Tag Archive for: child labor

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Ghana Police Rescue 116 Children from Forced Labor

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ACCRA, Ghana—Ghanaian police say they have rescued 116 children who were forced into child labor in the country’s Volta Lake area.

Human Trafficking Unit leader Superintendent Patience Quaye said Friday that police found parents in fishing communities who had sold children as young as four years old for sums as low as 150 Ghana cedis — about $100.

Quaye says child labor is a widespread problem in the West African nation. She says police rescued 284 children in a similar operation last year.

Interpol, which worked with Ghanaian police, said the operation earlier this month led to 28 arrests and convictions.

Interpol also said they conducted a separate operation in the capital, Accra, that rescued 29 minors who had been trafficked into the sex industry.

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Maine lawmakers loosen teen work rules–roll back Child Labor Protections

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By Mal Leary, Capitol News Service

Posted May 26, 2011, at 6:13 p.m.
Last modified May 27, 2011, at 9:46 a.m.


AUGUSTA, Maine – Gov. Paul LePage is expected to sign into law legislation allowing 16- and 17-year-olds in Maine to work longer hours during the school year, his office confirmed Thursday. But the legislation provoked lengthy debate before being enacted earlier this week, with some lawmakers arguing students need to be students first.

“In this case Maine has had the most restrictive laws related to 16- and 17-year-olds in the nation,” Sen. Chris Rector, R-Thomaston, the co-chair of the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, said during debate on the bill.  ”We have been the outliers, far more restrictive than our New England counterparts and far more restrictive than most other states.”

He said the legislation brings Maine more into line with other states, although the bill was considerably watered down from its original version, sponsored by Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden, which would have lifted all restrictions on the number of hours 16-year-olds could work while school is not in session. It also would have repealed all limitations on the hours a 17-year-old may work.

As amended by lawmakers, the limit for both age groups is 24 hours in a week, with a six-hour-per-day limit, up from the current four-hour limit per day. It also bans work after 10:15 p.m. on a day preceding a school day.

Read more

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Bill eases Child Labor Restrictions in Maine

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AUGUSTA, Maine—A bill to ease Maine’s child labor restrictions faces further House and Senate action after winning preliminary House approval.

Assistant Senate Republican Leader Debra Plowman’s bill would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work longer hours and more often while school is in session.

Those teen-agers would be allowed to work as many as 24 hours rather than the 20 per week under current law. The bill would also increase from four to six the number of hours students can work on school days. The Sun Journal of Lewiston says the bill won preliminary House approval Wednesday.

A separate bill that sought to allow lower minimum wages for youths and remove limits on their school-week work hours has been killed.

Information from: Sun-Journal, https://www.sunjournal.com

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Burkina Faso: Texting to Help Domestic Workers

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Ouagadougou — Naba Wangré, manager of the child labour project at the Burkina Faso Red Cross, sends bluntly worded text messages to government officials, employers, traditional leaders, teachers, business owners and housewives several times a year, trying to reduce the widespread exploitation of domestic workers by raising awareness of their rights.

“Employers: domestics have the same rights as your children. Stop under-paying them; stop subjecting them to mistreatment, sexual violence, and long hours”, said a recent SMS from Wangré, who uses lists of phone numbers provided by the local network. Read more

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Child Labor Rates Go Up in Colombia

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BOGOTA, May 2 (UPI) — Colombia experienced a sharp rise in the volume of child workers in the last five years, officials say a study reveals.

A report by the non-profit communications agency PANDI said there was about a 35 percent spurt in child labor between 2007 and 2009, Colombia Reports said Monday.

The agency said at least 1,050,147 children were employed in 2009 compared with about 787,000 in 2007.

Colombia’s rural areas constitute the highest proportion of the child workers with 37 percent of the underage workforce associated with some form of agricultural work.

The current law permits children to work up to 14 hours per week.

At least 58 percent of child laborers work more than the daily maximum, while 11 percent work more than 48 hours a week.

The rise in the underage workforce has been primarily attributed to the global economic crisis.

© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Save the Children

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Editorial Mindinao Times

Written by: Times Editors , Times Editors

The plan of the regional office to investigate child labor in mining areas is long overdue.
On Tuesday, Regional Director Joffrey Suyao said his agency will look into reports that children were being employed in small scale mining areas. Suyao, who faced the media in the region for the first time after being named to the position, said he has heard from reports that children were among those who were killed in the Good Friday landslide in a small scale mining site in Kingking, Pantukan, Compostela Valley that claimed scores of lives.

The employment of children in small scale mining areas is a fact. One just has to visit any of the small scale mining sites in the country, not just the region, and find for himself or herself that children who can barely carry a 20-kilo sack are made to carry such a load to a length that even a grownup will find difficult.

The sad fact is that in some cases, it is the parents who pushed their children to work in very difficult situations. These children may want to protest, but the waiting belts have pushed them to continue working.

The harsh condition, the danger and the deprivation of basic needs are just one aspect that these children are facing while working in these mining sites. The fact that all facets of their growth are compromised is what must be given more attention.

So it is high time not only for the government, but also for their parents to find ways on how to take them away from these areas.

May we, therefore, call on Regional Director Suyao to make good his statement, something that his predecessors have failed to look into? It is high time that these children are sent to schools rather than exposed to danger.

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Pinay gets World’s Children’s Honorary Award

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abs-cbnNEWS.com

MANILA, Philippines – For her “tireless struggle” against child labor and trafficking, Filipina Cecilia Flores-Oebanda is one of the 2 recipients of the World’s Children’s Honorary Award.

The award was given by the World’s Children’s Prize, an educational program involving 24.5 million pupils in 102 countries. Flores-Oebanda started working at age 5, and has since committed herself to fighting for the rights of the poorest and most vulnerable children.

She founded the Visayan Forum, an organization that has rescued tens of thousands of girls from slave labor and trafficking.

The other recipient of the World’s Children’s Honorary Award is Monira Rahman of Bangladesh. Her organization, ASF, helped reduce the number of acid attacks in her country by saving hundreds of child victims of acid and petrol dousing.

She has also sent some victims abroad for extensive plastic surgery.

This year’s recipient of the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child is Murhabazi Namagabe from D.R. Congo for his “dangerous struggle to free children forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves.”

Namagabe visits armed groups to inform them about children’s rights, and offers protection to freed child soldiers.

Candidates are chosen by a child jury, with support from teachers and organizations across the globe. Among the patrons of the World’s Children’s Prize are Nelson Mandela, H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden and Graca Machel.

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Helpline in Delhi to Combat Child Labor

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In a bid to tackle child labour and handle complaints from workers, a toll free helpline would soon be launched by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, a state government official said Tuesday.

The helpline number 12789 will be functional between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., added the official.

“It is being commissioned with an aim to provide a sense of confidence and assurance to workers and make it an effective tool for approaching the authorities in case of denial of the minimum wages by the employers and for enforcement of all labour Laws,” said the official.

It will also function as an instrument to eliminate child labour as the affected children could call on this helpline or someone else may call on their behalf helping the labour department to rescue them, added the official.

According to the official, a senior officer will be deployed at the helpline and reports would be sent to the labour secretary every six hours. A review meeting would be chaired by Labour Minister Ramakant Goswami every fortnight.

“The callers will be intimated about the action taken in a shortest possible time that may not extend beyond four days,” added the official.

Goswami said that wider consultation and preparations have been made before commissioning of the helpline which is going to be the first in the country.

“We have chalked out a comprehensive plan to provide help and required consultation to the labourers in hardship. The department is all set to adopt more humanistic approach and has also decided to closely monitor the enforcement of various labour laws,” said Goswami.

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Restaurants Beware: The Labor Department is Cracking Down

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By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA —

The United States Department of Labor is launching a massive sweep of restaurants in Hillsborough County, which officials say is rife with violations of child labor rules and owners who short-change workers.

Department teams have already raided several hundred in recent years, and will probably approach 50 to 60 establishments in this round, according to local officials, after finding “significant child labor violations,” including children forced to work dangerous equipment.

“The restaurant industry employs some of our country’s lowest-paid workers who, especially during hard economic times, are vulnerable to exploitation,” said James Schmidt, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Tampa. Read more

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More Stringent Child Labor Regulations

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from Sunday Observer in Sri Lanka:

The government has begun cracking down on factories which use child labour in dangerous industries such as fire work manufacturing in a move to eradicate the use of children in these industries by 2016, Minister of Labour and Labour Relations Gamini Lokuge told the Sunday Observer.

“Sri Lanka has a good track record of child protection when compared to other South Asian countries so we are taking all necessary actions to avoid any violations” he said.