Feature: DOLE provides definition of child labor-related terms

Are you reporting on child labor? Then, it would help you to familiarize yourself with the definition of child labor-related terminologies.

This was the advice of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz on Wednesday with the DOLE’s Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BSWC) and with the government’s private sector partners at the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC).

Baldoz said the DOLE, through the BWSC, is offering help to media wanting to do reporting on child labor or to advocate for its elimination.

“Our fight against child labor can be easily grasped if we have a common understanding of the issue. Understanding begins with a set of useful definitions on child labor,” she said, urging the media to help disseminate correct and relevant information on child labor and its related terms.

Some of the definitions, taken from Republic Act (RA) No. 9231 or the “Act Providing for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor and Affording Stronger Protection for the Working Child,” Republic Act No. 7610 or the “Special Protection of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act” or the “Child Protection Law” and the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 182 or the “Worst Forms of Child Labor Conventions” are as follows:

The term “children” applies “to all persons under 18 years of age,” as provided under RA 9231. This is a modified definition of children under RA 7610, which defines children to mean “persons below 18 years of age or those over but are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition.”

“Child labor” refers to any work or economic activity performed by a child that subjects him or her to any form of exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition.”

According to the ILO, the term “child labor” is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

In its most extreme forms, child labor involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities, often at a very early age.

“Worst forms of child labor,” as enumerated in Section 3 of RA 9231, have four broad categories such as all forms of slavery, as defined under the “Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003,” or practices similar to slavery such as sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labor, including recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; use, procuring, offering or exposing of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography, or for pornographic performances; use, procuring, or offering of a child for illegal or illicit activities, including production and trafficking of dangerous drugs and volatile substances prohibited under existing laws; and work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is hazardous or likely to be harmful to the health, safety, or morals of children.

“Hazardous work” is work that debases, degrades, or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of as child as a human being; exposes the child to physical, emotional or sexual abuse, or is found to be highly stressful psychologically or may prejudice morals; is performed underground, underwater, or at dangerous heights; and involves the use of dangerous machinery, equipment, and tools such as power-driven or explosive power-actuated tools; exposes the child to physical danger such as but not limited to the dangerous feats of balancing, physical strength or contortion, or which requires the manual transport of heavy loads.

It is also work performed under particularly difficult conditions, exposes the child to biological agents such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoans, nematodes and other parasites; or involves the manufacture or handling of explosives and other pyrotechnic products.

“Child work” is work allowed or permitted to be performed by a child under certain conditions. A child below 15 years old can be permitted to work if he or she is under supervision by family senior or parents provided that the child works directly under the sole responsibility of his or her parents or legal guardian and where only members of his or her family are employed; the child’s employment does not endangers his or her life, safety, health, and morals, or impairs his or her normal development; the parent or legal guardian shall provide the said child with the prescribed primary and, or secondary education; the employer first secures a work permit for the child from the DOLE.

Children aged 15 to below 18 years of age are permitted to work in any economic activity not considered child labor, but not more than eight hours a day in no case beyond 40 hours a week. They shall not be allowed to work between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. of the following day. The employer should provide the child with access to at least elementary and secondary education.

“Working children” are children allowed to work, but not in child labor or in hazardous economic activity.

“Incidence of working children” is the proportion of working children to the total children population. It is also called economic activity rate.

“Incidence of child labor” or child labor rate is referred to as the proportion of children in child labor to the total children population.

“Hazardous child labor rate” is the proportion of children in hazardous child labor to the total children population. (DOLE)

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