THE OTHER DAY’s Labor Day observance mostly focused on workers’ welfare, wages, security of tenure, benefits, etc. We have not heard discussions on one very serious labor issue – child labor.
Yes, child labor remains a problem despite the Anti-Child Labor Law of 2003. Children are being exploited and employed in many industries, contrary to our national law and international labor standards.
According to the International Labor Organization, the global number of child laborers has declined by one third since 2000, from 246 million to 168 million children. But Asia and the Pacific still has the largest numbers (almost 78 million or 9.3 percent of the child population).
Instead of being made to labor under harsh conditions in the fields, shops or factories, children should be going to school and allowed to enjoy their childhood.
The Department of Labor and Employment must strengthen its enforcement of the Anti-Child Labor Law which seeks to eliminate the worst forms of child labor such as those involving slavery, like the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom, including recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; prostitution and pornography; use of children for illegal activities, including drug trafficking; and any work that is hazardous and harmful to the health, safety and morals of children.
Among the salient features of the law is the stipulation that children below 15 years of age, if working in non-hazardous conditions, may work for not more than 20 hours a week, at most four hours a day. The law limits children 15 to 17 years old to work not more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. Night work from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. is prohibited. We should endeavor to protect children from jobs that interfere with their health, safety and education.
A few years ago, the US’ Department of Labor listed goods imported from the Philippines which were allegedly produced using child labor in violation of international standards. These goods included cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, rice and cocoa in agriculture; bricks, garments, carpets and footwear in manufacturing; and gold and coal in mined and quarried goods. Efforts to address the problem should go down the barangay or community level where child labor exploitation is based.
