TECL II
Minimum Age Recommendations, 1973
Three years after adopting the Minimum Age Convention of 1973, the
International Labour Organisation’s General Conference adopted
supplementary Recommendations on the same topic at its 58th session in
Geneva.
The aim was to promote national policies and administrative practices
that would support the achievement of the minimum age provision in the
earlier Convention.
The Convention sets the general minimum age for admission to work or
employment at the age when children complete compulsory education,
provided that this age is not lower than 15 years. There are, however,
a number of procedures relating to temporary exemption for states
signing up to the Convention.
While the Convention allows young people to work after they have
completed compulsory schooling and before they turn 18, it specifies
such work must be subject to the condition that the health, safety and
morals of the young persons will be protected and that they will
receive appropriate training.
The supplementary Recommendation addresses the problem of keeping
children from entering work below the minimum admission age and
protecting them for the period between entering work and 18 years of
age. It addresses issues such as development planning, social security,
education and vocational training, occupational health and safety,
conditions of work and supervision of minimum age provisions.
Development planning
The Recommendation urges countries to prioritise the needs of
children and youth in their national development processes and to
commit themselves to full employment.
Poverty alleviation, social security and child protection
The focus is on the development and progressive extension of poverty
alleviation measures and social security provisions relating to child
maintenance. Special mention is made of the need to expand services to
protect and ensure the welfare of children and young people, especially
those who do not have families or do not live with their
families.
Education and training
The Recommendation stresses the need to ensure full-time attendance
at school until the minimum school-leaving age. It highlights
vocational orientation or training programmes as an option to
mainstream schooling.
Hazardous work
The Recommendation urges countries that set the minimum age of entry
to hazardous forms of work below 18 years to prioritise raising it to
that level.
Conditions of employment
In those employment sectors open to young people under the age of
18, special measures should be put in place to ensure conditions of
work are satisfactory. The Recommendation highlights the need to ensure
that employees under the age of 18 should enjoy fair and equal
treatment in relation to pay, annual paid leave, and social security
schemes. It points out that they should be specially protected in terms
of limiting the hours of work, prohibiting overtime and ensuring that
work does not interfere with training and education.
Enforcement
There is a section dealing with the need to strengthen labour
inspection and related services. It includes training of inspectors and
enabling them to advise employers on compliance.
The need to ensure effective enforcement of provisions concerning
employment in hazardous types of work is emphasised.
This section also deals with requirements for documenting the names and
ages of young workers both in formal and informal sector
employment.
Raising the bar
The Recommendation urges countries that still allow admission to
work below the age of 15 years to take urgent steps to raise it to that
level. In addition, it sets members the goal of raising the minimum
employment age to 16 years.
Full text http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?R146
See also