The Social Protection Ministry is working to implement measures to curb child labour and is urging the public to report cases of children being employed.
Deputy Chief Labour Officer, Karen Vansluytman-Corbin is quoted by the Department of Public Information (DPI) as saying that the Labour Department will be launching a National Child Labour Policy in April and will enforce drastic measures for those persons who employ children.
Deputy Chief Labour Officer, Karen Vansluytman-Corbin
“We are also developing a National Action Plan to help in our fight against child labour. We started last year to develop our policy and we hope for the draft action plan to be launched at the same time as the policy,” Vansluytman-Corbin said.
According to the Chief Labour Officer, several organisations, including the Trade Union’s Movement, the Employers Organisation, the Education Ministry, several businesses, religious and youth organisations and NGOs collaborated with the Labour Department to implement the policy.
“There have been three reported cases for 2019, we are following up with those cases but we are concerned and continue to work towards eradicating child labour in the mining areas within the hinterland communities.
However, because of our intense sensitisation exercises, we are receiving good support to put an end to child labour,” Vansluytman-Corbin said.
She further stated that the Department of Labour has reached out to several communities to ensure that word gets out that child labour is illegal and persons caught employing children will be prosecuted.
The policy was crafted after an extended period of consultations and workshops with the relevant stakeholders from Regions Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Ten.
