Leadership by government
When the International Labour Conference in 1998 and 1999 was considering the new Convention to protect children who were most seriously at risk (Convention No. 182) it agreed to leave to national governments the responsibility for determining what types and conditions of work should be prohibited for those under 18 years of age. Each country is different, both in its profile of industries and occupations and in its capacities. So instead of laying out a standard list of hazardous work for every country to follow (which inevitably would have ended up being irrelevant to some, or so general it would not be helpful as guidance), they laid out the process by which hazardous work prohibited to children should be determined.
The process requires government to convene a tripartite committee; or literally, to develop the list “in consultation with” workers and employers as to what work should be prohibited to all children under 18 years. This put tripartism at the heart of policy development and implementation.
The three parties who know the most about work and working conditions – and who view the issue from three different but often complementary perspectives – sit down together with a common task before them: to “determine” what work is “OK or not OK” for a child above the minimum age.
On the policy side, we have seen time and time again that the enactment of the hazardous work lists has a powerful deterrent effect. It provides a policy and institutional structure that can make the gains in protecting young workers more permanent and sustainable. Changing social attitudes about hazardous youth employment, by raising awareness of the risks of working in hazardous activities or conditions and by establishing appropriate sanctions to enforce the law, can also have long-term effects by mobilizing society against this type of work for all workers.
Experience has shown us that countries vary considerably in how they conduct the process, such as in the composition of the committee, the resources allocated, whether technical assistance is available or not, the time allotted and, most of all, the political will applied. However, although most countries have a list, some lists require improvement. Some of the text may have been borrowed from neighbouring countries or be a leftover from the colonial period; most will not have been recently reviewed and will be rather out of date –