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Defence for Children International ILO convention 138 – Concerning the minimum age foradmission to employment
The denunciation of child labour for the past several years has recovered its place in current events due to its link with the globalisation of trade and its apparent negative impact on employment and working conditions in industrialised countries. Child labour in newly industrialised countries or in developing countries is cited as one of the elements that is distorting competition with industrialised countries, which gives rise to unemployment and exclusion in the latter. If the problem is considered as one of competition between countries that have a high rate of child labour and those who have better control over the phenomenon in most economic sectors, which is something that is yet to be established, then it goes further back to an older debate according to which the reasons for the fight against child labour lie in the competition between children and adult workers, because of the downward pressure on salaries brought on by this type of work. This reasoning ignores one of the features of child labour in developing countries. It is mainly present in the informal sector, and quite rarely in activities that are open to international competition, except in certain sectors, and even then it is limited in numbers.
Introduction by Loic Piccard Child labour and development
Convention 138 concerning the minimum age for admission to employment – Text ILO Recommendation 146 on the minimum age for admission to employment document |
