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UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings urges governments and business to redouble their efforts to end child labour

Ahead of World Day Against Child Labour, on Sunday 12 June, trade unions are putting the spotlight on the exploitation of children in the global supply chains of multinational companies.

UNI Global Union and co-Chair of the ILO's child labour platform, Philip Jennings called for global business to join efforts to eliminate child labour from supply chains, in a panel discussion at the ILO's annual conference in Geneva this week. 

Pointing to the legally-binding Bangladesh Accord http://bangladeshaccord.org/ as an example of how business can be part of effective solutions to labour rights violations, he said "We will never give up on this endeavour until we have eliminated child labour from this planet".

Jennings said there were “168 million reasons not give up on this goal of eradicating child labour”, referring to the 168 million children working in agriculture, manufacturing, mining and other sectors, in global supply chains.  At least half of the total child labourers are in hazardous work.

Watch the video of the session here

http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/multimedia/video/events-coverage...

ILO Director-General Guy Ryder called for a "zero tolerance" approach and told the panel that three ingredients are key to ending child labour:

* Free, compulsory and quality basic education at least up to the minimum age for work;

* Adoption and enforcement of good laws and policies, with cooperation between labour inspection, the education system and other public services; and

* Social protection, which was a main driver of the one-third reduction in child labour globally between 2000 and 2012.

Ryder also spoke of the need for decent jobs for parents as a way to keep children in school and out of work, a point echoed by Andrews Tagoe of the Global March Against Child Labour and Katherine Stewart from Primark, a company with which UNI Global Union is seeking to develop a dialogue.

Stewart added, "It’s important that we keep in the forefront of our minds that providing decent jobs for adults and youths of working age is the key instrument in eradicating child labour. Initiatives such as ACT, an agreement between global brands and IndustriALL, to create industry wide collective bargaining, the ILO Better Work programme, the Bangladesh Accord -  as referenced by Philip Jennings – and others, are crucial collaborative ways of actually shifting in a sustainable way and making change. That’s what we want to do create long term change in tackling child labour.”

Argentina’s Minister of Labour, Jorge Triaca, took on-board Jennings’ point that governments as well as business have to step to the plate on ending child labour.

Triaca said, “We have listened about government responsibility for income transfer policies, we have listened about inspection policies but also we have heard about sharing responsibility with workers and employers to find together a strategy which engages each one of our countries to eliminate child labour for good.”

Following the panel discussion, Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said, "It should not be difficult to purge child labour from global supply chains and local production and get the children into school.  It's a matter of responsible business and political will.  That's why we welcome Canada's announcement during the ILO panel session that it will finally ratify the ILO Minimum Age Convention 138, after years of delay by the former conservative government.  We call upon those few remaining countries which have yet to ratify this Convention, or the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 182, to do so without any further delay."

The unions are demanding greater urgency, with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals setting a target of 2025 to eliminate child labour.  Changing the global supply chain model is a crucial part of this, with the 2016 ITUC "Scandal" report http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-ituc-report-exposes-hidden revealing that 94 per cent of the workforce of 50 top multinationals is hidden in subcontracting arrangements which enable the multinationals to escape responsibility.

"It's a supply chain conspiracy against decent work," concluded Jennings.