Hazardous Work for Children
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Auditing for Child Labor Guide
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are approximately 152 million children ages 5 to 17 engaged in child labor worldwide. Companies using child labor in their supply chains face significant legal, financial, and reputational consequences. It is critical for companies to conduct social compliance auditing to identify and address any instances of child labor in their supply chains.
This specialized guide can be used in conjunction with other audit guidance to support correct identification and remediation of child labor in global supply chains.
Relevant Definitions:
Child
- A child is a person under the age of 18 years.
Child Labor
- Child labor is work below the minimum age as established in national legislation (excluding permissible light work). Child labor also includes the worst forms of child labor (WFCL).
- ILO Convention 138 requires countries to establish a minimum age for work no less than the age of compulsory schooling, and no less than 15 years. It allows less-developed countries to establish a minimum age of 14.
Worst Forms of Child Labor:
ILO Convention 182 defines the WFCL as:
- All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, and forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.
- The use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution, the production of pornography, or for pornographic performances.
- The use, procuring, or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties.
- Work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children (referred to as “hazardous work”).
According to ILO Convention 182, hazardous work “shall be determined by national laws or regulations or by the competent authority, after consultation with the organizations of employers and workers concerned, taking into consideration relevant international standards...” (Article 4). As this suggests, forms of work identified as “hazardous” for children may vary from country to country. ILO Recommendation No. 190, which accompanies ILO Convention 182, gives additional guidance on identifying “hazardous work.” ILO Recommendation No. 190 states in Section II, Paragraph 3 that “[i]n determining the types of work referred to under Article 3(d) of the Convention [ILO Convention 182], and in identifying where they exist, consideration should be given, inter alia to:
- work which exposes children to physical, psychological, or sexual abuse;
- work underground, under water, at dangerous heights, or in confined spaces;
- work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involves the manual handling or transport of heavy loads;
- work in an unhealthy environment which may, for example, expose children to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or to temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations damaging to their health;
- work under particularly difficult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work where the child is unreasonably confined to the premises of the employer.”
No child under age 18 should be involved in the Worst Forms of Child Labor specified in ILO Convention 182 (see Step 3: Develop a Code of Conduct). Causes of child labor violations can include:
- Failure to require age verification documents at the time of hiring, or failure to check, verify, and track documents to avoid falsification.
- Poor understanding on the part of management of appropriate work activities, hazards, and working hours for children.
- Informal employment relationships that allow children to "slip through the cracks."
Examples
in Action
Preventing Child Labor Reoccurrence in a Manufacturing Environment
Impactt Limited’s Operational Procedures for Remediation of Child Labour in Industrial Contexts provides detailed guidance on both improving victim situations and preventing recurrence of child labor when found in a manufacturing environment, including:
- Providing a stipend to the child’s family to make up for the lost income if the child’s family can be contacted.
- Offering the child’s job to another member of the family who is of legal age to work.
- Providing alternative income generation opportunities to the child’s parents or adult relatives.
- Ensuring that the child attends school or an alternative educational facility, paying associated fees as needed and tracking the child until they are of age to work.
- Providing the child with a training or apprenticeship opportunity when they are of legal age for such programs and committing to provide the job back once they are of full legal working age.
- Linking the child to educational, developmental, psychosocial, and other services provided by the government or NGOs.
- If the child has been living away from their family, reuniting the child with the family while ensuring that the family can provide a protective environment and applicable services.
- For children of the minimum age for work, eliminating dangerous work activities from the child’s job and closely monitoring the child’s work on an ongoing basis.
- Helping the child identify other safe income-earning opportunities if there is no feasible way to reduce hazards in the current work environment.
- Finding a way for the child to make up for the lost income through other earning opportunities, a stipend, or family interventions, in the event working hours are reduced.
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Collaboration to Address Seasonal Migrant Child Labor in Turkey's Hazelnut Harvest
Since 2011, the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association* (FLA) has been assessing working conditions at hazelnut farms in the Black Sea region of Türkiye, first as a special project commissioned by the multinational corporation Nestlé* and later as a collaboration between the FLA, Nestlé, and two of its Türkiye -based hazelnut suppliers, Balsu Gida* and Olam Progida.* Annually, the FLA sends a team of assessors to visit a sample of farms supplying hazelnuts to these companies. The presence of child labor has been a consistent finding both among local workers’ families and among the groups of migrant workers who travel to the region for the hazelnut harvest.
The companies have pursued several remediation strategies in response to these findings, such as civil society partnerships to build schools and provide scholarships for children of migrant workers. Further interventions have included training for farmers on child labor prohibitions and the provision of age-verification tools to encourage farmers to document the ages of their hired workers.
In November 2015, USDOL awarded the FLA a grant to pilot a comprehensive, sustainable program that implements the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Guidelines for Eliminating Child and Forced Labor in Agricultural Supply Chains in the hazelnut supply chains of Nestlé, Balsu, and Olam in Türkiye. With the conclusion of the project, FLA released an executive report in 2019 entitled “Are Companies’ Programs Impacting Change in the Lives of Hazelnut Workers?” that offered a social impact assessment of the project. In particular, the report noted that summer schools helped achieve project targets in providing a safe environment where children are supervised, and their basic needs are covered while family members work in the hazelnut gardens.
ILAB’s Cooperation on Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project Addresses Forced Labor in Coffee Supply Chains
The United States is the leading importer of coffee, accounting for over 18 percent of total coffee imports in the world, with Brazil and Colombia as the top suppliers. But before that coffee reaches our cups, tens of millions of workers globally select, pick, and process the beans. Many of those workers are children toiling in the fields rather than learning in school. This project helps businesses establish systems to prevent, detect, and eliminate child labor and other forms of labor exploitation from their supply chains, and it is assembling a powerful coalition of coffee buyers to collectively incentivize suppliers into compliance.
Aligned with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Comply Chain tool, Verité developed a Socially Sustainable (S3T) toolkit consisting of 12 tools with inputs from a range of stakeholders to implement sustainable social compliance systems to mitigate labor rights violations. An expert committee and advisory council reviewed and validated the S3T, which helped the project determine the selection of tools to pilot in each country. Verité’s pilot projects also contribute to ongoing sectoral dialogues on critical issues facing the coffee sector:
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Verité's pilot projects also contribute to ongoing sectoral dialogues on critical issues facing the coffee sector:
In Mexico
Verité is building the capacity of coffee producers, agronomists, field technicians, certifiers, and monitors to identify and address labor issues in the coffee sector through a series of trainings that focus on increasing understanding of international standards and Mexican law; aiding in the identification of forced labor, child labor, and other labor abuses in the Mexican coffee sector; and identifying and remediating root causes of labor exploitation. The series of trainings also includes how to use the set of tools developed through the COFFEE Project to improve labor conditions in the coffee sector.
In Colombia
Verité is piloting innovative payment models to improve working conditions for coffee harvesters, including vulnerable women and Venezuelan migrants.
In Brazil
Verité is increasing understanding of recruitment dynamics and related risks in the Brazilian coffee sector. It is also providing coffee producers, traders, and roasters with tools and trainings to help identify and reduce these risks in their supply chains.
For more information, visit: Cooperation On Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project
To verify the age of workers, “employers should keep and make available to the competent authority registers or other documents indicating the names and ages or dates of birth, duly certified wherever possible, not only of children and young persons employed by them but also of those receiving vocational orientation or training in their undertakings.”
When there are no birth certificates to verify age or where falsified documents are easily obtained, the following suggestions may be helpful:
A medical examination prior to employment may help to indicate the person’s true age and verify physical aptitude for the work. Care should always be taken to respect the person’s right to privacy.
Cross-checking multiple written documents and affidavits can help identify false documentation.
Employers can hold interviews with employees and applicants who appear to be below the minimum age required for work to obtain further information.
School enrollment certificates can be a good source of information.
Local indicators may also be helpful in countries where the challenge is that the worker may not know the precise year in which they were born. For example, in some Asian countries, children do not know their precise birth year but know the animal year (Year of the Monkey, etc.). A person might know that their birth is related to some major historical event, such as independence or the start or end of a war, or a significant anniversary. Research local key events or means of marking time in the country of operation to help during interviews if you doubt a worker’s age.
Source: Excerpted from the ILO Helpdesk for Business, Q&As on Business and Child Labor.
Interviewing a child is necessary in connection with recruitment of young people to assess:
(a) their age
(b) possible work experience
(c) if any workers are identified as being in a situation of hazardous work
When interviewing a child who might be below the minimum age for work or working in hazardous conditions, it is important to create a trusting and relaxed atmosphere. It is also important that the conversation takes place in an undisturbed but not too remote or out of sight environment. Essentially, the child must feel as secure as possible.
What to Observe?
- The child must be treated with respect and recognized as an individual in their own right.
- There must always be two adults present at the interview at all times. An adult must not spend excessive time alone with children away from others in order not to create unnecessary worry for the child and create a basis for suspicion of inappropriate or threatening behavior and abuse.
- When interviewing a girl, there must always be a woman present.
- It is advisable to invite the child’s parents or guardians to the interview.
- If the child is an orphan and no guardian or relatives can be identified, a representative of a child rights NGO may be invited.
During the Interview with a Child:
- The key objective of the interview is to always listen to the child and to try to make an overall assessment of the child’s family and work situation:
- Reasons why the child works.
- How does the child contribute to the family income and what are the circumstances of the family (e.g., unemployment, disease, etc.)?
- How does the child understand their own work?
- Source: Save the Children Denmark, Child Labour Toolkit, Responsible Approaches to Child Labour in the Textile and Garment Industry, 2006.
- Note: If underage labor is found during an interview, the child should be removed from work immediately and referred to social services to ensure their well-being. If the company has set a minimum age that is higher than the legal minimum, the child should be removed from work immediately if they are below that age.
Community-Based Child Labor Monitoring Systems
In remote geographic locations and industries where production is largely dispersed and informal, some companies have pursued community-based child labor monitoring approaches as an alternative to formal auditing. This methodology has been tested in smallholder agricultural production.
Examples
in Action
Multi-stakeholder Initiative Supports Remediation for Homeworkers in Asia
Companies and multi-stakeholder groups have been grappling for years with the challenges of informal work and homework for children. In 2010, the Ethical Trading Initiative* published ETI Homeworker Guidelines for both retailers and suppliers. These guidelines and their supporting documents include tools such as a model policy on homework for retailers and suppliers, research guides for identifying homework in supply chains, mapping tools, and guidance on setting appropriate piece rates, since homeworkers are usually paid on a piece-rate basis.
Starting in 2019, as part of the Hidden Homeworkers Programme—a partnership between Traidcraft Exchange,* HomeNet South Asia,* and Homeworkers Worldwide,* with financial support from the EU—a Preventing Child Labour Toolkit was developed, including practical guidance on addressing issues of child labor in homebased crafts production. The project aims to extend multi-stakeholder transparency and traceability systems to the lower tiers in the garment sector to improve working conditions of child and adult homeworkers in India, Nepal, and Pakistan as part of the apparel and footwear supply chains.
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Auditing has little utility unless the audit is conducted appropriately and the company is committed to using audit data to improve labor conditions. Audit data should be entered into a database system that allows for analysis of aggregate data over time on each supplier and worksite audited, each product line, each type of violation, compliance in distinct geographic zones, and other patterns.
Note: There are several challenges to maintaining an effective audit database, including processing data coming from a variety of different individual auditors, integrating the database with information systems that track other worker-driven social compliance program data, such as supplier lists, supplier training and capacity-building data, remediation, and independent verification information that integrates worker voice and union perspectives, and setting up clear processes for the use of data.
If violations are found at a worksite, there should be processes in place for tracking that supplier’s remediation. The team should be looking for patterns of violations in specific product lines, particular regions, violations related to supplier ownership or management, and other issues. When patterns are detected, the scheduling audits should shift toward those types of worksites that seem to pose greater risks. The team should also have checks in place to identify “outliers” and verify data accuracy.
Increasingly, companies are exploring other ways to gather information and monitor compliance beyond auditing, such as relying on the use of technology and through existing partnerships with the NGO community and other civil society organizations and the individuals affected.
Step 5: Monitor Compliance
