Over 250 million children five to fourteen work in fields, factories, mines, streets and domestic service worldwide, providing services, and producing apparel, bricks, chicken and strawberries. Some supplement family income, earn extra money or are forced into slavery. 95% of all child workers live in developing countries. Yearly, many child workers are seriously injured, physically and emotionally – over 200,000 in the U.S. alone. Almost 70 in U.S. workplaces and hundreds of thousands worldwide are killed. Work impacts their education. American students work three times more than those in Western Europe, and six times the weekly hours. Globally, 125 million primary school age children are not in school. Most countries have child labor laws. Many ratified the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Convention 182 (On the Worst Forms of Child Labor). But are these laws, regulations and policies keeping working children safe? Are they reaching proper educational attainment levels? What is being done about this tragic situation? Who cares? What are the best practice solutions, efforts, and initiatives that are driving a global public awareness campaign and significant steps to protect working children? Potential panelists are: Sonia Rosen, AFL-CIO Solidarity Center; Diane Mull, International Initiative to End Child Labor; Darlene Adkins, Child Labor Coalition; a representative of USDOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs; Tish Davis, Young Worker Safety and Health Network,and Tony Freeman, ILO. Colleen Baker, Missouri Division of Labor Standards will likely moderate.
Learning Objectives: Session participants will be able to: 1) Describe the global state of children's health relative to their legal or illegal employment. 2) Identify best practice solutions, international treaties, and other global efforts assisting working children to eliminate child labor concerns surrounding workplace safety issues. 3) Assess where the gaps are and what needs to be done.
Keywords: Youth at Work, Child Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: N/A
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.