with viable alternatives. These measures often include enrolling the children in schools and offering income-generating alternatives for the parents or above-working age members of the family. Companies need to be aware that, without support, children may be forced into worse circumstances such as prostitution, and that, in some instances where children are the sole providers of income, their immediate removal from work may exacerbate rather than relieve the hardship.
Here’s what companies can do:
In the workplace
- Be aware of countries, regions, sectors, economic activities where there is a greater likelihood of child labour and respond accordingly with policies and procedures
- Adhere to minimum age provisions of national labour laws and regulations and, where national law is insufficient, take account of international standards.
- Use adequate and verifiable mechanisms for age verification in recruitment procedures
- Avoid having a blanket policy against hiring children under 18, as it will exclude those above the legal age for employment from decent work opportunities
- When children below the legal working age are found in the workplace, take measures to remove them from work
- Help to seek viable alternatives and access to adequate services for the children and their families
- Exercise influence on subcontractors, suppliers and other business affiliates to combat child labour
- Develop and implement mechanisms to detect child labour
- Where wages are not determined collectively or by minimum wage regulation, take measures to ensure that wages paid to adults take into account the needs of both them and their families
In the community of operation
- Work in partnership with other companies, sectoral associations and employers’ organizations to develop an industry-wide approach to address the issue, and build bridges with trade unions, law enforcement authorities, labour inspectorates and others
- Establish or participate in a task force or committee on child labour in your representative employers’ organization at the local, state or national level.
- Support and help design educational/ vocational training, and counseling programmes for working children, and skills training for parents of working children
- Encourage and assist in launching supplementary health and nutrition programmes for children removed from dangerous work, and provide medical care to cure children of occupational diseases and malnutrition
(Source: Principle 5)