Child labour as a issue of decent work

SA and the ILO are engaged in drafting a Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) for the country. The first workshop on this issue was held from 10 to 12 April 2008 with the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC). This document is an overview of key child labour issues of importance for the DWCP.

Child labour is work done by a person under the age of 18 years, where that work is hazardous, inappropriate for the child’s age or detrimental to the child’s development, including his or her education. By definition, child labour is NOT decent work.

South Africa has prioritised child labour by addressing it in its Constitution and by ratifying the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (C182). It adopted the first national plan on the elimination of child labour on the subcontinent in 2003: the first Child Labour Programme of Action. This national strategy document contains detailed action steps for each department whose work has a bearing on children and child labour, and for steps to be taken by organised business and labour. This document highlighted a range of action steps for which ILO support was requested to help kick-start their implementation. As a result the programme Towards the Elimination of Child Labour (TECL) programme was established in 2003 as a joint programme between the ILO, the SA Government and other stakeholders.

There were 847 000 children aged 10-17 in child labour – just more than 10% of all children in that age group.

Through the CLPA, South Africa will be able to work towards the continent-wide target of eliminating WFCL by 2015.

Although not widely known, South Africa still faces a significant challenge of child labour. This was found in an analysis of Statistics South Africa’s Labour Force Survey of March 2006. This analysis alludes to potential improvements since the extensive base-line survey of 1999, but found that there were still approximately 847 000 children aged 10-17 in child labour – just more than 10% of all children in that age group. Out of this figure (the categories overlap):

• 383 000 children were working very long hours for their age
• 93 000 children were doing work prohibited by Basic Conditions of Employment Act
• 57 000 children were absent from school because of work-related activities
• 268 000 children had difficulties at school, related to work-related activities
• 183 000 children reported doing hazardous work.
  

This information was taken into consideration in the updated Child Labour Programme of Action, prepared for the second phase of implementation, from 2008 to 2012 (CLPA-2). In 2007 the CLPA-2 was endorsed by the national Implementation Committee, subject to costing and usual approval processes.

Worst forms of child labour found in South Africa: children doing hazardous work (such as child scavenging on waste dumps), children used by adults to commit crime, commercial sexual exploitation of children, child trafficking.

The CLPA-2 highlights the following priorities regarding child labour, all which are proposed to be addressed in the DWCP:

• WFCL that are of key concern in South Africa: hazardous work done by children, Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime (CUBAC), Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC), and child trafficking. Regarding CUBAC, the CLPA notes that nearly half of the many thousands of children arrested in South Africa is likely to have been used or encouraged to commit crime by an adult;
• Priorities regarding other kinds of child labour to be addressed through government policy and action: agriculture (with emphasis on subsistence agriculture); retail (with emphasis on the informal sector);
• Priorities regarding chores done by children, but only where this is clearly detrimental to a child's development and thus constitutes child labour: (a) fetching water, where households are far from safe sources of water; (b) excessive chores linked to orphanhood, or where adult care givers are ill, often linked to the phenomenon of child-headed households;
• Priority policy areas: (a) progressive extension of the child support grant; (b) and considering impact on children due to HIV/AIDS, also from a child labour perspective.

This information indicates that child labour should identified as one of the priorities for action in terms of the DWCP for South Africa.

Key departments who have important responsibilities assigned by the Child Labour Programme of Action include: the Department of Labour as lead department; Department of Education; Department of Social Development; Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the National Prosecuting Authority; South African Police Service; and Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.

Note: The TECL programme is ending in June 2008, but a second phase with an emphasis on neighbouring countries will start later in the year.  During exit meetings regarding the first phase, held with the eight key government departments, the need for limited additional technical assistance was identified. This could be incorporated in the 2^nd phase of TECL.