child labor case study

• IKEA Case: One Company’s Fight to End Child Labor
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IKEA Case: One Company’s Fight to End Child Labor

A business ethics case study.

In this business ethics case study, Swedish multinational company IKEA faced accusations relating to child labor abuses in the rug industry in Pakistan which posed a serious challenge for the company and its supply chain management goals.

Empty garage with a highlighted walking path in front of an IKEA.

Photo credit: mastrminda/Pixabay

Yuvraj Rao '23 , a 2022-23 Hackworth Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics graduated with a marketing major and entrepreneurship minor from Santa Clara University.

Introduction

IKEA is a Swedish multinational company that was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad. [1] The company mainly provides simple, affordable home furniture and furnishings, and it pioneered DIY, or do it yourself, furniture. Kamprad originally sold binders, fountain pens, and cigarette lighters, but eventually expanded to furniture in 1948. According to the Journal of International Management, in 1953, Kamprad offered products that came as “a self assembled furniture” for the lowest price, which ultimately became a key part of IKEA’s value proposition going forward. In 1961, IKEA started to contact furniture factories in Poland to order chairs from a factory in Radomsko. [2] Outsourcing to Poland was mainly due to other Swedish furniture stores pressuring Swedish manufacturers to stop selling to IKEA. In the mid 1960’s, IKEA continued its supplier expansion into Norway, largely because IKEA didn’t want to “own their own line of production,” [3] and Germany due to its ideal location (downtown, suburban area) to place an IKEA store. Given IKEA’s suppliers were now not just in Sweden, it led to an increased importance on developing strong relationships with its suppliers.

In the following decades, IKEA continued its expansion and solidified its identity as a major retail outlet with parts being manufactured around the world. By the mid 90’s, IKEA was the “world’s largest specialized furniture retailer with their GDP reaching $4.5 billion in August of 1994.” [4] It also worked with 2,300 suppliers in 70 different countries, who supplied 11,200 products and had 24 “trading offices in nineteen countries that monitored production, tested product ideas, negotiated products, and checked quality.” [5] IKEA’s dependence on its suppliers ultimately led to problems in the mid 1990’s. At this time, IKEA was the largest furniture retailer in the world, and had nearly “100 stores in 17 countries.” [6] Also during this time, a Swedish documentary was released that highlighted the use of child labor in the rug industry in Pakistan, which impacted IKEA given it had production there. The rug industry in particular is extremely labor intensive and is one of the largest “export earners for India, Pakistan, Nepal and Morocco.” Here, children are forced to work long hours for very little pay (if there is any pay at all). In some cases, their wages are only enough to pay for food and lodging. In cases where children are not paid, the wages are used by the loom owner to pay the parents and agents who brought the children to the factories. Additionally, the work the children must do comes with a lot of risk. More specifically, children face risks of diminishing eyesight and damaged lungs from “the dust and fluff from the wool used in the carpets.” [7] As a result of these working conditions, many of these children are very sick when they grow up. Despite these terrible conditions, it isn’t that simple for families not to send children to work at these factories. A lot of the parents can’t afford food, water, education, or healthcare, so they are often left with no choice but to send their children to work for an additional source of income. [8]

 IKEA and Child Labor Accusations

The accusations of child labor in the rug industry in Pakistan posed a serious challenge for IKEA and its supply chain management goals. It would need to address the serious issues of alleged injustice for the sake of its reputation and brand image. Additionally, as IKEA also had suppliers in India, it would need to be in compliance with India’s “landmark legislation act against child labor, the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986.” [9]

As a result of these accusations, IKEA ultimately ended its contracts with Pakistani rug manufacturers, but the problem of child labor in its supply chain still persisted in other countries that were supplying IKEA. Marianne Barner, the business area manager for rugs for IKEA at the time, stated that the film was a “real eye-opener…I myself had spent a couple of months in India for some supply chain training, but child labor was never mentioned.” [10] She also added that a key issue was that IKEA’s “buyers met suppliers at offices in the cities and rarely visited the actual production sites.” [11] The lack of visits to the actual production sites made it difficult for IKEA to identify the issue of child labor in these countries.

To make matters worse, in 1995, a German film “showed pictures of children working at an Indian rug supplier... ‘There was no doubt that they were rugs for IKEA,’ says business area manager for textiles at the time, Göran Ydstrand.” [12] In response to these accusations, Barner and her team went to talk to suppliers in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. They also conducted surprise raids on rug factories and confirmed that there was child labor in these factories. The issue of child labor, along with the accusations of having formaldehyde (a harmful chemical) in IKEA’s best selling BILLY bookcases and the discovery of unsafe working conditions for adults (such as dipping hands in petrol without gloves), led to increased costs and a significantly damaged reputation for the company.

It was later discovered that the German film released in 1995 was fake, and the renowned German journalist who was responsible for this film was involved in “several fake reports about different subjects and companies.” [13] IKEA was now left with three options. First, some members of IKEA management wanted to permanently shut down production of their rugs in South Asia. Another option was to do nothing and proceed with its existing practices now that it was announced that the film was fake. The third option was that the company could attempt to tackle the issue of child labor that was clearly evident in its supply chain, regardless of whether the film was fake or not. IKEA ultimately decided to opt for the third option, and its recent discoveries would eventually help guide the policies the company implemented to address these issues, particularly child labor in India.

Steps Taken to Address Child Labor in the Supply Chain

IKEA took multiple steps to deal with its damaged reputation and issues of child labor in its supply chain. One way in which it did this was through institutional partnerships. One such partnership was with Save the Children, which began in 1994. According to Save the Children’s website, one of the main goals of their partnership is to realize children's “rights to a healthy and secure childhood, which includes a quality education. By listening to and learning from children, we develop long-term projects that empower communities to create a better everyday life for children.” [14] Furthermore, the partnership is intended to “drive sustainable business operations across the entire value chain.” [15] Together, IKEA and Save the Children are focused on addressing the main causes of child labor in India’s cotton-growing areas. [16] Save the Children also advised IKEA to bring in an independent consultant to ensure that suppliers were in compliance with their agreements, which further improved IKEA’s practices in its supply chain. IKEA also partnered with UNICEF to combat child labor in its supply chain. According to the IKEA Foundation, in 2014, IKEA provided UNICEF with six new grants totaling €24.9 million with a focus “on reaching the most marginalized and disadvantaged children living in poor communities and in strengthening UNICEF’s response in emergency and conflict situations.” Additionally, five of the six grants were given to help programs in “Afghanistan, China, India, Pakistan, and Rwanda,” with a “focus on early childhood development, child protection, education, and helping adolescents to improve their lives and strengthen their communities.” [17]

Next, IKEA and Save the Children worked together to develop IWAY, which was launched in 2000. [18] IWAY is the IKEA code of conduct for suppliers. According to the IKEA website, “IWAY is the IKEA way of responsibly sourcing products, services, materials and components. It sets clear expectations and ways of working for environmental, social and working conditions, as well as animal welfare, and is mandatory for all suppliers and service providers that work with IKEA.” [19] In addition, IWAY is meant to have an impact in the following four areas: “promoting positive impacts on the environment,” “securing decent and meaningful work for workers,” “respecting children’s rights”, and “improving the welfare of animals in the IKEA value chain.” [20] IWAY is used as a foundation to collaborate with IKEA’s suppliers and sub-contractors to ensure supply chain transparency.

As mentioned previously, one of the main goals of IKEA’s partnership with Save the Children was to address child labor in India’s cotton-growing areas. To do this, IKEA and Save the Children developed a program that would ultimately help more than 1,800 villages between 2009 and 2014. More specifically, the program moved nearly 150,000 children out of child labor and into classrooms. Also, as a result of this program, more than 10,000 migrant children “moved back into their home communities.” [21] Last but not least, the program trained almost 2,000 teachers and 1,866 Anganwadi workers (whose duties include teaching students and educating villagers on healthcare [22] ) in order to provide each village with a community leader. This was to ensure that the community had a skilled leader to assist in educating the villagers. In 2012, the IKEA Foundation and Save the Children announced that they would expand with new programs in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. This joint program illustrates IKEA’s commitment to improving communities in addition to helping children go to school.

Conclusion & Looking Ahead

IKEA has taken numerous steps to ensure that suppliers abide by the IWAY Code of Conduct. Companies around the world can learn from the policies IKEA has put in place to ensure that each company has control and complete oversight over their supply chains, which can lead to a more transparent and ethical supply chain. According to The IKEA WAY on Purchasing Products, Materials and Services, one way in which IKEA does this is by requiring all suppliers to share the content of the code to all co-workers and sub-suppliers, thus leading to more accountability among the company's suppliers. IKEA also believes in the importance of long term relationships with its suppliers. Therefore, if for some reason, a supplier is not meeting the standards set forth by the code, IKEA will continue to work with the supplier if the supplier shows a willingness to improve its practices with actionable steps to complete before a specified period of time. [23]

Additionally, during the IWAY implementation process, IKEA monitors its suppliers and service providers. To do this, IKEA has a team of auditors who conduct audits (both announced and unannounced) at supplier facilities. The auditors are also in charge of following up on action plans if suppliers are failing to meet the agreed upon standards specified by IWAY. Along with this, “IKEA…has the Compliance and Monitoring Group, an internal independent group that is responsible for independent verification of implementation and compliance activities related to IWAY and Sustainability.” [24] IKEA also has independent third party teams who conduct inspections on behalf of IKEA. [25] By conducting audits and putting together teams to ensure cooperation from suppliers throughout the supply chain, companies can be better equipped to prevent unethical practices in the production of goods and services. In Ximeng Han’s Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management, Han highlights IWAY’s importance in maintaining links with IKEA’s suppliers. [26] Therefore, IWAY plays a crucial role in ensuring supply chain transparency and in building a more ethical and sustainable supply chain.

In addition to all of the policies IKEA has put in place to address issues in its supply chain, the company has also donated a lot of money to combat child labor in India. More specifically, according to an IKEA Foundation article written in 2013, “Since 2000, the IKEA Foundation has committed €60 million to help fight child labour in India and Pakistan, aiming to prevent children from working in the cotton, metalware and carpet industries.” [27] Furthermore, in 2009, the company announced that it would donate $48 million to UNICEF to “help poor children in India.” [28]

IKEA’s goal to completely eliminate child labor from its supply chain is an ongoing battle, and it is still committed to ensuring that this is ultimately the case. More specifically, it is extremely difficult to completely eliminate child labor from a company’s supply chain because of the various aspects involved. According to a report published in 2018 by the International Labour Organization, these aspects include a legal commitment, building and “extending” social protection systems (including helping people find jobs), “expanding access to free, quality public education,” addressing supply chain issues, and providing more protection for children in general. [29] Furthermore, Han points out the potential downsides that could arise as a result of having a global supply chain like IKEA does. Given IKEA is an international retailer, the company “has to spend a lot of time, money and manpower to enter new markets due to the different cultures, laws and competitive markets in different regions, and there is also a significant risk of zero return.” [30] Han also argues that the COVID-19 pandemic showed IKEA’s and many other companies’ inability to respond to “fluctuations in supply and demand,” primarily due to inflexible supply chains. [31] This information points out the various aspects that need to align in order to completely end the issue of child labor throughout the world, as well as the difficulties of having a global supply chain, which is why child labor is so difficult to completely eliminate.

Specific to IKEA’s actions, in 2021, IKEA announced three key focus areas for its action pledge: “Further integrating children’s rights into the existing IKEA due diligence system (by reviewing IWAY from a child rights’ perspective in order to strengthen the code),” “accelerating the work to promote decent work for young workers,” and partnering “up to increase and scale efforts.” [32] IKEA’s fight to end child labor in India highlights the importance of supply chain transparency and putting policies in place that ensures cooperation from suppliers and all parties involved. Additionally, in a Forbes article written in 2021, “According to the data from the OpenText survey…When asked whether purchasing ethically sourced and/or produced products matters, 81 percent of respondents said yes.” [33] Steve Banker, who covers logistics and supply chain management, also adds, “What is interesting is that nearly 20 percent of these survey respondents said that it has only mattered to them within the last year, which indicates that the Covid pandemic, and some of the product shortages we have faced, has made consumers re-evaluate their stance on ethical sourcing.” [34] These results confirm that customers are now considering how a product was sourced in their purchasing decisions, which makes it even more important for IKEA to be transparent about its efforts to eliminate child labor from its supply chain. Furthermore, the company’s open commitment to eliminating child labor and helping communities in India is beneficial in maintaining a positive relationship with its stakeholders.

The increase in globalization has made it even more essential for companies to monitor their supply chains and have complete oversight over business practices. IKEA is one of the companies leading the way in building a more ethical and sustainable supply chain, but more companies need to follow suit and implement policies similar to IWAY that holds all parties in the supply chain accountable for their actions. Through supply chain transparency and accountability, companies will likely be better equipped to handle issues that arise throughout their respective supply chains. Furthermore, by implementing new policies, conducting audits, and maintaining close communication with suppliers, companies can work to eliminate child labor in their supply chains and put children where they belong: in school.

Reflection Questions:

• What does this case teach you about supply chain ethics?
• What are some of the ways in which management/leaders can ensure compliance of the standards set forth by a company in terms of supplier behavior and ethical sourcing?
• Who is primarily responsible for ensuring ethical behavior throughout the supply chain? Is it the company? The suppliers? Both?
• How can companies utilize the various platforms and technologies that exist today to better understand and oversee their supply chains? 
• IKEA has taken numerous steps to address child labor in its supply chain. Do you think every business working in a context that may involve child labor has a duty to act in a similar way? Why or why not?

Works Cited 

“ About Ikea – Our Heritage .” IKEA.

“Anganwadi Workers.” Journals Of India , 16 June 2020. 

Banker, Steve. “ Do Consumers Care about Ethical Sourcing? ” Forbes , 9 Nov. 2022.

Bharadwaj , Prashant, et al. Perverse Consequences of Well-Intentioned Regulation ... - World Bank Group .

“ Child Labor in the Carpet Industry Rugmark: Carpets: Rugs: Pakistan .” Child Labor in the Carpet Industry RugMark |Carpets | Rugs | Pakistan .

“ Creating a Sustainable IKEA Value Chain with Iway. ” Sustainability Is Key in Our Supplier Code of Conduct .

“ Ending Child Labour by 2025 - International Labour Organization .” International Labour Organization .

“ Film on Child Labour Is Eye-Opener for IKEA .” IKEA Museum , 31 Mar. 2022.

Foundation , ECLT. “ Why Does Child Labour Happen? Here Are Some of the Root Causes. ” ECLT Foundation , 17 May 2023.

Han, Ximeng. “ Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management. ” Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management | Atlantis Press , 27 Dec. 2022.

“ Human Rights and Global Sourcing: IKEA in India. ” Journal of International Management , 13 May 2011.

“ IKEA and IKEA Foundation .” Save the Children International .

“ IKEA Foundation Contributes €24.9 Million to UNICEF to Help Advance Children’s Rights. ” IKEA Foundation , 26 May 2020.

“ IKEA Foundation Helps Fight the Roots Causes of Child Labour in Pakistan .” IKEA Foundation , 18 Feb. 2013.

“ Ikea Gives $48 Million to Fight India Child Labor .” NBC News , 23 Feb. 2009.

“ IKEA Supports 2021 as the UN International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. ” About IKEA.

The Ikea Way on Purchasing Products , Materials and Services .

Jasińska, Joanna, et al. “ Flat-Pack Success: IKEA Turns to Poland for Its Furniture. ” – The First News .

Thomas , Susan. “ IKEA Foundation Tackles Child Labor in India’s Cotton Communities .” Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship , 15 July 2014.

[1] “About Ikea – Our Heritage.” IKEA .

[2] Jasińska, Joanna, et al. “Flat-Pack Success: IKEA Turns to Poland for Its Furniture.” – The First News .

[3] “Human Rights and Global Sourcing: IKEA in India.” Journal of International Management , 13 May 2011.

[4] “Human Rights and Global Sourcing: IKEA in India.” Journal of International Management , 13 May 2011.

[5] “Human Rights and Global Sourcing: IKEA in India.” Journal of International Management , 13 May 2011.

[6] “Film on Child Labour Is Eye-Opener for IKEA.” IKEA Museum , 31 Mar. 2022.

[7] “Child Labor in the Carpet Industry Rugmark: Carpets: Rugs: Pakistan.” Child Labor in the Carpet Industry RugMark |Carpets | Rugs | Pakistan .

[8] Foundation , ECLT. “Why Does Child Labour Happen? Here Are Some of the Root Causes.” ECLT Foundation , 17 May 2023.

[9] Bharadwaj , Prashant, et al. Perverse Consequences of Well-Intentioned Regulation ... - World Bank Group .

[10] “Film on Child Labour Is Eye-Opener for IKEA.” IKEA Museum , 31 Mar. 2022.

[11] “Film on Child Labour Is Eye-Opener for IKEA.” IKEA Museum , 31 Mar. 2022.

[12] “Film on Child Labour Is Eye-Opener for IKEA.” IKEA Museum , 31 Mar. 2022.

[13] “Film on Child Labour Is Eye-Opener for IKEA.” IKEA Museum , 31 Mar. 2022.

[14] “IKEA and IKEA Foundation.” Save the Children International .

[15] “IKEA and IKEA Foundation.” Save the Children International .

[16] “IKEA and IKEA Foundation.” Save the Children International .

[17] “IKEA Foundation Contributes €24.9 Million to UNICEF to Help Advance Children’s Rights.” IKEA Foundation , 26 May 2020.

[18] “IKEA and IKEA Foundation.” Save the Children International .

[19] “Creating a Sustainable IKEA Value Chain with Iway.” Sustainability Is Key in Our Supplier Code of Conduct .

[20] “Creating a Sustainable IKEA Value Chain with Iway.” Sustainability Is Key in Our Supplier Code of Conduct .

[21] Thomas, Susan. “IKEA Foundation Tackles Child Labor in India’s Cotton Communities.” Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship , 15 July 2014.

[22] “Anganwadi Workers.” Journals Of India , 16 June 2020.

[23] The Ikea Way on Purchasing Products, Materials and Services .

[24] The Ikea Way on Purchasing Products, Materials and Services .

[25] The Ikea Way on Purchasing Products, Materials and Services .

[26] Han, Ximeng. “Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management.” Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management | Atlantis Press , 27 Dec. 2022.

[27] “IKEA Foundation Helps Fight the Roots Causes of Child Labour in Pakistan.” IKEA Foundation , 18 Feb. 2013.

[28] “Ikea Gives $48 Million to Fight India Child Labor.” NBC News , 23 Feb. 2009.

[29] “Ending Child Labour by 2025 - International Labour Organization.” International Labour Organization .

[30] Han, Ximeng. “Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management.” Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management | Atlantis Press , 27 Dec. 2022.

[31] Han, Ximeng. “Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management.” Analysis and Reflection of IKEA’s Supply Chain Management | Atlantis Press , 27 Dec. 2022.

[32] “IKEA Supports 2021 as the UN International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.” About IKEA .

[33] Banker, Steve. “Do Consumers Care about Ethical Sourcing?” Forbes , 9 Nov. 2022.

[34] Banker, Steve. “Do Consumers Care about Ethical Sourcing?” Forbes , 9 Nov. 2022.

Tens of Thousands of Boys in Bangladesh Were Forced into Work During the Pandemic. Now School Is Resuming Without Them

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center

By the time the sun sinks over the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, Rekha is struggling to sit still. Twisting her plastic bangles, the 34-year-old mother of two checks her phone to make sure she hasn’t missed a call from her 12-year-old son, who was due home 30 minutes earlier. Rekha wanders outside to peer through the front gate, anxiety sketched all over her face. “This job is too dangerous,” she says, frowning. “Every morning I say goodbye and I pray, ‘Please Allah, send him home tonight.’”

Rekha has cause to worry. In the 18 months since her elder son Rafi started work in a local glass factory, he’s returned home bruised and bleeding more than once. One afternoon, he severed the soft skin of his palm with a sharp blade intended to slice a window pane. As blood soaked the child’s T-shirt, he was rushed to the emergency room by his employer—but nobody called Rekha to let her know. “I feel bad inside, like I am a bad mother,” she says. “I know Rafi doesn’t want to work. He wants to be at school.”

Read More: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Puts Children at Risk

When authorities first shuttered Bangladesh’s schools in March 2020, nobody could have anticipated they would remain closed for the following 18 months, in what would go on to become one of the most restrictive school closures in the world. Classes returned on a rotating schedule in September 2021 , but schools were closed for four weeks over January and February amid a COVID-19 surge driven by the Omicron variant. Now, two years on from the first lockdown, child-rights advocates say that tens of thousands of pupils across the country have not returned to school. The majority, they say, are boys ages 12 and above, who during the interim were pushed into full-time work.

Rafi was once one of more than 1,100 students ages 5 to 17 who attended Shantipur High School in Dhaka until the government imposed its nationwide lockdown in March 2020. In September 2021, the school’s staff heaved open the metal gates that face a busy street in central Dhaka and waited; teachers poised in pressed shirts and blazers waited for them to return, blackboards still damp from a sponge.

But only 700 pupils appeared over the following days, and numbers haven’t increased in the months since. By December, so many of the wooden benches and desks were sitting empty that the school started selling them off as scrap material. Two-thirds of the children missing from the classrooms are adolescent boys. “They are the only wage earners of their families now,” says head teacher Biplab Kumar Saha.

While it’s impossible to know exactly how many children in Bangladesh have started working since the start of the pandemic, attendance figures for 20 schools across the country collated by TIME reveal that boys accounted for at least 59% of dropouts from March 2020 to November 2021, a gender imbalance confirmed by data from the nonprofit organization BRAC.

The growing crisis stirred Bangladeshi authorities to ratify the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention 138 on child labor in March . They declared that no child under the age of 14 should be employed in any industry, and promised to eradicate child labor in its entirety over the next three years. But as household incomes across the country plunged by an average of 23% during the first 18 months of the pandemic, many parents say they’re out of alternatives: unless their son goes to work, his siblings won’t be able to eat.

That wasn’t the case two years ago. When the schools first shut, Rafi’s parents were concerned about their sons’ education—Rafi’s younger brother is just 8—and joined with other neighborhood families to find a private tutor to teach a dozen of the local children for an hour every day. But as weeks passed and Bangladesh remained in lockdown, the family’s financial situation quickly deteriorated.

By the summer of 2020, Rekha’s husband Tajul, a successful entrepreneur, had lost his clothing business and started working two jobs—manning a small roadside stall by day, before patrolling a market as a security guard through the night. The hours were long, and his income still wasn’t enough to pay back microcredit loans and cover rent. Debt collectors began showing up at their door, threatening Rekha, who suffers from abscesses and diabetes and is too sick to work. In desperation, Tajul turned to Rafi. “It wasn’t the plan, but the situation became really bad,” Rekha recalls.

Rekha had never imagined she would be sending her son to work 12-hour days at a glass factory. “But now we are living a devastated life,” she says, gesturing around the bare concrete room where the whole family eats and sleeps.

When the pandemic first hit, concern initially focused on girls being forced into marriage, as struggling families tried to reduce their costs by marrying off their daughters to men sometimes more than twice their age. One survey conducted by the nonprofit Manusher Jonno Foundation recorded almost 14,000 underage marriages across one-third of the country during the first six months of lockdown, with half of the girls ages 13 to 15. At Shantipur High School, where Rafi used to study, the teachers kept careful track of their female pupils. They learned that in most cases, those who dropped out had moved to rural communities and enrolled in schools outside of the city. At least 15 girls were forced into illegal, underage marriage. It’s 15 too many, the school’s head teacher Saha says—–but it’s also fewer than he had feared. What he hadn’t anticipated was the impact the pandemic would have on the boys. “It was beyond our expectation and imagination.”

Secondary education isn’t free in Bangladesh, and tuition fees average approximately 3,000 taka ($35) a year . In a country where 1 in 5 people survived on less than $1.90 per day before the pandemic, the costs of stationery, textbooks, and uniforms also add up fast. Girls ages 11 to 16 typically receive a small uniform stipend and tuition subsidy of up to 3,500 taka ($40) each year from the government in an attempt to counter the threat of child marriage and incentivize their families to keep them in school. “But for families with sons, education presents a significant cost,” says Safi Khan, director of education for BRAC. “It’s an impossible situation, and there is very little support.”

One of the first signs of economic crisis is when adolescent boys begin dropping out of school, says Tuomo Poutiainen, Bangladesh director for the International Labour Organization. “It is gendered,” he says. When schools were closed, most families felt that sending their daughters to work was too much of a risk, but that sons might present an emergency source of income.

Read More: The Philippines Still Hasn’t Fully Reopened Its Schools Because of COVID-19. What Is This Doing to Children?

Despite millions of dollars in foreign aid supporting girls’ education, child-rights advocates in Bangladesh tell TIME they are struggling to summon equal support for the thousands of adolescent boys who have dropped out of school since the outbreak of COVID-19. It’s as if donors are “intentionally blind” to child labor, says Tony Michael Gomes, director of World Vision Bangladesh. “I see a huge disconnection … If you really ask what exactly they’re funding and if their resources are impacting the lives of the children, the answer might be no.” Sheldon Yett, UNICEF representative to Bangladesh, agrees. “I don’t want to de-emphasize the risk that girls are under,” he says. “But we must not lose sight of the specific needs of boys.”

For many parents, the costs of their children’s education have collided with mounting debts, leaving them with few options but to pull their sons from their classrooms. “I felt terrible,” says Helena, whose 11-year-old, Alomgir, threw his exercise books in the trash when she told him he couldn’t return to school in September.

When Alomgir’s friends left the village and traipsed along the track to the local elementary a few days later, Helena found her son sobbing in the shade of their wooden hut. “When I saw him crying, I cried too,” she says. She understands his pain. As a child, Helena was top of her class until her brother forced her to drop out of school and marry an older man. She was only 12 years old.

Helena has already had to reconcile herself with depriving one son of an education: five years ago, her husband fell sick, and the family had to send Alomgir’s then 11-year-old brother to work at a brick kiln, where he earns 300 taka ($3.50) a day. “We thought that we could ensure the rest of our sons were educated by sacrificing the eldest one,” Helena says. But when the countrywide lockdown began in March 2020, the kiln closed for four months, and the family had to take out a 40,000-taka ($465) loan to cover rice and medical care. Two years later, they still owe 30,000 taka ($350), and Helena fears it’s Alomgir who will continue to pay the price.

Data on child labor in Bangladesh is notoriously scant. According to the ILO, rates appeared to be decreasing before the pandemic, but there hasn’t been a nationwide, government-led survey on child labor since 2013. In 2019 UNICEF conducted its own study, reporting that 1 in 10 boys ages 12 to 14 in Bangladesh was working full time. Incomes vary, but research suggests the majority of boys under the age of 14 earn less than $40 per month.

“We don’t have updated statistics since the pandemic [began], so we don’t know exactly what the impact is going to be on child labor, but we know anecdotally that it’s a lot worse,” says UNICEF’s Yett.

Even before Bangladesh ratified the convention, its constitution decreed that “hazardous” child labor, such as brick breaking or leather tanning , was illegal—but the current law does not prohibit children under the age of 14 from providing for their families in informal sectors, such as domestic work or agriculture. (Since they are victims of exploitation, TIME has chosen not to publish the faces or surnames of children in this article.) Repercussions for those who employ children in any industry are rare, say child-rights advocates, citing an incident in July 2021 when a fire broke out in a juice factory and killed at least 52 employees, including at least 16 children as young as 11 . The owners were briefly arrested and released on bail, but the court case is still pending.

For all the demonstrable dangers, many factory owners say they have seen a marked increase in the number of parents going from door to door over the past two years, offering their small sons up for work. One businessman in Narayanganj, a riverside city southeast of Dhaka, tells TIME that he has employed approximately 10 children in his garment factory since the start of the pandemic. The youngest was 8 years old. “Their age doesn’t matter. Rather, can he cope? Can he deliver?”

The businessman argues that he’s supporting the families the government has failed. “We have too many people in this country and too few resources,” he says. “Education gives no guarantee to [the children’s] future.” A few meters away, two boys, ages 12 and 13, are folding knockoff Adidas tracksuits, coughing on clouds of cotton dust.

As inflation soars , and more families descend into poverty , getting Bangladeshi children out of the workplace and back into schools will take more than the public-facing ratification of the ILO convention establishing that no child under the age of 14 should go to work , says Yett. He notes that the legislation doesn’t even come into effect for another year. “There is no single magic bullet here. Ratification of the convention is critical, but not enough.” There are many factors at play, he says, including the fact that education is compulsory only until age 10 , and that there is little to no social support for families facing financial collapse.

Still, since schools partially reopened in September, many teachers have started visiting students’ homes, pleading with their parents in person to return their children to class. “We loved them,” Saha says of his school’s former students, adding that some of his teachers were close to crying when they saw their once overcrowded classrooms filled with empty desks.

Today, two years after he last attended school, Alomgir is silent as he tends to the family’s five goats—scratching one behind her ears as he ushers her toward the pile of grass he cut that morning. His parents don’t want him to join his father and brother at the brick kiln. There is plenty of work on the family’s farm, and Helena isn’t ready to give up her hope that they could find the money for him to resume schooling in the future. “I have to believe I can make it happen,” she says.

Other families are less hopeful. Just a 10-minute walk from where his former classmates are studying English and history, Rafi sweeps the floor of the glass factory under his employer’s watchful eye. Before the pandemic, he was boisterous and talkative, his parents say—a bouncing ball of energy that never kept quiet, and rarely remained still.

These days he returns home exhausted, prone to outbursts of emotion. “Because of you, my life is over,” he tells his mother. Rekha is unsure how to comfort him, fearing he might be right. “We are ruining his future,” she says, blinking back tears.

— With reporting by Simmone Shah/New York

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Why Companies Are Blind to Child Labor

• Danny Zane,
• Julie Irwin,
• Rebecca Walker Reczek

It’s not because their supply chains are too complicated.

Many companies claim to adhere to strict policies about child labor. For example, Apple says that whenever it finds an underage worker in its supply chain, it sends the child home safely, continues paying his or her wages, and even finances the child’s education and offers employment once doing so is legal. Samsung has said that its contracts with any supplier found to use child labor will be terminated immediately.

• DZ Danny Zane is a third year doctoral student in marketing at Ohio State University.
• Julie Irwin is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. drj208
• Rebecca Walker Reczek is an aAssociate professor of marketing at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.

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Created in partnership with the Helpdesk on Business & Human Rights

Child Labour

If you have questions, feedback or you're looking for further help in protecting human rights, please contact us at

[email protected]

What is Child Labour?

Child labour is work that harms children’s well-being and hinders their education, development and future livelihood, according to the International Labour Organization ( ILO ). Not all child labour is harmful; for example, if it is light work and does not interfere with a child’s education or right to leisure, such as, children helping their parents on a farm with non-harmful activities or in a shop outside of school hours. Moreover, youth employment and student work are considered legal and may contribute positively to the development of children and young people.

What is the Dilemma?

The dilemma for responsible business is how to address child labour responsibly given the complex social and economic context in which it occurs. While a business may seek to respect the principles contained in international labour standards and national laws on minimum age, removing children (or having children removed) from their operations or supply chains without considering the implications for them could potentially worsen their situation. For example, removing children from the workplace without providing safer and suitable alternatives may leave them vulnerable to more exploitative work elsewhere (e.g. in subcontractor companies), as well as potentially lead to negative health and well-being implications due to increased poverty within their family.

Prevalence of Child Labour

The  ILO  and  UNICEF  estimate that 160 million children — 63 million girls and 97 million boys — were in child labour globally at the beginning of 2020, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide. [2]  79 million children (nearly 50% of all children in child labour) were involved in hazardous work such as agriculture or mining, operating dangerous machinery or working at height. However, this number is an approximation — child labour is difficult to quantify as it is often hidden due to its illegal nature. The identification of children in the workplace can be further impeded by a lack of reliable documents such as birth certificates and the fact that it often occurs in rural settings or in areas of cities where authorities have little visibility.

Key trends include:

• Global progress against child labour has  stagnated  since 2016 despite global efforts to eradicate child labour by 2025, as per  target 8.7 [1]  of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The COVID-19 crisis threatened to  further erode  global progress against child labour. ILO estimates suggested that a  further 8.9 million children  would be in child labour by the end of 2022 due to rising poverty and parental deaths driven by the pandemic.
• Since the start of the pandemic, child labour risks increased in more than 83 countries. Africa remains the highest risk region, with 6 of the 10 highest risk countries ( Verisk Maplecroft ). According to an  ILO report published in June 2021, there are more children in child labour in sub-Saharan Africa than in the rest of the world combined.
• The year 2021 was designated as the  International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour by UN Member States to further increase global efforts in eliminating child labour.

Impacts on Businesses

Businesses can be impacted by child labour risks in their operations and supply chains in multiple ways:

• Reputational and brand risk : Campaigns by NGOs, trade unions, consumers, media and other stakeholders can result in reduced sales and/or brand erosion.
• Financial risk : Divestment and/or avoidance by investors and finance providers (many of which are increasingly applying environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to their decision-making) can result in reduced or more expensive access to capital and reduced shareholder value.
• Legal risk : Legal charges can be brought against the company, up to and including criminal charges, which can result in imprisonment in some countries and usually involve significant fines and/or surrendering of goods produced by child labour (see section ‘ Definition and Legal Instruments ’). Former child workers may also be able to sue their exploitative employers, potentially including companies further up in the supply chain.
• Operational risk : Changes to a company’s supply chains made in response to the discovery of child labour may result in disruption. For example, companies may feel the need to terminate supplier contracts (resulting in potentially higher costs and/or disruption) and direct sourcing activities to lower-risk locations.

Impacts on Children’s Rights

Child labour has the potential to impact a range of children’s rights, [3]  including but not limited to:

• Right to health and to an adequate standard of living  ( CRC , Articles 6.2 and 27.1): Children’s  health and personal development  may be negatively impacted through engagement in work activities, which are not age-appropriate.
• Right to education  ( CRC , Article 28): Working hours may preclude children from attending school. Likewise, working children may be too tired to benefit fully from their studies. Children’s ability to learn and join the formal labour market at a later date may also be compromised by child labour.
• Right to rest and leisure and to cultural life  ( CRC , Article 31.1): Children involved in child labour often do not have sufficient time to develop socially and culturally through play and interaction with other children.
• Right to protection from economic exploitation  ( CRC , Article 32): Children have the right to be protected from economic exploitation. This includes the right to be protected from work that is hazardous or likely to interfere with the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

For further information on children’s rights, please refer to UNICEF’s  helpful summary  of children’s rights listed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The following  SDG targets  relate to  child labour :

• Goal 8  ( “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” ), Target 8.7 : Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
• Goal 16  ( “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” ), Target 16.2 : End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children

Progress on these targets and Global Goals will also help advance other goals, for example  Goal 3  ( “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” ) and  Goal 4  ( “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” ).

Key Resources

The following resources provide further information on how businesses can address child labour responsibly in their operations and supply chains:

• ILO and UNICEF,  Child Labour: Global Estimates 2020, Trends and the Road Forward : The most up-to-date  global estimates  of child labour from the ILO and UNICEF, including an overview of the impact on child labour from COVID-19.
• ILO and International Organisation of Employers (IOE),  Child Labour Guidance Tool for Business : This  tool  helps companies meet the due diligence requirements laid out in the  UN Guiding Principles , as they pertain to child labour.
• Ethical Trading Initiative,  Base Code Guidance: Child Labour : A step-by-step  guide  for businesses on eliminating child labour in global supply chains.

Definition & Legal Instruments

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

• Is mentally, physically, socially, or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and/or
• Interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

It is important to distinguish between minimum age violations and the worst forms of child labour. The minimum age for work is defined as follows:

• The minimum age for work should not be less than the age for completing compulsory schooling, and in general, not less than 15 years. However, States whose economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed may initially specify a minimum age of 14 years as a transitional measure ( Minimum Age Convention No. 138 ).
• Children can engage in light work from 13 years of age (or 12 as a transitional measure), provided that it does not interfere with their education or vocational training and that it does not have a negative impact on their health ( Minimum Age Convention No. 138 ).

The worst forms of child labour include ( Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention No. 182 ):

• The sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
• The use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution or pornographic performances;
• The use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities (e.g. production and trafficking of drugs).

Child labour also includes hazardous work performed by young workers over the legal minimum age for work but under 18 years. According to the  ILO , hazardous work is defined as work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

Examples of hazardous child labour include:

• Work that exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse;
• Work underground, underwater, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces;
• Work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involves the manual handling or transport of heavy loads;
• Work in an unhealthy environment which may, for example, expose children to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or to temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations damaging to their health;
• Work under particularly difficult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work where the child is unreasonably confined to the premises of the employer.

The  ILO  provides further  guidance  on types of hazardous work, while national legislation often includes lists of prohibited hazardous activities for children. It is important to note that the list of prohibited hazardous activities will vary between states, depending on a variety of contextual factors; it is, therefore, often better to follow best practice and work to prevent children working in hazardous jobs.

Legal Instruments

Ilo and un conventions.

Two ILO Conventions and the  UN Convention on the Rights of the Child  provide the framework for national law to define a clear line between what is acceptable and what is not in terms of child employment. The effective abolition of child labour is one of the five fundamental rights and principles at work by the ILO which Member States must promote, irrespective of whether or not they have ratified the respective conventions listed below

• ILO Minimum Age Convention, No. 138  (1973) sets a general minimum age of 15 for employment with some exceptions for developing countries.
• ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, No. 182  (1999) prohibits worst forms of child labour, including hazardous work by young workers under 18.
• The  UN Convention on the Rights of the Child  prohibits child labour and requires signatories to regulate minimum age and conditions of work for children.

The ILO Convention No. 182 has been  ratified  by all 187 ILO Member States (the only ILO Convention that has achieved  universal ratification ). The UN Convention on the Right of the Child has also been  ratified  by all countries except the United States (although the United States signed the Convention). Furthermore, most States have  ratified  ILO Convention No. 138. This means that in most countries relevant national legislation should be in place to implement the terms of these international legal instruments. In due diligence, it is important to check the ratification status for particular countries as an indicator of potentially more limited state protections against child labour. However, ratification does not guarantee that these countries are free from child labour, as the existence and enforcement of national laws to address child labour varies.

The fight against child labour is included as one of the  Ten Principles  of the UN Global Compact:  “ Principle 5 : Businesses should uphold the effective abolition of child labour” . The four labour principles of the UN Global Compact are derived from the  ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work .

These fundamental principles and rights at work have been affirmed and developed in the form of specific rights and obligations in International Labour Conventions and Recommendations and cover issues related to child labour, discrimination at work, forced labour and freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

Member States of the ILO have an obligation to promote the effective abolition of child labour, even if they have not ratified the Conventions in question.

Other Legal Instruments

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ( UNGPs ) set the global standard regarding the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights in their operations and across their value chains. The Guiding Principles call upon States to consider a smart mix of measures — national and international, mandatory and voluntary — to foster business respect for human rights. Businesses should consider the UNGPs in their operational and supply chain decisions, and when following national legislation.

Children’s Rights and Business Principles ( CRBPs ) were first proposed in 2010 and are based on existing standards, initiatives and best practices related to business and children. These Principles seek to define the scope of corporate responsibility towards children. Covering a wide range of critical issues – from child labour to marketing and advertising practices to the role of business in aiding children affected by emergencies – the Principles call on companies everywhere to respect children’s rights through their core business actions, but also through policy commitments, due diligence and remediation measures.

Regional and Domestic Legislation

Companies are increasingly subject to non-financial reporting requirements and due diligence obligations in the jurisdictions in which they operate, which often include disclosures on their performance. There are several high-profile examples of national legislation that specifically mandate human rights-related reporting and other positive legal duties, such as due diligence, including the  United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act 2015 ,  Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 , the  California Transparency in Supply Chains Act 2010 , the  French Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law 2017 , the  German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains 2023 and the Norwegian Transparency Act 2022 .

Also, in 2021 the Netherlands submitted a Bill for Responsible and Sustainable International Business Conduct, and the European Commission announced its  Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). This Directive is likely to come into force between 2025 and 2027 and will make human rights and environmental due diligence mandatory for larger companies.

These mandatory due diligence and disclosure laws require companies to publicly communicate their efforts to address actual and potential human rights impacts, including the worst forms of child labour. Failure to comply with these obligations leads to real legal risk for companies.

Contextual Risk Factors

The prevention of child labour requires an understanding of its  underlying causes  and the consideration of a wide range of issues which may increase the risk of child labour, that often interfere and reinforce one another, such as inadequate family income and poor or non-existent educational facilities.

Key risk factors include:

• High rates of poverty and unemployment , especially where there is a lack of state support (e.g. unemployment benefits). In regions where adult unemployment is high, children may be required to work to assist the family.
• Low wages  can exacerbate the prevalence of poverty and drive the need for children to work alongside their parents to supplement household income (see  Living Wage  issue).
• Lack of educational opportunities for children  due to a lack of school facilities or where school tuition costs and educational materials are considered too expensive. Where educational facilities or other forms of childcare are missing, children tend to accompany (and often help) their parents at work.
• Lack of safe alternative pathways to employment  results in adolescents finding themselves moving from one form of hazardous work to another. The alternative is for adolescents to have access to safe work that could lead to long-term employment.
• Poorly enforced domestic labour laws  due to a lack of government resources, capacity or commitment to fully implement state duty to protect citizens against human rights violations. This can result in a lack of or inadequate training of labour inspectors, as well as improper payments made by employers to (sometimes poorly compensated) inspectors to overlook child labour violations.
• Informal economies  are associated with higher child labour risks. Informality often leads to lower and less regular incomes, inadequate and unsafe working conditions, extreme job precarity and exclusion from social security schemes, among other factors. All of these can spur families to turn to child labour in the face of financial distress.
• Rural areas  are also associated with a  higher prevalence  of child labour. There are 122.7 million rural children (13.9%) in child labour compared to 37.3 million urban children (4.7%). Job opportunities are often scarce in rural areas, leaving children to find work to assist their families, with government oversight of these areas much lower.
• Intersectionality , or the interaction between gender, race, ethnicity, age and other categories of difference, leads to increased child labour risks. For example, girls from an ethnic minority living in poor rural areas may be more exposed to the risks of child labour exploitation.

Industry-specific Risk Factors

Whilst child labour is present in many industries, the following present particularly significant levels of risk. To identify potential child labour risks for other industries, companies can access the  CSR Risk Check .

Agriculture

According to ILO 2020  estimates , around 70% of child labourers around the world — 112 million children — work in agriculture, including fishing, aquaculture and livestock rearing. Although certain work on family farms is acceptable for children — provided that it is not hazardous and does not prevent them from receiving an education — many forms of child work in  agricultural  supply chains are not legal. The US Department of Labor’s 2022   report suggests that the most common items produced by child labour in agriculture include bananas, cattle and dairy products, cocoa, coffee, cotton, fish, rice, sugar and tobacco.

Agriculture-specific risk factors include the following:

• Piece rate: Many  agricultural  jobs are paid by the amount of produce picked, which encourages parents to bring their children along with them to help collect greater volumes.
• Seasonal migrant labour: The agricultural sector traditionally relies heavily on migrant labour due to seasonality. This can mean the children of migrant labourers are often not in  one place long enough  to attend school, so work with their parents in the field instead.
• Families: Family-based child labour is hard for companies to identify, as family farms usually feed into larger co-operatives or wholesalers and are relatively invisible within the supply chain. Furthermore, family-based child labour can be easily hidden on inspection.
• OECD-FAO,  Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains : This  guidance provides a common framework to help agro-businesses and investors support sustainable development and identify and prevent child labour.
• FAO,  Framework on Ending Child Labour in Agriculture : This  framework  guides the FAO and its personnel on the integration of measures addressing child labour within FAO’s typical work, programmes and initiatives.
• FAO,  Regulating Labour and Safety Standards in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Sectors : This  resource  provides information on international labour standards that apply in agriculture, including those on child labour.
• FAO,  e-Learning Academy: Business Strategies and Public-Private Partnerships to End Child Labour in Agriculture : This  course  presents several business-oriented strategies to reduce child labour in agricultural supply chains.
• ILO,  Child Labour in the Primary Production of Sugarcane : This  report  provides an overview of the sugarcane industry, including key challenges and opportunities in addressing child labour.
• Fair Labor Association,  ENABLE Training Toolkit on Addressing Child Labor and Forced Labor in Agricultural Supply Chains : This  toolkit  guides companies on supply chain mapping and the abolition of child labour in supply chains. It contains six training modules, a facilitator’s guide, presentation slides and a participant manual.
• Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI),  From Farm to Table: Ensuring Fair Labour Practices in Agricultural Supply Chains : This  resource  provides guidelines on what investors should be looking for from companies to eliminate labour abuses in their agricultural supply chains.
• Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform : The SAI Platform  guidance document  on child labour facilitates the development of their members’ policies on child labour.
• Rainforest Alliance,  Child Labor Guide : This  guide  has been developed to support the efforts of farm management to address the risks of child labour on their farms with a focus on coffee, cocoa, hazelnut and tea; however, it can be used for other crops as well.
• German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa : This  multi-stakeholder initiative  aims to improve the livelihood of cocoa farmers and their families, as well as to increase the proportion of certified cocoa according to sustainability standards. The Initiative’s  background paper  provides helpful information on child labor in the West African cocoa sector and possible solutions to address it.
• Fairtrade International, Guide for Smallholder Farmer Organisations – Implementing Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) : This guidance was developed to provide advice and tools on HREDD for farmer organisations to implement.
• UNICEF, Mapping Child Labour Risks in Global Supply Chains: This paper provides a detailed analysis of the Apparel, Electronics and Agricultural Sectors. It was written as a background report for the Alliance 8.7 report on “Ending child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in global supply chains”.

Fashion and Apparel

The fashion and  apparel  industry may be linked to significant child labour risks. Fashion and apparel-specific risk factors include the following:

• Subcontracting: This industry features a lot of subcontracting and outsourcing, making tracing where a product was made and by whom difficult. In-depth due diligence checks on this part of a supply chain are, therefore, often overlooked.
• Homeworking: Homeworking is particularly hard to monitor, as the location of  homeworking  is often unknown to companies and there is no way to control working hours or who is doing the work. Research from the  University of California, Berkeley , shows that the activities often outsourced to homeworkers are usually finishing tasks, such as beading, embroidery or adding tassels — activities that require delicate handiwork as opposed to being produced by machinery in a factory. Children’s smaller hands can be considered useful for this delicate handiwork.
• Gender: There is a significant gender aspect in this regard, with  studies  showing most homeworkers in the apparel industry are women and girls (see  Gender Equality  issue).
• OECD,  Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment & Footwear Sector : The  guidance aims to help fashion and apparel businesses implement the due diligence recommendations contained in the  OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises  in order to avoid and address the potential negative impacts of their activities and supply chains on a range of human rights, including child labour.
• Fair Wear Foundation,  The Face of Child Labour: Stories from Asia’s Garment Sector : This  report seeks to promote a greater understanding of the realities of child labour by presenting interviews with children who were found working in Asia’s garment sector.
• Fair Labor Association,  Child Labor in Cotton Supply Chains: Collaborative Project on Human Rights in Turkey : The  report explores cotton and garment supply chains in Turkey and provides recommendations for companies and other stakeholders on eliminating child labour from cotton supply chains.
• Fair Labor Association,  Children’s Lives at Stake: Working Together to End Child Labour in Agra Footwear Production : The  report demonstrates a high prevalence of child labour in shoe production in Agra, India, and provides recommendations for brands, including on enhancing their subcontracting policies.
• SOMO,  Branded Childhood: How Garment Brands Contribute to Low Wages, Long Working Hours, School Dropout and Child Labour in Bangladesh : This  report illustrates a link between child labour and low wages for adult workers and provides a series of concrete recommendations for brands and retailers sourcing from Bangladesh on combatting child labour.
• Save the Children,  In the Interest of the Child? Child Rights and Homeworkers in Textile and Handicraft Supply Chains in Asia : This  study provides data on both the positive and negative impact of home-based work and work in small workshops on child rights and identifies best practices to improve child rights in such settings.
• UNPRI,  An Investor Briefing on the Apparel Industry : Moving the Needle on Labour Practices : The  resource guides institutional investors on how to identify negative human rights impacts in the apparel industry, including those pertaining to child labour.
• The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles,  Bündnisziele: Sozialstandards  (German) : The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles — a multi-stakeholder initiative with about 135 members from business, Government, civil society, unions, and standards organizations — has formulated  social goals , including on child labour, that all members recognize by joining the Partnership.
• Green Button :  Certification label for sustainable textiles run by the German Government with ban on forced and child labour as one of the certification criteria.

Mining and the Extractive Industry

Child labour takes place in parts of the informal artisanal and small-scale  mining  (ASM) industry and has been associated with the mining of “ conflict minerals ” — tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold — among other minerals such as cobalt. ASM work can be dangerous and personal protective equipment (PPE) is rarely provided. The  US Department of Labor’s 2022 report  suggests that gold, coal, granite, gravel, diamonds and mica are all associated with child labour.

Mining-specific risk factors include the following:

• Small and slight: Children  are often involved in digging as they can get into tighter spaces to mine, or in carrying  mined  products like gems or metals between extraction sites and refining/washing/filtering sites.
• Global supply chains: Minerals mined by children can end up in global supply chains, including those of automobiles, construction, cosmetics, electronics, and jewellery. For example, the increased production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries has led to the growing demand for cobalt — an essential battery input. Approximately  70% of cobalt  (as of January 2023) comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world where ASM activity is common, thus increasing  child labour risks .
• OECD,  Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas : The  OECD guidance identifies the worst forms of child labour as a serious human rights abuse associated with the extraction, transport or trade of minerals. The guidance has  practical actions  for companies to identify and address the worst forms of child labour in mineral supply chains and conduct related due diligence.
• OECD, Practical actions for companies to identify and address the worst forms of child labour in mineral supply chains : This report has been designed for companies to help them identify, mitigate and account for the risks of child labour in their mineral supply chains.
• ILO,  Child Labour in Mining and Global Supply Chains : This  brief report outlines the scope of child labour in ASM, risks to children’s health and welfare, and recommendations for businesses on addressing this issue.
• ILO,  Mapping Interventions Addressing Child Labour and Working Conditions in Artisanal Mineral Supply Chains : This  report provides a high-level review of projects and initiatives that aim to address child labour in the ASM sector across different minerals.
• UNICEF,  Child Rights and Mining Toolkit: Best Practices for Addressing Children’s Issues in Large-Scale Mining : This  toolkit is designed to help industrial miners design and implement social and environmental strategies (from impact assessment to social investment) that respect and advance children’s rights, including the elimination of child labour.
• SOMO,  Global Mica Mining and the Impact on Children’s Rights : This  report outlines mica production globally and identifies direct or indirect links to child labour.
• SOMO,  Beauty and a Beast: Child Labour in India for Sparkling Cars and Cosmetics : This  report focuses on illegal mica mining in India. It outlines the due diligence actions of several multinational companies and provides further recommendations for mica mining, processing and/or using companies.
• Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC),  Responsible Jewellery Council Standards Guidance : This  guidance provides a suggested approach for RJC members to implement the mandatory requirements of the RJC Code of Practice (COP), including the elimination of child labour in mining operations.
• Responsible Minerals Initiative,  Material Change: A Study of Risks and Opportunities for Collective Action in the Materials Supply Chains of the Automotive and Electronics Industries : This  report examines responsible sourcing of materials in the automotive and electronics industries, including association with child labour. Responsible Minerals Initiative also has other helpful resources for mining companies on various steps of human rights due diligence.
• UNICEF, Extractive Pilot – Children’s Rights in the Mining Sector : This report seeks to understand the the impacts of the mining industry on children’s rights and facilitate the integration of children’s rights into companies’ human rights due diligence processes.

Electronics Manufacturing

The  electronics manufacturing  industry poses child labour risks, as well as risks for young workers.

Industry-specific risk factors include the following:

• Work experience: In several Asian and South-East Asian countries, there are government programmes with major businesses for  students  and young workers to get work experience. However, there are reports of these programmes being abused, with student and young workers having  their IDs faked  so they can work longer and more hazardous hours.
• Materials: Electronics companies may be linked to child labour via their mineral supply chains given that some of the minerals and metals used to manufacture electronic components can be associated with significant child labour risks (i.e. during the mining process), such as gold — see the section on mining.
• Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), Student Workers Management Toolkit : This  toolkit  helps human resources and other managers support responsible recruitment and management of student workers in electronics manufacturing.
• Responsible Minerals Initiative,  Material Change: A Study of Risks and Opportunities for Collective Action in the Materials Supply Chains of the Automotive and Electronics Industries : This  report examines responsible sourcing of materials in the automotive and electronics industries, including association with child labour.
• SOMO,  Gold from Children’s Hands: Use of Child-Mined Gold by the Electronics Sector : This  report outlines the magnitude and seriousness of child labour in the artisanal gold mining sector and provides insight into the supply chain linkages with the electronics industry.

Travel and Tourism

Businesses in the travel and tourism industry (e.g. hotels, restaurants and tour companies) may be linked to the risks of child labour and has significant risks of facilitating child trafficking, particularly in the aviation industry.

Travel and tourism-specific risk factors include the following:

• Developing countries: Children in developing countries are often put to work selling tourist gifts or supporting family businesses like restaurants. Although this type of work is acceptable for children — provided that it is not hazardous and does not prevent them from receiving an education — it may also constitute child labour if it does preclude children’s school attendance.
• Child sexual exploitation: Child sex tourism does exist, and the trafficking or use of children for sexual activities for tourists occurs around the world.

Businesses in other sectors that use travel and tourism services as part of their business activities or in their supply chains may also be linked to child exploitation.

• ILO,  Guidelines on Decent Work and Socially Responsible Tourism : These  guidelines provide practical information for developing and implementing policies and programmes to promote sustainable tourism and strengthen labour protection, including the protection of children from exploitation.
• ChildSafe Movement and G Adventures Inc,  Child Welfare and the Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines : These  guidelines provide information on child welfare issues throughout the travel industry, as well as guidance for businesses on preventing all forms of exploitation and abuse of children that could be related to the tourism industry.
• International Tourism Partnership,  The Know How Guide: Human Rights and the Hotel Industry : This  guide provides an overview of human rights (including child labour) within hospitality, with guidance on developing a human rights policy, performing due diligence and addressing any adverse human rights impacts.

Due Diligence Considerations

This section outlines due diligence steps that companies can take to eliminate child labour in their operations and supply chains. The described due diligence steps are aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ( UNGPs ). Further information on UNGPs is provided in the ‘Key Human Rights Due Diligence Frameworks’ section below or in the  Introduction .

While the below steps provide guidance on eliminating child labour in particular, it is generally more resource-efficient for companies to ‘streamline’ their human rights due diligence processes by also identifying and addressing other relevant human rights issues (e.g.  forced labour ,  discrimination ,  freedom of association ) at the same time.

Several human rights frameworks describe the due diligence steps that businesses should ideally implement to address human rights issues, including forced labour. The primary framework is the  UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights  ( UNGPs ) . Launched in 2011, the UNGPs offer guidance on how to implement the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, which establishes the respective responsibilities of Governments and businesses — and where they intersect.

The UNGPs set out how companies, in meeting their responsibility to respect human rights, should put in place due diligence and other related policies and process, which include:

• A publicly available policy setting out the company’s commitment to respect human rights;
• Assessment of any actual or potential adverse human rights impacts with which the company may be involved across its entire value chain;
• Integration of the findings from their impact assessments into relevant internal functions/processes — and the taking of effective action to manage the same;
• Tracking of the effectiveness of the company’s management actions;
• Reporting on how the company is addressing its actual or potential adverse impacts; and
• Remediation of adverse impacts that the company has caused or contributed to.

The steps outlined below follow the UNGPs framework and can be considered a process which a business looking to start implementing human rights due diligence processes can follow.

Additionally, the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBPs) were based on the UNGPs as the first comprehensive set of principles to guide companies on the due diligence steps they can take to respect children’s rights in the workplace, marketplace and community.

The  OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises  further define the elements of responsible business conduct, including human and labour rights.

Another important reference document is the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy ( MNE Declaration ), which contains the most detailed guidance on due diligence as it pertains to labour rights. These instruments, articulating principles of responsible business conduct, draw on international standards enjoying widespread consensus.

Companies can seek specific guidance on this and other issues relating to international labour standards from the  ILO Helpdesk for Business . The ILO Helpdesk assists company managers and workers who want to align their policies and practices with principles of international labour standards and build good industrial relations. It has a specific section on  forced labour .

Additionally, the  SME Compass  offers guidance on the overall human rights due diligence process by taking businesses through five key due diligence phases. The SME Compass has been developed in particular to address the needs of SMEs but is freely available and can be used by other companies as well. The tool, available in English and  German , is a joint project by the German Government’s  Helpdesk on Business & Human Rights  and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

1. Develop a Policy Commitment to Help Eliminate Child Labour

As per the  UNGPs , a human rights policy should be:

• “Approved at the most senior level” of the company;
• “Informed by relevant internal and/or external expertise”;
• Specific about company’s “human rights expectations of personnel, business partners and other parties directly linked to its operations, products or services”;
• “Publicly available and communicated internally and externally to all personnel, business partners and other relevant parties”; and
• “Reflected in operational policies and procedures necessary to embed it throughout the business”.

Research of 2,500 companies across nine industries conducted by the Global Child Forum suggests that 57% of companies have some form of stand-alone policy against child labour. Examples of companies with stand-alone child labour policies include ALDI South, H&M and ASOS. These tend to be companies that have identified child labour as a highly salient issue.

Another option is to integrate child labour commitments into companies’ wider human rights policy, an option that has been taken by Unilever, Marks and Spencer and Freeport-McMoRan. Where companies do not have a human rights policy, child labour is often addressed in other policy documents, such as a business code of conduct or ethics and/or a supplier code of conduct. Starbucks, BHP and HP offer examples of multinational companies that integrate child labour requirements into their codes of conduct. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), such as Haas & Co. Magnettechnik GmbH, also often include child labour in their business code of conduct or supplier code of conduct.

Businesses may want to check the ILO Helpdesk for Business, which provides answers to the most common questions that businesses may encounter while developing their child labour policies — or integrating child labour commitments into other policy documents. Examples include:

• I am trying to figure out why the basic minimum age is set at 15 or 14. What would be the consequences of setting a global policy with a basic minimum age at 16?
• A company is committed to not recruiting people below 18 years old, but the company operates in States where people below 18 have the right to work. Can it be considered as a breach of ILO Conventions related to discrimination?
• What are the general recommendations concerning apprenticeships to use when clarifying our child labour requirements to our suppliers?

Businesses may also consider aligning their policies with relevant industry-wide or cross-industry policy commitments, for example:

• Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct
• Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code
• amfori BSCI Code of Conduct
• Fair Labor Association (FLA) Code of Conduct
• The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism initiated by ECPAT, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and several tour operators
• ILO,  Helpdesk for Business on International Labour Standards : The  ILO Helpdesk for Business is a resource for company managers and workers on how to better align business operations with international labour standards, including child labour.
• ILO-IOE,  Child Labour Guidance Tool for Businesses : This  guidance includes several diagnostic questions that businesses could ask to evaluate their child labour policy.
• ILO,  Child Labour Platform: Good Practice Notes :  Guidance on developing children’s rights and labour policies with examples from business.
• UNICEF and Save the Children,  Children’s Rights in Policies and Codes of Conduct : This  tool recommends ways for businesses to incorporate children’s rights into their policies and codes of conduct, based on the Children’s Rights and Business Principles.
• Global Child Forum,  Child Labour Policy: A Child-Centred Approach : This report gives  guidance on developing child labour policies and integrating child labour approaches into existing policies.
• United Nations Global Compact-OHCHR,  A Guide for Business: How to Develop a Human Rights Policy : This  guidance provides recommendations on how to develop a human rights policy and includes extracts from companies’ policies referencing child labour.
• SME Compass : Provides  advice on how to develop a human rights strategy and formulate a policy statement.
• SME Compass, Policy statement : Companies can use this practical guide to learn to develop a policy statement step-by-step. Several use cases illustrate how to implement the requirements.
• UN Global Compact Labour Principles, Advancing decent work in business Learning Plan : This learning plan , developed by the UN Global Compact and the International Labour Organization, helps companies understand each Labour Principle and its related concepts and best practices as well as practical steps to help companies understand and take action across a variety of issues.

2. Assess Actual and Potential Child Labour Impacts

The  UNGPs  note that impact assessments:

• Will vary in complexity depending on “the size of the business enterprise, the risk of severe human rights impacts, and the nature and context of its operations”;
• Should cover impacts that the company may “cause or contribute to through its own activities, or which may be directly linked to its operations, products or services by its business relationships”;
• Should involve “meaningful consultation with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders” in addition to other sources of information such as audits; and
• Should be ongoing.

Impact assessments should look at both actual and potential impacts, i.e. impacts that have already manifested or  could  manifest. This contrasts to a risk assessment that would only look at potential impacts and may not satisfy all of the above criteria.

Child labour impact assessments are most often integrated into broader human rights impact assessments (for example  Freeport-McMoRan ). The  ILO-IOE Child Labour Guidance Tool for Businesses  includes suggestions on how to identify and assess actual and potential child labour impacts; how to prioritize operations and parts of a supply chain to conduct more detailed assessments; and how to conduct stakeholder engagement. If impact assessments  involve children through interviews  or other data gathering mechanisms, strict safeguarding measures should be put in place to protect the children from any potential harm, such as employer retaliation or unplanned termination of employment.

• ILO and IOE,  Child Labour Guidance Tool for Business : Helpful  guidance on how businesses can systematically identify and assess actual or potential child labour impacts.
• UNICEF and the Danish Institute for Human Rights,  Children’s Rights in Impact Assessments: A Guide for Integrating Children’s Rights into Impact Assessments and Taking Action for Children : This  guide gives specific advice on how to conduct a child-sensitive impact assessment.
• Rainforest Alliance, Child Labor Toolkit Module 3: Risk Assessment : This  toolkit  provides step-by-step guidance on how to conduct a basic and in-depth risk assessment on child labour.
• UNICEF and the Global Child Forum,  Children’s Rights and Business Atlas : The  Atlas provides quantitative scores on risks of child labour for businesses in 198 countries.
• Ethical Trading Initiative,  Base Code Guidance: Child Labour : A detailed  guide for businesses on assessing the actual and potential risk of child labour in global supply chains.
• US Department of Labor,  List of Goods Produced by Child Labour or Forced Labor details child labour risks in various goods and commodities, which can be used as  qualitative data  in risk and impact assessments.
• Human Rights Watch  has a range of  resources on child labour, which could also be used as qualitative data in risk and impact assessments.
• CSR Risk Check : A  tool allowing companies to check which international CSR risks (including related to child labour) businesses are exposed to and what can be done to manage them. The tool provides tailor-made information on the local human rights situation as well as environmental, social and governance issues. It allows users to filter by product/raw material and country of origin. The tool was developed by MVO Netherland; the  German  version is funded and implemented by the German Government’s  Helpdesk on Business & Human Rights  and  UPJ .

3. Integrate and Take Action to Address Child Labour Impacts

As per the  UNGPs , effective integration requires that:

• “Responsibility for addressing [human rights] impacts is assigned to the appropriate level and function within the business enterprise” (e.g. senior leadership, executive and board level);
• “Internal decision-making, budget allocations and oversight processes enable effective responses to such impacts”.

The actions and systems that a company will need to apply will vary depending on the outcomes of its impact assessment. Any actions should take into account (and try to address) risk factors and root causes of child labour, i.e. what caused or might cause a human rights violation.

One of the most common actions undertaken by companies is  training  of company employees and suppliers, which may cover child labour laws, company policies, procedures to  ascertaining the age of workers  and detect falsified documentation, and safety and health procedures for young workers (which often differ from those required for adults). Training can be delivered in a range of formats, such as online videos, e-learnings, in-person sessions or supplier round tables.  Coca-Cola , for example, conducts training on human rights (including child labour) for employees, bottlers, suppliers and auditors. Another example is  PepsiCo  that conducts training for suppliers on PepsiCo’s  Supplier Code of Conduct , which includes the prohibition of child labour. Businesses, however, should be mindful that training alone will not solve the problem, for example, if parents have no other option than to bring their children to work (be it for economic reasons or for lack of access to education etc.). Hence, the need to address root causes of child labour.

The  ILO-IOE Child Labour Guidance Tool for Businesses  includes further suggestions of practical approaches by companies to prevent or mitigate child labour in their operations and supply chains, including:

• Proactively communicating their short and medium-term needs to suppliers and other business partners so that they can plan ahead appropriately;
• Enhancing alignment and collaboration between the purchasing team and sustainability or responsible sourcing experts inside the buying company;
• Moving to integrate the two functions, making purchasing managers directly responsible for social compliance in relation to the suppliers they buy from;
• Participating in multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) whose code requires members to evaluate the role that purchasing practices can play in incentivizing negative impacts by suppliers.

Ferrero and Olam International  are examples of companies taking action on child labour in cocoa supply chains through their membership in the  International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) .  Hilton  and  TUI Group  work on protecting children from commercial sexual exploitation — one of the worst forms of child labour — through their membership in  The Code  initiative.

• ILO and IOE,  Child Labour Guidance Tool for Business : Helpful  guidance on integrating and taking action on child labour.
• ILO,  Supplier Guidance on Preventing, Identifying and Addressing Child Labour : A  practical guidance for factories and other production sites on effective age verification and measures to protect young workers.
• ILO,  Child Labour Platform: Good Practice Notes : Provides  guidance on embedding child-centred practices and management systems within a business.
• Ethical Trading Initiative,  Base Code Guidance: Child Labour : A detailed  guide on actions that businesses can take to eliminate child labour in global supply chains.
• Global Child Forum,  Child Labour Policy: A Child-Centred Approach :  Guidance on embedding child labour policies in practice.
• SME Compass : Provides  advice on how to take action on human rights by embedding them in your company, creating and implementing an action plan, and conducting a supplier review and capacity building.
• SME Compass, Identifying stakeholders and cooperation partners : This practical guide is intended to help companies identify and classify relevant stakeholders and cooperation partners
• SME Compass, Standards Compass : This online tool offers guidance on what to pay attention to when selecting sustainability standards or when participating in multi-stakeholder initiatives. It allows comparing standards and initiatives with respect to their contribution to human rights due diligence and their potential limitations.
• UNICEF, Engaging Stakeholder’s on Children’s Rights: This tool offers guidance to companies on how to engage stakeholders on children’s rights to help enhance their standards and practices at both the corporate and site levels.

4. Track Performance on Eliminating Child Labour

As per the  UNGPs , tracking should:

• “Be based on appropriate qualitative and quantitative indicators”;
• “Draw on feedback from both internal and external sources, including affected stakeholders” (e.g. through grievance mechanisms).

Businesses should regularly review their approach to eliminating child labour to see if it is effective and is having the desired impact. The  ILO-IOE Child Labour Guidance Tool for Businesses  includes suggestions on systems for tracking performance.

Audits and social monitoring are common ways to check performance. Such monitoring or audits can be undertaken internally by the company or a third party contracted by the company. A common approach or first step taken by companies is to issue self-assessment questionnaires (SAQs) to suppliers, requesting information and evidence on their child labour procedures, such as how they verify the age of their workers or their own approach to managing child labour. Repeated SAQs can give insight into improvements in supplier management systems and let suppliers self-report on actual or potential child labour impacts.

Where SAQ results warrant it, companies can carry out on-the-ground (or in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic) remote suppliers audits. Common supplier audit frameworks that span most industries and include child labour indicators include  SMETA  audits and  SA8000 accredited audits .  General Mills , for example, conducts SMETA audits of its suppliers and co-packers.

If shortcomings are identified, Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) should be developed jointly with the supplier, setting out clear targets and milestones for improvement. Progress should then be tracked regularly to ensure CAP completion.

Setting SMART targets helps objectively track performance. SMART targets are those that are: specific, measurable, attainable, resourced and time-bound. Examples of indicators to be recorded and monitored include:

• Child labour grievances recorded (number and nature)
• Audit findings on child labour
• Progress on Corrective Action Plans
• Media reports on instances of child labour
• Official inspection outcomes

Responsibility for data collection should be clearly allocated to relevant roles within the company and reported with a set frequency (for instance once a month).

Although both SAQs and audits are commonly used by companies in various industries, both tools have  limitations  in their ability to uncover hidden violations, including child labour. Unannounced audits somewhat mitigate this problem but even these are not always effective at identifying violations given that an auditor tends to spend only limited time on-site. Furthermore, human rights violations, including child labour, often happen further up supply chains, whereas audits often only cover ‘Tier 1’ suppliers.

New tools such as technology-enabled worker surveys/‘ worker voice ’ tools allow real-time monitoring and partly remedy the problems of traditional audits. An increasing number of companies complement traditional audits with ‘worker voice’ surveys (e.g.  Unilever  and  VF Corporation ), which can be easily adapted to different languages to accommodate workers’ needs.

Some companies go further and adopt ‘ beyond audit ’ approaches, which are built on proactive collaboration with suppliers rather than on supplier monitoring (‘carrots’ rather than ‘sticks’). Collaborating with other stakeholders, including workers’ organizations, law enforcement authorities, labour inspectorates and non-governmental organizations to proactively identify and remediate child labour can also prove to be effective. Progress reports from MSIs, such as the  Responsible Mica Initiative , may also be helpful to track improvements in areas that are highly relevant to the occurrence of child labour.

• ILO and IOE,  Child Labour Guidance Tool for Business : This tool includes helpful  guidance on monitoring and performance tracking.
• Global Child Forum,  Child Labour Policy: A Child-Centred Approach : Outlines  different approaches to tracking performance on child labour, particularly Approach 6.
• Ethical Trading Initiative,  Base Code Guidance: Child Labour : A step-by-step  guide for businesses on eliminating child labour in global supply chains, including Step 4 ‘Monitoring implementation and impact’.
• SME Compass : Provides  advice on how to measure human rights performance.
• SME Compass: Key performance indicators for due diligence : Companies can use this overview of selected quantitative key performance indicators to measure implementation, manage it internally and/or report it externally.
• SME Compass:   Measuring and reporting on progress: This resource provides an overview of how to measure and report on the progress of the actions taken to address human rights impacts.

5. Communicate Performance on Eliminating Child Labour

As per the  UNGPs , regular communications of performance should:

• “Be of a form and frequency that reflect an enterprise’s human rights impacts and that are accessible to its intended audiences”;
• “Provide information that is sufficient to evaluate the adequacy of an enterprise’s response to the particular human rights impact involved”; and
• “Not pose risks to affected stakeholders, personnel or to legitimate requirements of commercial confidentiality”.

Companies are expected to communicate their performance on eliminating child labour in a formal public report, which can take a form of a standalone child labour report (e.g.  Nestlé’s Tackling Child Labour reports ). More commonly, however, an update on progress with eliminating child labour is included in a broader sustainability or human rights report (e.g.  Unilever’s Human Rights reports ), or in an annual  Communication on Progress  (CoP) in implementing the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact. Additionally, other forms of communication may include in-person meetings, online dialogues and consultation with affected stakeholders.

The  ILO-IOE Child Labour Guidance Tool for Businesses  includes detailed recommendations on the form and frequency of a company’s communications on child labour, the nature of provided information and the risks of communication to children and their families.

• ILO and IOE,  Child Labour Guidance Tool for Business : This tool has helpful  guidance  on how to report child labour approaches and results.
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI),  GRI408: Child Labor 2016 : GRI sets out the  reporting requirements  on child labour for companies to achieve standard 408.
• UNICEF,  Children Are Everyone’s Business: Workbook 2.0 : This workbook includes  guidance  on integrating children’s rights into sustainability reporting.
• UNICEF,  Children’s Rights in Sustainability Reporting: A Guide for Incorporating Children’s Rights into GRI-based Reporting : A  practical tool  to help companies with reporting and communicating on how they are respecting and supporting children’s rights.
• UNGP Reporting Framework : A short series of  smart questions  (‘Reporting Framework’), implementation guidance for reporting companies, and assurance guidance for internal auditors and external assurance providers.
• United Nations Global Compact,  Communication on Progress (CoP) : The  CoP  ensures further strengthening of corporate transparency and accountability, allowing companies to better track progress, inspire leadership, foster goal-setting and provide learning opportunities across the Ten Principles and SDGs.
• The Sustainability Code : A framework for reporting on non-financial performance that includes 20  criteria , including on  human rights  and  employee rights .

6. Remedy and Grievance Mechanisms

As per the  UNGPs , remedy and grievance mechanisms should include the following considerations:

• “Where business enterprises identify that they have caused or contributed to adverse impacts, they should provide for or cooperate in their remediation through legitimate processes”.
• “Operational-level grievance mechanisms for those potentially impacted by the business enterprise’s activities can be one effective means of enabling remediation when they meet certain core criteria.”

To ensure their effectiveness, grievance mechanisms should be:

• Legitimate : “enabling trust from the stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended, and being accountable for the fair conduct of grievance processes”
• Accessible : “being known to all stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended, and providing adequate assistance for those who may face particular barriers to access”
• Predictable : “providing a clear and known procedure with an indicative time frame for each stage, and clarity on the types of process and outcome available and means of monitoring implementation”
• Equitable : “seeking to ensure that aggrieved parties have reasonable access to sources of information, advice and expertise necessary to engage in a grievance process on fair, informed and respectful terms”
• Transparent : “keeping parties to a grievance informed about its progress, and providing sufficient information about the mechanism’s performance to build confidence in its effectiveness and meet any public interest at stake”
• Rights-compatible : “ensuring that outcomes and remedies accord with internationally recognized human rights”
• A source of continuous learning : “drawing on relevant measures to identify lessons for improving the mechanism and preventing future grievances and harms”
• Based on engagement and dialogue : “consulting the stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended on their design and performance, and focusing on dialogue as the means to address and resolve grievances”

Grievance mechanisms can play an important role in helping to remediate child labour issues in operations and supply chains. Grievance mechanisms should be:

• Created with input from the affected groups they are intended to help;
• Available in multiple formats and languages to accommodate workers’ needs. For instance, a high prevalence of migrant labour means a mechanism will need to be available in different languages, or illiteracy may require the mechanism to be explained to workers in a format other than writing (for example a video or presentation).

If instances of child labour are identified, corrective actions should be taken to protect the child from child labour and ensure that the child is not left in a worse situation due to loss of income. Ensuring viable alternatives is key. Child-focused actions can include:

• Providing education alongside work if the child is above the minimum age, but if the child is below minimum age the child should be progressively withdrawn from child labour;
• Removing the child but paying the wages they would have earned until they reach working age;
• Assisting the child in finding education opportunities once removed from work; and
• Assisting the child in finding employment opportunities upon reaching the legal working age.

Businesses may also want to consider cooperation with third parties to remediate child labour, including education officials, NGOs, public health officials and other companies using the same supply chain. In cases concerning the worst forms of child labour, this may even be a legal requirement. MSIs are also helpful in designing child labour remediation programmes, i.e. exchanging thoughts and ideas, and combining remediation efforts. Examples of companies with child labour remediation programmes include  Nestlé  and  ASOS .

• ILO and IEO,  Child Labour Guidance Tool for Business : This tool includes helpful  guidance  on remediation actions and grievance mechanisms for businesses.
• ILO,  Child Labour Platform: Good Practice Notes  (particularly sections 4 and 5) :  Guidance  on approaches for businesses to establish and implement remedial systems and actions.
• ILO,  Supplier Guidance on Preventing, Identifying and Addressing Child Labour : A practical  guidance  for factories and other production sites on remediating child labour.
• Ethical Trading Initiative,  Base Code Guidance: Child Labour : A step-by-step  guide  for businesses on eliminating child labour in global supply chains, including Step 3 ‘Mitigation of risk and remediation for child workers’.
• Ethical Trading Initiative,  Access to Remedy: Practical Guidance for Companies :  This  guidance  explains key components of the mechanisms that allow workers to submit complaints and enable businesses to provide remedy.
• Global Compact Network Germany,  Worth Listening: Understanding and Implementing Human Rights Grievance Management : A business  guide  intended to assist companies in designing effective human rights grievance mechanisms, including practical advice and case studies. Also available in  German .
• SME Compass: Provides advice on how to establish grievance mechanisms and manage complaints.

Case Studies

This section includes examples of company actions to address child labour in their operations and supply chains.

Further Guidance

Examples of further guidance on child labour include:

• United Nations Global Compact,  The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact : The  Ten Principles  of the UN Global Compact provide universal guidance for sustainable business in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.  Principle 5  calls on businesses to uphold the elimination of child labour.
• United Nations Global Compact,  Business: It’s Time to Act: Decent Work, Modern Slavery & Child Labour : This  brief guide  offers an overview of the steps businesses can take to help eliminate child labour while highlighting key resources, initiatives and engagement opportunities to support business action.
• ILO,  COVID-19 and Child Labour: A Time of Crisis, a Time to Act : This  report  outlines the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on child labour trends.
• ILO,  Understanding the Health Impact of Children’s Work : This  study  brings together information from a wide variety of nationally representative household surveys in an attempt to shed additional light on the health effects of children’s work within and across less-industrialized countries and on which types of children’s work pose the greatest risk of ill-health.
• ILO,  Towards the Urgent Elimination of Hazardous Child Labour : This  report  brings together and assesses new research on hazardous child labour and provides recommendations on prevention and protection.
• ILO,  Improving the Safety and Health of Young Workers : This  report  provides a definition of young workers and outlines factors threatening their safety and health.
• ILO, Ending Child Labour, Forced Labour And Human Trafficking In Global Supply Chains : This report aims to help businesses develop policies and practices to prevent child labour in global supply chains.
• ILO, OECD, IOM and UNICEF,  Multi-Stakeholder Initiative on Ending Child Labour, Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in Global Supply Chains : This  resource  provides recommendations on responsible business conduct on labour and human rights, including developing due diligence on child labour.
• ILO Helpdesk for Business, Country Information Hub : This resource can be used to inform human rights due diligence, providing specific country information on different labour rights.
• UNICEF, UN Global Compact and Save the Children,  Children’s Rights and Business Principles : The  Principles  (particularly 2, 3 and 4) guide companies on actions they can take to prevent child labour.
• UNICEF and UN Global Compact,  Children in Humanitarian Crises : What Business Can Do : A  report  on how business can help uphold children’s rights — including freedom from child labour — and support and promote their well-being during humanitarian crises.
• UNICEF,  Tool for Investors on Integrating Children’s Rights into ESG Assessment : This  tool  has been designed to guide investors on integrating children’s rights into the evaluation of ESG opportunities and performance of investee companies.
• UNICEF, UN Global Compact and Save the Children, Children Introduce the Children’s Rights and Business Principles: This video features children from Panama teaching businesses about the Children’s Rights and Business Principles.
• UNICEF, Child Rights and Security Handbook : This tool provides details on how to implement the Child Rights and Security Checklist – a checklist for companies to improve the protection of children’s rights within security programs.
• Alliance 8.7,  Delta 8.7 Knowledge Platform : A global  knowledge platform  providing resources on eradicating forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour.
• Stop Child Labour,  Handbook: 5×5 Stepping Stones for Creating Child Labour Free Zones : The stepping stones presented in this  handbook  are based on the stories and strategies of NGOs, unions and child labour free zone members worldwide. The handbook shows that — in spite of poverty — it is possible to get children out of work and into school.
• SME Compass, Due Diligence Compass : This online tool offers guidance on the overall human rights due diligence process by taking businesses through five key due diligence phases.
• SME Compass , Standards Compass : This online tool offers guidance on what to pay attention to when selecting sustainability standards or when participating in multi-stakeholder initiatives. It allows comparing standards and initiatives with respect to their contribution to human rights due diligence and their potential limitations.
• SME Compass, Measuring and reporting on  progress : This resource provides an overview of how to measure and report on the progress of the actions taken to address human rights impacts.
• SME Compass, Downloads : Practical guides and checklists are available for download on the SME compass website to embed due diligence processes, improve supply chain management and make mechanisms more effective.

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The Supreme Court Denied a Child Labor Claim Against U.S. Firms: What to Know

Though Nestlé and Cargill were not held accountable for child labor in their supply chains, the Supreme Court upheld the precedent that corporate decisions are subject to international law.

Article by David J. Scheffer

June 25, 2021 9:42 am (EST)

A recent decision by the highest U.S. court has stirred concerns among human rights activists that grave abuses will continue in the cocoa fields of West Africa. But the June 17 judgment by the Supreme Court, though not finding major U.S. chocolate firms culpable for the violations, still upheld the underlying principle that allows American businesses to be held responsible for violating fundamental human rights. U.S.-based businesses will have to take heed. 

What is the case background?

Six individuals from Mali sued Nestlé USA and Cargill, Inc., two of the largest manufacturers of cocoa products in the world, alleging they were trafficked [PDF] into the Ivory Coast as children to work as slaves harvesting cocoa beans destined for the American market. They accused the companies of aiding and abetting child slavery with operational decisions made at the firms’ U.S. headquarters. After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with the plaintiffs, the companies appealed to the Supreme Court, where oral arguments foreshadowing the final result were held last December. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals’ decision, but returned the case for further production of evidence and review.

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Although the plaintiffs’ claim did not prevail, the court upheld with surprising clarity the law under which the claim was lodged, namely the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) of 1789. This centuries-old law allows foreign nationals to file civil suits against U.S. and foreign defendants for torts that violate the “law of nations.” The companies had sought to remove from the ATS any enforcement against U.S. corporations and deny claims of aiding and abetting the commission of torts, which in this context can include international crimes. They lost on both counts.

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While corporate liability remains available under the ATS, so do claims of aiding and abetting. The court found that the Malian plaintiffs should have pleaded more evidence of the companies’ domestic conduct in the United States to sustain the claim of aiding and abetting child slavery in West Africa. Doing so will be the primary challenge in any further litigation of this case.

How did the court handle the Alien Tort Statute argument?

During the last decade, two Supreme Court rulings greatly narrowed the scope of ATS enforcement. The statute no longer has much extraterritorial application [PDF], and foreign corporations cannot be sued under it [PDF].

In the Nestlé case, defense attorneys sought to remove corporate liability altogether. The defendants sought to limit the actionable torts to only those three the court had previously identified as existing under international law in 1789: violations of safe conducts, infringements of the rights of ambassadors, and piracy.

Most of the justices, conservative and liberal, steered clear of the issue. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the controlling opinion denying Nestlé USA and Cargill a clean win. No justice supported removing corporate liability from the ATS. Indeed, conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito opined that the ATS can be enforced against American corporations as a basic rule of tort law. The other justices did not even bother taking up the issue.   

What does it mean for U.S. companies?

The court ruled that “mere corporate presence” and “general corporate activity” in the United States are not enough “to support a domestic application of the ATS.” Finding liability could now require proof that corporate officers actively plotted to aid and abet child slavery on another continent. One could need a whistleblower or very successful discovery orders to reveal internal documents showing such explicit corporate decisions.

If such evidence could be obtained to demonstrate that a multinational corporation’s decisions in its U.S. headquarters led to an atrocity crime such as child slavery in a foreign country, then the ATS could be enforced to inflict civil damages against that company. One worry among rights activists is that multinational firms would seek to find ways to move decision-making away from U.S. territory, such as by convening board meetings beyond U.S. borders.

Significantly, six justices preserved the court’s key ATS precedent of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain (2004). In Sosa , the court confirmed [PDF] the enforceability of the three historical international torts of 1789 but also refused to “close the door” on recognizing additional “actionable international norms.” The Sosa test is that “courts should require any claim based on the present-day law of nations to rest on a norm of international character accepted by the civilized world and defined with a specificity comparable to the features of the 18 th -century paradigms.”

Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan affirmed the precedent in a concurring opinion, while conservative Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett acquiesced with silence. Justice Alito recognized the strength of, but did not endorse, Justice Thomas’s contrarian view, which Justices Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh shared. 

Drawing upon the Sosa reasoning, Sotomayor wrote in the concurring opinion, “Courts must, based on their interpretation of international law, identify those norms that are so specific, universal, and obligatory, that they give rise to a ‘tort’ for which Congress expects federal courts to entertain ‘causes’—or, in modern parlance, ‘civil action[s] [the ATS],’—for redress.”

How does that fit in the debate over international human rights law?

The court’s preservation of the Sosa standard recognizes the simple reality that such atrocity crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity, including slavery, and war crimes have been universally condemned under modern international law and thus should not be excluded from the reach of the ATS. In contrast, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh held that this federal law, purposely written with broad language, is frozen like a time capsule in the world of 1789, ignoring all that has transpired in the realm of human evil since then.

That view is a very heavy lift on the scales of logic and common sense, not to mention the morality built into law. The argument that only Congress can establish new causes of action under the ATS led Sotomayor to respond, “It would be surprising (and, I suspect, distressing) to the Congress that enacted the ATS to learn that federal courts lack institutional capacity to do the very thing the ATS presumes they will do.”

The bottom line of the Nestlé judgment is that the protection of fundamental human rights under the ATS survives, even if it will require a higher standard of proof in the future. American businesses should heed its legal reach into corporate decision-making.

Editor’s note: The author contributed to a brief on aiding and abetting liability signed by international law scholars, former diplomats, and practitioners as amici curiae before the Supreme Court in support of the former child slaves in this case.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Supreme Court ’ s decision took place on July 17. This error was corrected on July 6, 2021 .

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Child labor violations are on the rise as some states look to loosen their rules

Kaitlyn Radde

Child labor violations have been on the rise since 2015 after declining for years, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. The total number of violations is much lower than it was two decades ago, but experts are still troubled.

In 2015 — the low point in the data — the Wage and Hour Division found 1,012 minors employed in violation of child labor laws, with an average of 1.9 per case. In 2022, that number more than tripled to 3,876, averaging 4.6 per case.

"We're doing more outreach and education," which helps people recognize violations, says Jessica Looman, principal deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. "We also are doing more investigations."

The division is finding more minors per case, and it's not clear why. Investigators are also finding more minors working in hazardous occupations, where children could get seriously injured.

"Those numbers are creeping back up again, and that's a real concern to us," says Looman.

It's important to hold employers accountable, "but this is also an issue that is community based. It is school based. It is parent based," Looman says. "All of us together as a society and an economy have to come together and make sure that we are protecting our kids. And when we look at the increase in child labor violations, we have to ask ourselves the question, how are we letting this happen in 2022, 2023?"

What does child labor look like in the U.S.?

Child labor negatively affects the education and health of children who engage in it, experts say. Employers are responsible for ensuring a safe workplace that complies with child labor laws, Looman says.

Part of the division's focus is on prevention — educating teens about their rights and employers about their responsibilities and strategies to ensure compliance. The division also has a range of enforcement mechanisms at its disposal to respond to violations of different levels of severity, from fines to injunctions.

Looman says most violations occur in places where it's appropriate for minors to work, meaning teenagers are working too many hours at a grocery store or operating a fryer and staying too late at a fast-food chain . For example, in 2022, more than 100 kids across several McDonald's locations in Pennsylvania were illegally scheduled to work too many hours or too late at night. Subway, Burger King and Popeyes restaurants in South Carolina were fined for similar violations in 2022.

But Looman says the division is troubled by the fact that investigators are finding more children working in dangerous jobs.

There's no excuse for "why these alarming violations are occurring, with kids being employed where they shouldn't even be in the first place," Looman says.

This month, Packers Sanitation Services paid a $1.5 million fine for employing 102 children to work in dangerous meatpacking facility jobs across eight states. Last summer, Reuters revealed that children as young as 12 — many of whom were migrants — were hired to work in a metal shop owned by Hyundai .

These cases represent common types of hazardous-occupation violations found by investigators — namely cleaning or operating dangerous machinery.

The U.S. generally has good child labor laws, except for agriculture, says Reid Maki, director of child labor advocacy for the National Consumers League and coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition, which works to end abusive child labor. Minors as young as 12 can work long hours, and agriculture's hazardous-occupation orders aren't as strict as in nonagricultural industries .

While child labor violations can affect minors of all backgrounds, "a lot of the kids we see working in exploitative situations tend to be from immigrant families" and Latino, Maki said.

They're often harvesting fruits and vegetables. In a 2019 study , 30 child farmworkers in North Carolina ranging from 10 to 17 told researchers they were pressured to work quickly in dangerous conditions, faced wage theft and worked long hours in the heat.

"We walk a lot. That's hard. Sometimes your hands hurt," a 13-year-old boy who picked tomatoes told the researchers. "And your back, sometimes it will be hurting."

But immigrant children are vulnerable to other kinds of labor, too, from construction to meatpacking. Immigration raids in the early 2000s inadvertently revealed the children of migrant workers employed in meatpacking plants, and advocates like Maki have been concerned about child labor in those facilities ever since.

Maki says such workplaces are "one of the worst environments for children to be in."

Labor shortages are driving efforts to loosen child labor laws. They could be contributing to violations too.

In a tight labor market — like the current one — employers sometimes prefer to fill jobs with minors, who tend to be cheaper and more docile workers, Maki says.

"At a time when they were saying there are labor shortages, they were finding kids that would do the work," Maki says of the recent Packers Sanitation case. "I think they felt that if they could get kids, they would take them."

To ease labor shortages, lawmakers in some states have introduced legislation to loosen child labor laws, including in some of the most dangerous jobs.

Bills introduced in January in Minnesota and Iowa would allow some teenagers to work in construction and meatpacking plants, respectively. The Iowa bill would also let some youth under 16 drive themselves to work and extend the hours teenagers could work. In 2022, efforts to expand teens' working hours passed in New Jersey but weren't signed into law in two other states.

Supporters of legislation to allow minors to work more jobs and more hours say it fills an economic need and can teach them responsibility and financial literacy.

"Having kids get the opportunity to work is important," Jessica Dunker, president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association, said in testimony to Iowa lawmakers . She also said minors who want to work deserve the same level of choice as those who want to participate in other after-school activities.

Maki says he and other advocates aren't against safe, part-time work for teens, where "they can learn work ethic and work skills."

But he says that allowing children to work longer hours increases the risk they'll get into car accidents — driving in the dark, exhausted — and that the jobs these bills allow minors to take are dangerous.

"There's no safe part of a loading dock," Maki says. With the provision in the Iowa bill that would lessen businesses' civil liability if child laborers got sick, injured or killed on the job, "it's as if they know that kids are going to get hurt."

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Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took 3 years to fully cut ties, despite the company's promises to hold itself to the 'highest standards,' report says

• Apple discovered that Suyin Electronics, one of its Chinese-based suppliers, relied on child labor on multiple occasions, but still took three years to fully cut ties, The Information reported on Thursday.
• Ten former members of Apple's supplier responsibility team told The Information the company has refused or has been slow to stop doing business with suppliers that repeatedly violate its labor policies when doing so would hurt its profits. 
• Apple has faced intense criticism recently amid reports that it relies on forced Uyghur labor and protests over poor working conditions and wage theft by workers that make its products.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

Apple is back under the spotlight over labor conditions in its supply chain following an explosive report from The Information on Thursday that revealed new details about the company's reluctance to cut ties with suppliers who violate its ethics policies.

According to the report, Apple learned in 2013 that Suyin Electronics, a China-based company that (at the time) made parts for its MacBooks, was employing underage workers, and despite telling Suyin to address the issue or risk losing business, Apple discovered additional workers as young as 14 years old during an audit just three months later.

But rather than immediately cutting ties with Suyin for violating its supply chain ethics policies — which prohibit child labor and which Apple claims are the "highest standards"  — Apple continued to rely on the company for more than three years, according to The Information.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Suyin could not be reached for comment.

Ten former members of Apple's supplier responsibility team told The Information that Suyin wasn't an isolated incident, and that Apple had refused or was slow to stop doing business with suppliers that had repeatedly violated labor laws or failed to improve workplace safety when it would have cut into its profits.

Apple similarly refused to cut ties with Biel Crystal, one of its two suppliers of glass iPhone screens — despite a consistently poor workplace safety record, Apple employees' own concerns, and Biel executives explicitly admitting that improving safety wasn't worth it because doing so had actually led to less business from Apple — because cutting ties would have left Apple with less financial leverage over its remaining supplier, Lens Technology, according to The Information.

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Biel did not respond to a request for comment.

In an illustration of just how intertwined Apple has become with unethical labor practices, The Washington Post reported earlier this week that Lens Technology itself relies on forced labor from thousands of Uyghurs that the Chinese government has displaced from their homes in Xinjiang.

While US lawmakers have proposed legislation aimed on curbing American companies' ability to use forced Uyghur labor, Apple sought to weaken the bill, The New York Times reported last month. (Apple took issue with that claim, telling The Times that it "did not lobby against" the bill but rather had "constructive discussions" with congressional staffers).

Apple has long been criticized over the labor practices of its suppliers , particularly in China but increasingly in other countries including India, where workers at an iPhone factory rioted after accusing management of withholding their pay.

In November, Apple was also forced to cut ties with its second-largest iPhone manufacturer , Pegatron, after discovering the company had violated labor laws by relying on "student workers" who were in practice doing work that had nothing to do with their degrees.

Watch: Apple's 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote event in 14 minutes

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• Moses Kwadzo, James Kofi Annan. Effects of Child Labor on Academic Outcomes: A Case Study of Child Labor among Junior High School Students in the Fishing Community of Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana. Journal of Business and Management Sciences . Vol. 10, No. 3, 2022, pp 124-130. https://pubs.sciepub.com/jbms/10/3/3 ">Normal Style
• Kwadzo, Moses, and James Kofi Annan. 'Effects of Child Labor on Academic Outcomes: A Case Study of Child Labor among Junior High School Students in the Fishing Community of Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana.' Journal of Business and Management Sciences 10.3 (2022): 124-130. ">MLA Style
• Kwadzo, M. , & Annan, J. K. (2022). Effects of Child Labor on Academic Outcomes: A Case Study of Child Labor among Junior High School Students in the Fishing Community of Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana. Journal of Business and Management Sciences , 10 (3), 124-130. ">APA Style
• Kwadzo, Moses, and James Kofi Annan. 'Effects of Child Labor on Academic Outcomes: A Case Study of Child Labor among Junior High School Students in the Fishing Community of Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana.' Journal of Business and Management Sciences 10, no. 3 (2022): 124-130. ">Chicago Style

Effects of Child Labor on Academic Outcomes: A Case Study of Child Labor among Junior High School Students in the Fishing Community of Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana

Several concerns have been raised about child labor use in the fishery sector of Ghana. While some have argued that child labor should be abolished because it endangers the lives of children, others maintain that the use of children in agricultural work promotes their socioeconomic development. This study sought to assess the nature of child labor in Ghana and examine its effects on the academic outcomes of students in junior high schools in the Elmina community in the Central Region in Ghana. A total of 242 students from two junior high schools in the Elmina fishing community completed questionnaires for the study. The questionnaire results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent-sample t -tests. The findings revealed that 104 of the 242 students were involved in various fishery activities, including sorting, selling, dressing, and smoking of fish. The students were found to be working 12.3 hours per week and 3.3 days per week on average. Contrary to expectations, the independent-sample t -tests showed no statistically significant difference in aggregate examination mean scores for students involved in and students not involved in fishery activities. This observation could be attributed to the fact that the majority of the students involved in fishery activities engaged mainly in fishery activities that can be described as child work rather than child labor. This study recommends that households engaged in fishing consider limiting their children to light and regular fishing activities if the need arises to engage them, to avoid distraction from their education.

1. Introduction

Child labor is a complex phenomenon in developing countries. While some have argued that the use of children in agricultural work is part of their socioeconomic development, others are of the view that child labor cannot be a substitute for child work 1 , 2 . The UNICEF 3 convention tolerates child work but it does not promote child labor of all forms. The kind of child labor children engage in differs depending on the culture of a country or community and the socioeconomic conditions 4 . According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), child labor is work that deprives children of their childhood potential and dignity and that is harmful to their physical and mental development 5 . The ILO 6 reported that in 2016, ten percent of children (152 million) aged 5 to 17 around the world were involved in some form of labor and that 73 million were engaged in hazardous child labor. Approximately 70.9% worked in agriculture, 17.2% worked in services, and 11.9% worked in industry. For children aged 5-14 years involved in some form of labor, 32.0% did not attend school, and the other 68% divided their time between working and studying. Buonomo 7 and the ILO 5 observed that the agriculture, fishing, and artisanal mining sectors are the largest employers of child labor. Adeborna and Johnson 8 observed that child labor is most prevalent in the informal small- and medium-scale operations of capture fisheries, aquaculture and post-harvest fish activities. Small-scale fisheries provide over 90 percent of the 120 million livelihoods derived from fisheries and support more than 500 million people. In the fishery sector, children are engaged in activities such as harvesting and farming of fish in capture fishing and aquaculture 8 .

Ghana is one of the countries with the world’s largest proportions of working children. In Ghana, 21.8% of children 5-17 years old are engaged in child labor, and more than 14.2% are involved in hazardous forms of child labor 9 . Child labor in Ghana is deep-rooted in the fishing industry, with the majority of child labor carried out in family enterprises and mostly within the family home, in the form of housework or as non-remunerated work 8 . Child labor has been found to compromise the health and personal development of children. Several studies have showed that children who engage in child labor do not perform well in school. Le and Homel 10 noted that children who engage in child labor do not perform well in school because it affects their concentration in class. It also leaves them with less time for schooling and for engaging in leisure activities 11 .

In contrast, Afenyadu 4 and Heady 12 contended that not all child work is dangerous to children’s mental well-being. Many families within the coastal fishing communities along the coast of Ghana encourage their children’s involvement in their family fishery businesses as a sociocultural practice to preserve family business for the future and to ensure the survival of family members. Elmina is a major coastal fishing community in the Central Region of Ghana. The Elmina fishing harbor is the third largest fish landing site in Ghana and contributes approximately 15% of the country's total fish output 13 . Approximately 75% of the population of Elmina, including children, is involved in fishing and related fishing activities, such as processing and trading of fish, for their livelihood 13 . Although UNICEF’s convention allows the use of child work, it discourages the use of child labor of all forms. While children within the Elmina fishing community engage in fishery activities, this kind of child labor can adversely affect the educational development of the children in Elmina. The authors raise the question: what is the nature of the fishery activities in which these children are engaged? This study sought to identity the nature of the child labor in Elmina and examine its effects on the academic outcomes for children in the junior high schools in the Elmina community in the Central Region of Ghana. It was hypothesized that there was no significant difference in academic outcomes between students who were involved and those who were not involved in fishery activities.

2. Literature Review

Child labor is a complex phenomenon that requires examination from social, economic, and cultural perspectives. The current study considered the theoretical orientation of child labor from an ecological systems perspective, which views the environment as being made of systems or factors (economic, social, and culture) that are interactive and interwoven in nature Psycholo gist, 32 (7), 513-531." class="coltj"> 14 , Aggression and Violent Behavior, 26 , 35-45." class="coltj"> 15 . Economic factors are related to resources such as family income and the jobs and education of parents. Social factors are related to structural characteristics such family size and the availability of educational resources. Cultural factors are related to social values and norms regarding child labor.

From an economic perspective, variables that relate to child labor supply are household poverty status, family low income, parental unemployment, and other family economic shocks. According to Basu and Van 16 , family poverty may be the primary reason for why children engage in labor. While there are laws prohibiting child labor, many children are compelled to work to help their families survive. Parental stress and a lack of parental social support may force children to work to support households in the absence of social assistance schemes 17 . A child’s labor contribution could be used as an asset for smooth consumption for the family. Child labor serves as a shock absorber to ease the impact of possible parental job loss, failed harvests, and other shocks to the family's income stream.

Social factors that may provoke child participation in the labor market include illiteracy and ignorance of poor parents, household size, family type, and culture norms that emphasize the tradition of making children learn the family’s entrepreneurial skills Introductory rural sociology: a synopsis of concepts and principles . New York: Wiley Eastern Limited." class="coltj"> 18 , 19 . The educational status of the parents is an important social factor related to child labor. The more education parents (particularly the household’s head) have, the less likely they are to let their children work. In general, single-parent families seems to be closely linked with a high prevalence of child labor. Some studies have also demonstrated a relationship between household size and the prevalence of child labor among poor families in developing countries. A culture of any society is shared and preserved from one generation to the next through a process of teaching and learning the various elements of the culture Introductory rural sociology: a synopsis of concepts and principles . New York: Wiley Eastern Limited." class="coltj"> 18 , 19 . To preserve their culture and endeavor to overcome endemic poverty, fishing entrepreneurs often insist that at least one of their children familiarize themselves with the practice and management of their fishing business to be able to inherit their parents’ assets and thereby take over and sustain the family business in future 8 . In doing so, child labor in fishing and fish processing become the sociocultural machinery by which the fishing culture is transferred from one generation to the next. In the Central Region of Ghana, many families within the coastal fishing communities of Gomoa-Fetteh, Nyanyano, Moree, Elmina, Apam, Winneba and Senya-Beraku are noted to encourage their children’s involvement in their family business 8 .

The ILO 5 (2014) reported that child labor is unfavorable and unsafe to children's health and denies them of a proper education. Studies show that children who do not work cope better in school than children who do. Children who combine work and school can experience negative psychosocial effects on their educational progress and performance Journal of Public Health, 41 , (1), 18-26." class="coltj"> 20 , Children and Youth Services Review 93 , 248-254." class="coltj"> 21 , In L. Holt (Ed.). Geographies of children, youth and families. An international perspective . London: Routledge." class="coltj"> 22 . Abdalla et al. 20 affirmed in various studies that child labor adversely affects the health of children, leading to severe health complications that adversely affect their education. A study conducted by Anumaka 23 involving 2,307 pupils who sat for the primary leaving examination in the Nebbi District of North-East Uganda found that many of the children who did not perform well were those who had engaged in labor activities. Rahman and Khanam 24 found that child work had a negative effect on learning attainment in the areas of arithmetic and reading in Ghana. In a study conducted by Al-Gamal et al. 25 in Jordan, children who were not engaged in any form of work were found to perform better in school than those who are engaged in work. Afenyadu 4 contended that not all work is dangerous to children’s mental development and that work improves their basic knowledge and skills. He noted that the damage that child labor may do depends on the intensity and nature of the work. Holgado et al. 26 argued that there is no simple linear association between child labor and academic performance and that multiple factors, including labor conditions, morning work schedules, and the number of hours worked per week, can negatively affect the academic performance of child laborers. Nevertheless, a study by Heady 12 on the effect of child labor on learning outcomes showed that in Ghana, child work, especially that carried out in the home, had a fairly small effect on children’s school performance.

3. Methodology

This study employed a cross-sectional survey design and was conducted in Elmina (5°5ʹ0ʺN 1°21ʹ0ʺW), a major coastal fishing community in the Komenda–Edina–Eguafo–Abrem (KEEA) district in the Central Region of Ghana. Elmina, with a population of 32,819, serves as a center for several fishing-related and commercial activities. The Elmina fishing harbor is the third largest fish landing site in Ghana and contributes approximately 15% of the country's total fish output The Elmina 2015 Strategy: Building on the Past to Create a Better Future; A document prepared by the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) District Assembly for the Elmina cultural heritage and management Program. Elmina . Ghana: KEEA District Assembly." class="coltj"> 13 , 27 . The harbor provides a landing site for all types of canoes and small semi-industrial boats that engage in traditional fisheries. A study by Amador et al. 28 indicated that there were 2,632 fishermen, 231 canoes, and some semi-industrial vessels involved in fishing operations in Elmina. Another study by KEEA The Elmina 2015 Strategy: Building on the Past to Create a Better Future; A document prepared by the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) District Assembly for the Elmina cultural heritage and management Program. Elmina . Ghana: KEEA District Assembly." class="coltj"> 13 , 27 reported that approximately 75% of the population of Elmina is involved in fishing and fishing-related activities, such as processing and trading of fish. The landing harbor is reported to be always full of large crowds, including fishing crews, workers, and child laborers The Elmina 2015 Strategy: Building on the Past to Create a Better Future; A document prepared by the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) District Assembly for the Elmina cultural heritage and management Program. Elmina . Ghana: KEEA District Assembly." class="coltj"> 13 , 27 .

Elmina was chosen for the study because of its economic importance in the fishery sector of the Central Region of Ghana, as well as the involvement of children in Elmina in fishery activities. The population of this study included all junior high school students in Elmina. Multi-stage sampling was used to select the sample for the study. First, simple random sampling was used to select two junior high schools out of six in the Elmina community. In the second stage, all students of the two schools were included in the study, based on the school’s enrollment registers.

The study questionnaire covered information on household demographics (the household head’s education, employment/economic status, marital status, household size) and personal data of the students (age, sex, class, nature of child labor involvement, health conditions, and academic performance). The questionnaire was administered to students in the two junior high schools selected for the study, with the help of the teachers there. Data were collected from 242 students between July and August 2021. Data on the students’ last term examination results were also extracted from the school’s records. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent-sample t -tests.

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for students involved in and not involved in fishing activities and for the total of 242 students who participated in the study, 104 (43.0%) of whom were involved in fishery activities and 138 (57.0%) of whom were not. The mean ages of the working and non-working students were 7.79 and 6.64 years, respectively. Of the 242 students, 130 (53.70%) were males and 112 (46.30%) were females. With regard to statistics on the heads of the family, 59 (0.57%) of the 104 of the family heads of the students involved in fishery activities and 71 (0.51%) of the family heads of students not involved in fishery activities were found to be married. Approximately 57% of the family heads of the students involved in fishery activities and 62% of the family heads of students not involved in fishery activities were found to have a basic education (junior and senior high school). The majority (61%) of the families of the students involved in fishery worked within the traditional fishery sector and 34% did not. The household sizes of the students involved in and not involved in fishery activities are 7.79 and 6.54 members, respectively.

Table 1. Profile of Surveyed Students

• Tables index View option Full Size Next Table

We examined the nature and types of the students’ fishery activities. Table 2 shows the characteristics of fishery activities undertaken by children in the Elmina fishery community. Sixty-one (59.2%) of the students undertake fishery activities in family owned-enterprises, while the rest of the students work outside the family enterprise. Seventy (68%) of these students receive wages or token remuneration from their fishery work, and the rest, 33 (32%), receive no form of remuneration. On average, a working student was paid GHS 97 (19.4 US dollars) per month. Most of the students worked two day per week and four hours per week. However, the students’ average working hours and days per week were 12.3 hours and 3.3 days, respectively.

Table 2. Nature of Students’ Fishery Activities

• Tables index View option Full Size Previous Table Next Table

Table 3 shows the different types of fishery activities undertaken by children in the Elmina fishery community. We categorized the students’ fishery activities as light, regular, or harmful work. Light and regular work are by their very nature safer and less stressful. Harmful work is work that by its nature or circumstances is likely to harm children’s health or safety. As shown in Table 3 , light work dominated the fishery activities in which children were engaged. Fifty percent of the working students were found to be engaged in light work, followed by 40.4% engaged in regular work. Only 9.6% of the students were engaged in harmful work.

Table 3. Cross Tabulation of Types of Fishery Activities Engaged in by Children in Elmina

Age plays important role in determining the nature of the work in which children should be engaged. Under the ILO’s conventions on child labor, light work is work that should be carried out by children between the ages of 13 and 14, regular work is work that should be carried out by children between the ages of 15 and 17, and harmful work is work that should be carried out by children aged 18 years or more. As shown in Table 4 , 10 students that were involved in fishing in the lagoon or on the sea did not meet the age requirement, being less than 18 years old. In addition, one of those involved in the mending of nets was 12 years rather than the minimum of 13 years old as required for this type of regular work for children.

Table 4. Cross Tabulation of Types of Fishery Activities by Age

The respondents were also asked to indicate their perceptions regarding specific effects of child labor on their health and welfare, with response options ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). As seen in Table 4 , the mean score for work relating to students’ tiredness was 2.78, implying that students were not sure if their engagement in fishing work makes them tired. The mean scores for having access to money for school and always having access to food were 3.67 and 3.28, respectively. These scores indicate that the working students agree that their fishery work helps to provide them with money and food.

It is hypothesized that there was no significant difference in academic outcomes between students involved in and those not involved in fishery activities. The aggregate mean examination scores for the students involved in and students not involved in fishery activities were 54.71 and 50.90 respectively. The results actually show a slightly higher aggregate mean examination score for the students involved in the fishery business. An independent-sample t -test was conducted to compare the aggregate examination mean examinations scores for students involved in and not involved in the fishery activities in the Elmina community. The results revealed no statistically significant difference in aggregate mean examination scores for students involved in fishery activities (M = 54.71, SD = 15.73) and students not involved in fishery activities (M = 50.90, SD = 15.07; t (240) = 1.915, p = 0.06, two-tailed). The magnitude of the differences in the means (mean difference = 3.82, 95% CI: -0.1104 to 7.75) was very small (eta squared = 0.007).

Table 5. Students’ Perceptions of Effects of Working on Their Health and Welfare

Table 6. Statistical Test Results for Mean Examination Scores of Students Involved and Not Involved in Fishery Activities

Table 7. Statistical Test Results for Mean Examination Scores for Girls and Boys Involved in Fishery Activities

• Tables index View option Full Size Previous Table

The second null hypothesis was that there was no significant difference in academic outcomes between boys and girls involved in fishery activities. An independent sample t -test was conducted to compare the aggregate examination mean scores for boys and girls involved in the fishery activities in the Elmina community ( Table 7 ). The result show no statistically significant difference in scores for boys who were involved in fishery activities (M = 55.96, SD = 15.90) and girls involved in fishery activities (M = 53.08, SD = 15.53; t (102) = 0.877, p = 0.38, two-tailed). The magnitude of the differences in the means (mean difference = 2.75, 95% CI: -3.48 to 8.98) was very small (eta squared = 0.008).

5. Discussion

The problem of child labor in the agricultural sector in developing countries has received considerable attention in the economics literature. A particular concern is Ghana, which is one of the countries with the world’s largest proportion of working children. Child labor in Ghana is common in the fishing industry, with the majority of children engaged in fishery activities being involved in family businesses. While researchers maintain that child labor should be abolished because it endangers children’s lives and deprives them of their rights, others hold the view that child labor should be deliberated within the context in which it occurs, because some child work enables children to acquires basic resources, knowledge, and skills that can prove beneficial in later life 1 , the FAO Workshop On Child Labour in Fisheries and Aquaculture , Italy, Rome." class="coltj"> 4 . The United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF)’s conventions propose that child work and not child labor be used in agricultural work, as it assists in the social development of children 3 . These diverging views can pose a problem for policy enforcement with respect to child labor, and it is therefore necessary to reexamine children’s work engagement and its effects on children. Many families in the coastal fishing communities in Ghana promote their children’s participation in their family’s fishery enterprises to preserve their business culture and the survival of family members. Although less attention is sometimes paid to this type of child labor, it can adversely affect the social and educational development of the child 1 , the FAO Workshop On Child Labour in Fisheries and Aquaculture , Italy, Rome." class="coltj"> 4 .

This study was conducted to examine the nature of child labor and its effects on children’s academic outcomes in junior high schools in the Elmina community of the Central Region of Ghana. It was hypothesized that there was no significant difference in academic outcomes between students involved in and those not involved in fishery activities. A cross-sectional survey design was conducted, and a total of 242 students completed questionnaires containing information about their demographic characteristics, education, child labor activities, and their effects. The result of the study revealed that 104 of the 242 students were involved in various fishery. These students engaged in fishery activities for many reasons. The majority, 104 (43%), of the surveyed students were found to be involved in fishery work within the traditional fishery sector, with 61(59.2%) engaged in family business. The household sizes of the families of students involved in and students not involved in fishery activities were 7.79 and 6.54 members, respectively. As noted by Adeborna and Johnson 8 , people living along the coast regard fishing as an integral aspect of their cultural identity and therefore ensure that their children learn fishing and fish processing. Children work to ensure the survival of their families and themselves. In addition, children in large families with low income are forced to engaged in work to help support their families.

It was hypothesized that there was no significant difference in academic outcome between students involved in and those not involved in fishery activities. The results of an independent-sample t -test showed no statistically significant difference in aggregate examination scores for students involved in fishery activities (M = 54.71, SD = 15.73) and students not involved in fishery activities (M = 50.90, SD = 15.07; t (240) = 1.915, p = 0.06, two-tailed). The magnitude of the effect of differences in the means (mean difference = 3.82, 95% CI: -0.1104 to 7.75) was very small (eta squared = 0.007) ( Table 5 ). This observation could be attributed to a number of factors, including the type and nature of their fishery work and its effects on their health and welfare. The analysis revealed that 104 of the 242 students were involved in various fishery activities, including sorting, selling, dressing, and smoking fish. On average, students were engaged in these activities 12.3 hours and 3.3 days per week. However, the majority of them worked 4 hours and 2 days per week. This confirms findings by Holgado et al. 26 that children working 1 or 2 hours per day may not interfere with schooling, may not make the child too tired to perform, and may even generate sufficient resources to enable the household to afford to send the child to school. According to ILO, “child labor” does not include all economic activity undertaken by children 3 . In the legal framework for child labor in the Children’s Act (Act. 560, 1998) of Ghana, the minimum age for engaging a child in “light work” is 13 years, and that for regular work is 15 years. The minimum age for children engaged in harmful work is 18 years. Light work is work that is not likely to be harmful to children’s health, development, and/or educational activities, while harmful work is work that poses a danger to the health and safety of children 8 . The respondents were also asked to indicate their perceptions regarding specific effects of child labor on their health and welfare. Generally, the students’ perceptions regarding the effects of child labor on their health indicate that students were not sure (2.78 on a five-point Likert scale) whether their engagement in fishing work made them tired. With regard to their welfare, working students reportedly agreed (3.67 and 3.28 on five-point Likert scales) that their fishery work helped to provide them with money for school and food, respectively. These reflections could be attributed to half of the working students engaging in light fishing activities, such as sorting and selling of fish. Forty percent of the working students were involved in regular fishing activities, including mending nets and dressing and smoking of fish, which are light and regular fishing activities and therefore can be described as child work rather that child labor.

6. Conclusion

While several studies have shown that children who engage in work face challenges with respect to their academic performance, our study found no statistically significant difference in aggregate examination scores for students involved in and those not involved in fishery activities. Multiple factors, such as students’ engagement in light work and working just a few hours and days per week, did not negatively affect their academic performance. Given that the students involvement in fishery activities in the Elmina community does not have any major negative impact on their academic performance, the authors recommend that fishing extension officers educate households in the fishing community to consider engaging their children in light and regular fishing activities if the need arises, to avoid disrupting their educational endeavors. Although this study provides a great insight into the effects of child labor on students’ academic performance in a fishing community, it has a limitation that should be addressed in future research. The findings and conclusion of this study was based on data gathered on individual students’ academic performance. Data on schools’ performance were not collected and compared. Future studies should include comparison of schools’ performance to gain a greater understanding of the effects of child labor on academic outcomes.

Acknowledgements

No grants were received to support this research and publication.

Published with license by Science and Education Publishing, Copyright © 2022 Moses Kwadzo and James Kofi Annan

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NESTLE FACING CHILD LABOR Case study NESTLE FACING CHILD LABOR Case study

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Investigating the effects of child brides in nigeria’s labor market.

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Harris Chooses Walz

A guide to the career, politics and sudden stardom of gov. tim walz of minnesota, now vice president kamala harris’s running mate..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

Hey, it’s Michael. Before we get started, I want to tell you about another show made by “The New York Times” that pairs perfectly with “The Daily.” It’s called “The Headlines.” It’s a show hosted by my colleague, Tracy Mumford, that quickly catches you up on the day’s top stories and features insights from “The Times” reporters who are covering them, all in about 10 minutes or less.

So if you like “The Daily”— and if you’re listening, I have to assume you do — I hope that means you’re going to “The Headlines” as well. You can now find “The Headlines” wherever you get your podcasts. So find it, subscribe to it, and thank you. And now, here’s today’s “Daily.”

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, the story of how a little known Midwestern governor became Kamala Harris’s choice for a running mate. My colleague Ernesto Londoño walks us through the career, politics, and sudden stardom of Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.

It’s Wednesday, August 7.

Ernesto, over the past few days, we watched Vice President Harris bring the final three contenders for her running mate to her house in Washington, DC, for a set of in-person interviews. And then we watched as she seemed to narrow her pool of choices down to a final two — the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, and the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz. And now, of course, we know that she has made her choice. What has she told us about her campaign strategy, the way she views this race, in ultimately choosing Tim Walz?

Michael, I think what the choice tells us is that Kamala Harris was drawn to two qualities that Governor Walz brings to the table. And what’s interesting is they may seem to be in tension. For starters, here’s the ultimate everyday man, somebody who grew up in a small town in Middle America, served in the National Guard, was a high school teacher, a football coach, very plain-spoken, goes to campaign events wearing T-shirts and baseball caps, is a gun owner and very proud about it. He sort of embodies the Midwest.

And she clearly thinks that that is going to bring the kind of moderate, white, working class voters that the campaign needs in swing states to come to them, to make this feel like a balanced ticket and something that will give her enough of the crucial votes to defeat Donald Trump in the fall.

On the other hand, as governor, he passed a slew of pretty progressive legislation in the past couple of years, everything from abortion rights to gun control. So these things are likely to appeal to bread and butter Democrats.

But the question is, when voters have examined these two facets of Tim Walz, may it bring them enough enthusiasm from the base and enough undecided voters that the campaign desperately needs, or at some point, do these two aspects of him start canceling each other out?

Right. In short, you’re saying Harris is betting on a dual appeal from Walz to two essential constituencies, but the risk is that the appeal to one of them is just much, much greater than to the other.

Right. You could definitely see a scenario where voters, once they’ve examined Tim Walz’s story and legacy, may conclude that both of these candidates are quite liberal.

OK, so tell us the story of Tim Walz, a story that I think a lot of us don’t know because we really don’t know Walz all that well, and how he has come to embody these two qualities and that tension that you just described.

Michael, the origin story of Tim Walz’s political career is quite fascinating.

He and his wife were teachers in a small city south of Minneapolis. And in 2004, when George W. Bush was running for re-election, Walz took a group of his students to a political rally in his hometown. They wanted to just see the president make his case. And a strange scuffle happened when they were trying to get in.

Well, one of the kids had a John Kerry sticker on his wallet. And this is where the individual says, well, you’re not going to be allowed to enter. You’ve been deemed a threat.

Apparently, one of the students had a sticker for Bush’s rival, John Kerry, on his wallet. And security officials at the rally didn’t want to let them in.

And I said, oh, it’s OK. They’re with me. And who are you? And I said, I’m Tim Walz. I’m their teacher here, and showed them my ID. And they said, well, you two have been deemed a threat to the president. And I said, well, that’s not true. And it kind of escalated.

And this really ticked off Tim Walz. He was really upset. There was a fight and a confrontation at the rally.

At this point in time, I’m kind of nervous. I’m getting arrested. So I’m like saying, well, I’m Teacher of the Year in Mankato. And they didn’t care about that. And it was kind of a sad epiphany moment, how it felt for people to be looked right through by people. These people didn’t see me. And this is happening.

And ultimately, he sort of walks away from this moment feeling really sick of the Bush administration, the politics of the day. And he turns around and volunteers for the Kerry campaign.

And then the more interested he becomes in politics in this era, he starts looking around his congressional district, and there’s a Republican who’s held the seat for many, many years. This was a largely rural district in southern Minnesota. And there’s no reason to believe that a newcomer to politics, somebody without a donor base, could make a run for this seat and win.

But Walz signs up for this weekend boot camp, where expert campaigners train newcomers who want to run for office. And he gets really enthused by the idea that he can pull it off. So he starts raising money with the support of an army of students who become so thrilled and energized by the prospect that their nerdy and kind geography teacher is making this uphill bid for a congressional race.

So his campaign staff is basically his former students.

That’s right. And he proves to be a formidable candidate. He draws a lot of attention to his experience in the classroom and as a coach.

When I coached football, these stands held about 3,000 people. That’s a lot. It’s also the number of American soldiers who have died fighting in Iraq.

He’s a very strong advocate for pulling out of the war in Iraq.

Serving right now are kids that I taught, coached, and trained to be soldiers. They deserve a plan for Iraq to govern itself, so they can come home.

And one thing that happens in the campaign that is really surprising to people is he comes out as being in favor of same-sex marriage. Now, it’s useful to remember that this is 2006, when the vast majority of Democrats, Democrats running for most elected office, were not ready to come out in favor of same-sex marriage.

And here’s a guy who’s new to politics, who’s trying to unseat a Republican who’s held on to his seat for more than 12 years, taking what appeared to be a reckless position on something. And when he was asked about it at the time, Tim Walz told a supporter, this just happens to be what I believe in. And I’d rather lose a race that I’ve ran being true and consistent to my values than try to run as somebody I’m not.

And of course, he wins.

Yes. To everybody’s surprise, he pulled it off.

So from the get-go, he shows a kind of maverick, “politics be damned” quality, taking stands that he knows may be unpopular among the voters he’s trying to win over. But he’s got some innate political gifts that are all making it work.

Yeah, I think that first campaign showed us that Tim Walz had real political chops. He was a very effective campaigner. And people really liked him. When he was knocking on doors, when he was introducing himself to voters, they saw him as somebody who was very genuine and who was admirable.

So once he gets elected in this conservative leaning district in Minnesota, what does he actually do in Congress?

In Congress, he develops a reputation for being somebody who can work across the aisle. And this is a period where Democrats and Republicans were deeply polarized over the Iraq War. He spends a lot of his time lobbying to expand benefits for veterans, so it’s easier for them to go to college after their service, and also becomes a leading voice in the quest to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the policy that prohibited openly gay servicemen from serving in uniform.

And he remained really popular. He easily won re-election five times. The last time he runs for his seat happens to be 2016, when President Trump wins his district by about 15 points.

And still, voters kept Tim Walz in office.

I think it’s important to note what you just said. Walz is distinguishing himself as a Democrat who can take some pretty progressive positions, as he did in that first campaign on gay rights, as he did with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and keep winning in very Trump-friendly districts of his state.

That’s right. And as he’s serving his sixth term in office, he sets his sights on the governor’s mansion and decides to run for office in 2018. He wins that race easily. And early on, during his time as governor, the eyes of the world are on Minnesota after a police officer kills George Floyd. And what we see is massive looting and protests in Minneapolis.

Right, and remind us how Governor Walz handles that violence, those protests.

Yeah, I think that’s a crucial chapter in Tim Walz’s political career and one that will come under scrutiny in the days ahead.

After George Floyd was killed on a Monday —

People are upset, and they’re tired. And being Black in Minnesota already has a stigma and a mark on your back.

— protests took root in Minneapolis.

Y’all want to sit out here and shoot off your rubber bullets and tear gas.

And they got progressively larger and more violent.

There comes a point where the mayor and the police chief in Minneapolis plead for help. They ask the governor to send in the National Guard. And crucially, that request was not immediately heeded.

This is the third precinct here. There are fires burning to the left of it at the —

And at the height of the crisis, a police precinct building was abandoned.

There’s someone climbing up the wall right now, kicking the window in, trying to climb up the wall.

Because city officials grew concerned that protesters were about to overrun it and may attack the cops inside their own turf.

[EXPLOSIONS]

And the building is set on fire.

Right, a very memorable image. I can recall it happening in real-time.

Yeah, and in the days that followed, I think there were a lot of questions of why the governor didn’t send in troops earlier and whether a more muscular, decisive response could have averted some of the destruction that spread through the city.

And how does Walz end up explaining his decision not to send in the National Guard more quickly?

The governor and his administration have said that they were really, really dealing with an unprecedented challenge. And I think there was a concern that sending in troops into this really, really tense situation could have done more to escalate rather than pacify things on the street.

But in the weeks and months that followed, there were a lot of questions about Governor Walz’s leadership. And there were critics who said, during what may have been the most challenging week of his life, we saw a governor who was indecisive and who waited too long to send in resources that ultimately allowed the city to get to a semblance of order.

Right, and it feels like this is a moment that will almost assuredly be used against him by Donald Trump and JD Vance, the Republican ticket, which has made law and order so central to their message in this campaign.

Yeah, absolutely. And here in Minnesota, that was certainly a liability for him when he ran for re-election in 2022. But voters kept him in office, and he won that race handily. And not only did he win, but Democrats managed to flip the Senate and have full control of the legislature on his watch.

And that sets in motion one of the most productive legislative sessions in Minnesota history, where Tim Walz and his allies in the House and the Senate managed to pass a trove of really progressive legislation, oftentimes on a party vote.

Tell us about some of that legislation.

Well, Minnesota becomes the first state in the wake of the Supreme Court ending the constitutional right to abortion to actually codify this right under state statute. And they did a lot more stuff. They had a huge budget surplus, and they used that, for instance, to fund meals for all school children.

They managed to pass a couple of gun control laws that were very contentious. They gave the right to undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses. They legalized recreational marijuana. And finally, the governor takes a pretty bold stance on this issue of gender affirming care for transgender kids and teenagers, and says that Minnesota will be a safe haven for people who want that health care.

So, Ernesto, so how should we think about that blitz of legislation and the largely progressive tone of it, given the way that Walz had campaigned and succeeded up to that moment as somebody with such broad appeal across the political spectrum?

When the governor was asked whether this had been too much too quickly in terms of progressive legislation, his answer was that these were broadly popular policies, that these are issues Democrats had campaigned on. And here, Democrats had a window of opportunity where they were in control of the governor’s mansion and control of the House, the Senate, and that when you have political capital, you spend it.

But when you start listening to Republicans in Minnesota, they say, here’s a guy who campaigned on this mantra of “One Minnesota.” That was his campaign slogan. And he sort of came into office with this promise that he would govern in a bipartisan way, reach across the aisle.

But when they had all the votes they needed to pass their policies, Republicans felt that Walz was not bothering to bring them into the fold and to pass legislation that was going to be palatable to conservatives in the state. So I think people who once regarded him as a moderate now start seeing him as somebody who, when he had the power, acted in ways that were really progressive and liberal.

So at the height of his power, Governor Walz emerges as somebody who, when given a shot at getting done what he really wants to get done with a Democratic legislature, is a pretty progressive leader, even at the risk of being somewhat at odds with his earlier image as more moderate, because in his mind, enough people in the state are behind these policies.

Yeah, and I think he assumed that he had banked enough goodwill and that people across the state liked him enough to tolerate policies they may have disagreed with. And I think it’s safe to say, among the people who cover him here regularly, there was never any real hint that Tim Walz was eyeing a run for higher office. He’s not somebody who has written the kind of political memoir that oftentimes serves as a case of what you would bring to a national ticket or to the White House. And he seems pretty happy with a state job.

So it was a huge surprise when Tim Walz starts going viral through a string of cable news appearances right after President Biden drops out of the race, and the Democrats are scrambling to put Harris at the top of the ticket. And what becomes clear is that Walz is very forcefully auditioning for the role of vice president, and Vice President. Harris starts taking him very seriously.

We’ll be right back.

So, Ernesto, tell us about this cable news audition that Governor Walz undertakes over the past few weeks and how, ultimately, it seemed to help him land this job of being Harris’s running mate.

I think Walz does something really interesting, and that is that he says that Democrats shouldn’t be talking about Trump and Vance as existential threats. He kind of makes the case that Democrats have been in this state of fear and paralysis for too long, and that it’s not serving them well. So the word he latches onto is “weird.”

Well, it’s true. These guys are just weird.

It is. It is.

And they’re running for he-man women hater’s club or something. That’s what they go at. That’s not what people are interested in.

And I think one other thing we see in Walz is somebody who’s putting himself out there as a foil to JD Vance.

That angst that JD Vance talks about in “Hillbilly Elegy,” none of my hillbilly cousins went to Yale, and none of them went on to be venture capitalists or whatever. It’s not —

I think the case he’s making is that Tim Walz is a more authentic embodiment of small town values.

What I know is, is that people like JD Vance know nothing about small town America. My town had 400 people in it, 24 kids in my graduating class. 12 were cousins. And he gets it all wrong. It’s not about hate.

And behind the scenes, people from Tim Walz’s days on Capitol Hill start calling everybody they know in the Harris campaign and the Harris orbit and saying, here’s a guy who has executive experience as governor, but also somebody who has a really impressive record from his time on Capitol Hill and somebody who could be an asset in helping a Harris administration pass tough legislation. So you should take a hard look at this guy.

Which is, of course, exactly what Harris ends up doing. And I want to talk for a moment about how Harris announces Walz as her running mate on Tuesday morning. She did it in an Instagram message. And it felt like the way she did it very much embraced this idea that you raised earlier, Ernesto, that Walz contains these two appeals, one to the Democratic base, one to the white working class.

Harris specifically cites the work that Walz did with Republicans on infrastructure and then cites his work on gun control. She mentions that he was a football coach and the founder of the high school Gay Straight Alliance. She’s straddling these two versions of Walz.

But I want to linger on the idea for a moment of Walz’s vulnerabilities, because once he becomes Harris’s running mate, Harris and Walz are going to lose a fair amount of control over how they present him to the country, because he’s going to become the subject of very fierce attacks from the Republicans in this race. So talk about that for just a moment.

Yeah, I mean, it’s important to keep in mind that Governor Walz has never endured the scrutiny of a presidential race. So the questions he’s going to be asked and the way his record is going to be looked at is going to be different and sharper. I think the Harris campaign is billing him as, first and foremost, a fighter for the middle class. And I think that certainly will have some appeal.

But I think in coming days, there’s going to be a lot of attention drawn to parts of his record that may be unpopular with many voters. For instance, giving undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses, which Governor Walz championed. It’s likely to provide fodder for an attack ad.

The very dramatic footage of Minneapolis burning in 2020 is also something that I think people will be drawn to. And there’s going to be interest in reexamining what the governor did and what he could have done differently to avert the chaos.

And on Tuesday, we saw that the Trump campaign wasted no time in trying to define Tim Walz as soft on crime, permissive on immigration policy. And they also made clear they wanted to relitigate the era of George Floyd’s killing. And specifically, they want to try to tie him to the effort at the time to defund the police, which is a movement that Walz personally never endorsed.

So the Republican attack here will be pretty simple. Walz is liberal. Harris is liberal. So, in their efforts to speak to especially white working class and rural voters in swing states, the Trump campaign is going to say this is not the ticket for that group of voters. This is the ticket of burning police precincts and gun control. And of course, that may not be fair, but that’s very likely going to be the message over the next couple of months.

Right. I think there’s going to be effort to portray him as a radical liberal who has used his small town roots to put on this sort of veneer of being a moderate and a really sort of understanding and being part of the segments of the electorate that I think are critical in this election.

I want to speak for just a moment about the person Harris did not pick when she chose Walz because many Democrats had felt that Walz was a potentially too liberal seeming running mate for a candidate, Kamala Harris, who herself comes from a blue state and is caricatured by the Republicans as liberal herself.

And the person she didn’t choose was Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who was seen as having a huge appeal in that particular key swing state, but also presented risks of his own of alienating parts of the Democratic base with his well-documented support for Israel and his criticism of campus protesters. How should we think about the fact that, ultimately, Harris chose Walz over Shapiro?

Yeah, I think in the final stretch of this campaign to be the vice presidential pick, we started seeing a lot of acrimony in pockets of the Democratic base, drawing attention to the fact that Governor Shapiro could be divisive on Gaza, which has really sort of split the party in recent months.

So I think at the end of the day, they made a calculation that Tim Walz would be more of a unifying figure and would be somebody who would inspire and energize enough pockets of the electorate that they need, particularly in the Midwest, to make him the stronger and more exciting pick and somebody who wouldn’t force them to go back to defending and relitigating the Biden administration’s record on Israel and on the war in Gaza.

Right, and then, on Tuesday night, we got our first glimpse of Harris and Walz together on stage for the first time at a campaign rally. I’m curious, what struck you about their debut together.

Good evening, Philadelphia.

I think everybody was watching the opening scene of this rally to see what the chemistry between these two people was going to be like. And they both seemed giddy. They were literally, at times, bouncing with enthusiasm.

Since the day that I announced my candidacy, I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future.

So Pennsylvania, I’m here today because I found such a leader.

Governor Tim Walz of the great state of Minnesota.

They soon got down to business. And that business was how to define Tim Waltz for voters who don’t know him well.

To those who know him best, Tim is more than a governor.

And right off the bat, we saw that Kamala Harris really highlighted a lot of pieces of his pre-political career.

To his former high school football players, he was Coach.

She repeatedly called him Coach Walz, Mr. Walz, evoking his time in the classroom, and even used his military title from his days in the Army.

To his fellow veterans, he is Sergeant Major Walz.

And then when it came time for Tim Walz to introduce himself on this massive stage —

Welcome the next vice president of the United States, Tim Walz.

— he drew a lot of attention to his small town roots.

I was born in West Point, Nebraska. I lived in Butte, a small town of 400.

He said something that he said repeatedly recently in campaign appearances, which is —

In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule — mind your own damn business.

The golden rule of small towns is you mind your own damn business, which is something he said in the context of his argument that Republicans have been limiting, rather than expanding, people’s rights. But he also drew attention to the fact that he’s a gun owner.

By the way, as you heard, I was one of the best shots in Congress. But in Minnesota, we believe in the Second Amendment, but we also believe in common sense gun violence laws.

And then when it came time to draw a sharp contrast with their opponents, Tim Walz said, these guys are phonies.

Donald Trump is not fighting for you or your family. He never sat at that kitchen table like the one I grew up at, wondering how we were going to pay the bills. He sat at his country club in Mar-a-Lago, wondering how he can cut taxes for his rich friends.

He said it’s actually people like me and Kamala Harris who come from humble origins and showed what is possible in America when you hail from a working class background, and you seize opportunities that were available to you.

Thank you, Philadelphia. Thank you, Vice President. God bless America.

So when it comes to this question of Walz’s dual identities and dual appeals, what did we learn on day one of this new Democratic ticket, do you think?

I think the campaign is trying to convey that these two facets of Tim Walz’s life are not mutually exclusive, that they don’t need to be in tension. They don’t cancel each other out. They’re both part of Tim Walz’s story. And I think that’s how they’re going to present him from now until Election Day.

Ernesto, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

It’s my pleasure, Michael.

Here’s what else you need to know today. On Tuesday, Hamas said that Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds behind the deadly October 7 attacks on Israel, had consolidated his power over the entire organization. Until now, Sinwar had held the title of Hamas’s leader in Gaza. But with the assassination of Hamas’s top political leader by Israel last week, Hamas said that Sinwar would take on that title as well. Sinwar remains a major target of Israel and is believed to have been hiding in tunnels underneath Gaza since October 7.

And the US Department of Justice has charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran with trying to hire a hitman to assassinate political figures in the United States. The man recently traveled to the US and was arrested in New York last month. American authorities believe that his potential targets likely included former President Trump.

Today’s episode was produced by Alex Stern, Eric Krupke, and Olivia Natt. It was edited by Lisa Chow and Patricia Willens, contains original music by Pat McCusker and Marion Lozano, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Nick Pittman and Minnesota Public Radio.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

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Earlier this summer, few Democrats could have identified Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

But, in a matter of weeks, Mr. Walz has garnered an enthusiastic following in his party, particularly among the liberals who cheer on his progressive policies. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris named him as her running mate. Ernesto Londoño, who reports for The Times from Minnesota, walks us through Mr. Walz’s career, politics and sudden stardom.

On today’s episode

Ernesto Londoño , a reporter for The Times based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest.

Background reading

Who is Tim Walz , Kamala Harris’s running mate?

Mr. Walz has faced criticism for his response to the George Floyd protests.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Michael Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson, Nina Lassam and Nick Pitman.

An earlier version of this episode misstated the subject that Walz’s wife taught. She taught English, not Social Studies.

How we handle corrections

Ernesto Londoño is a Times reporter based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest and drug use and counternarcotics policy. More about Ernesto Londoño

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