Brussels April 04 2001 (ICFTU OnLine): As part of its new global campaign to eliminate child labour, launched on March 30, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and International Trade Secretariats (ITS) have pledged to pursue their activities in urging multinational enterprises (MNEs) to take up their responsibility to stop child labour and in targeting sectors and areas where children are working.

Multinationals under scrutiny by the international labour movement 05/04/01

Global Campaign to STOP Child Labour

Brussels April 04 2001 (ICFTU OnLine): As part of its new global campaign to eliminate child labour, launched on March 30, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and International Trade Secretariats (ITS) have pledged to pursue their activities in urging multinational enterprises (MNEs) to take up their responsibility to stop child labour and in targeting sectors and areas where children are working.

The Brussels-based ICFTU launched this two-year campaign in a fresh impetus to stop child labour that will involve all levels of the trade union movement and friendly non-governmental organisations. In a petition, which is now circulating around the world, employers (including Multinational Enterprises) are urged to stop hiring children and to take the children who are working out of work, rehabilitate them and bring them to school.

The international trade union movement is seeking to make the elimination of child labour part of a wider effort to promote corporate social responsibility among Multinational Enterprises and to link the elimination of child labour to the observance of fundamental rights at work.

Multinational enterprises play a major role in the world economy and have influence over public policy. Although there may not appear to be a major problem with the direct employment of children by such enterprises, multinationals enterprises benefit indirectly from this abuse through the practices of their suppliers and their sub-contractors.

“The only guarantee to end the use of child labour is if workers themselves can ensure through trade union organisations that proper practices and conditions prevail day in and day out” says Bill Jordan, General Secretary if the ICFTU “and this requires recognition of the fundamental right to organise and engage in collective bargaining”.

There are now nine pioneering framework agreements between International Trade Secretariats and multinational enterprises. All of these agreements include provisions to ban the use of child labour linked with the observance of other fundamental workers’ rights, including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

‘Almost every multinational represented on the high street is guilty of profiting from child labour. They may not employ children directly but they are invariably doing so through their sub-contractors. MNEs must accept their responsibilities and realise that they cannot demand world class standards whilst paying sweatshop prices’, says Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the ITGLWF (International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers' Federation).

National and international trade union organisations, such as the ITGLWF, have engaged in a number of efforts to abolish child labour. This includes working with or exposing enterprises that bear the ultimate responsibility for this practice. A major project by the ITGLWF has just begun and a special target for the new phase will include measures to promote the ratification and implementation of the new ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour. Activities include: signature campaigns, tripartite round table conferences, demonstrations/rallies, lobbying government authorities and the development of publicity materials.

Another ITS, Public Services International (PSI), working with the ICFTU and others, has been researching the use of child labour in the production of surgical instruments. It is engaging in contacts with the MNEs that distribute these goods as well as engaging its network of affiliates in the health care sector representing people using these goods. Affiliates of PSI will build specific recommendations into agreements they reach with health ministries, purchasing organisations, hospitals, corporate suppliers, trade associations, etc. The aims of such agreements is to apply international pressure on employers and their subcontractors, and/or to strengthen child labour elimination and trade union rights programmes already underway.

In the next months the ICFTU, its affiliates and regional organisations, in close co-operation with the International Trade Union Secretariats, will launch more specific action plans at national, regional and international level. More information on the ICFTU’s Global Campaign including a direct link to the petition, is available on the ICFTU web-site at: http://www.icftu.org .

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224 0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.

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