Context:

• For the first time in the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s 101-year history,  a labour standard has been universally ratified, with the Kingdom of Tonga being the last to ratify Convention 182.

News in detail

• ILO Convention No. 182 is the first ILO Convention to achieve universal ratification. 
• It was also the most rapidly ratified Convention in the history of the ILO, with the majority of ratifications occurring within the first 3 years after it was adopted in 1999. 

About International Labour Standards

• International labour standards are legal instruments drawn up by the ILO’s constituents (governments, employers and workers) and setting out basic principles and rights at work. 
• They are either Conventions (or Protocols), which are legally binding international treaties that may be ratified by member states, or Recommendations, which serve as non-binding guidelines. 
• In many cases, a Convention lays down the basic principles to be implemented by ratifying countries, while a related Recommendation supplements the Convention by providing more detailed guidelines on how it could be applied.

Eight core conventions of ILO

• The ILO Governing Body has identified eight “fundamental” Conventions, covering subjects that are considered to be fundamental principles and rights at work which are as follows

1. Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) 
2. Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) 
3. Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)  (and its 2014 Protocol )
4. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) 
5. Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) 
6. Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) 
7. Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) 
8. Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) 

India and the ILO

• Freedom of Association and Protection of Right to Organised Convention (No.87)
• Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No.98)

These two have not been ratified by India while the other six have been ratified by India.

Conventions related to child labour

• The two ILO Conventions on child labour are Convention No.138 on Minimum Age and Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. 
• These Conventions are “fundamental” Conventions. This means that, under the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work , all ILO member States have an obligation to respect, promote and realize the abolition of child labour, even if they have not ratified the Conventions in question.

Convention No. 138

• The aim of ILO Convention No.138  on the minimum age is the effective abolition of child labour by requiring countries to:

1) establish a minimum age for entry into work or employment; and

2) establish national policies for the elimination of child labour.

Recommendation No. 146

• The Recommendation No. 146  which accompanies Convention No. 138, stresses that national policies and plans should provide for: 
  • poverty alleviation and the promotion of decent jobs for adults, so that parents do not need to resort to child labour; 
  • free and compulsory education and provision of vocational training; 
  • extension of social security and systems for birth registration; and 
  • appropriate facilities for the protection of children, and adolescents who work.
• To achieve the elimination of child labour, laws setting minimum ages for work should be embedded in such comprehensive policy responses.

Convention No. 182

• Convention No. 182  helped to focus the international spotlight on the urgency of action to eliminate as a priority, the worst forms of child labour without losing the long term goal of the effective elimination of all child labour. 
• Convention No. 182 requires countries to take ratifying countries to take immediate, effective and time-bound measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency.

Recommendation No. 190

• The Recommendation No. 190 , which accompanies Convention No. 182, recommends that any definition of “hazardous work” should include: 
  • work which 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 carrying heavy loads; 
  • exposure to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or to temperatures, noise levels or vibrations damaging to health; 
  • work for long hours, night work, and unreasonable confinement to the premises of the employer.

Significance of these conventions

• Millions of young boys and girls have been rescued from hazardous conditions of work. 
• These have resulted in significant increases in enrolments in primary education.

Still….

• However an estimated 152 million are trapped in child labour and 72 million of them are engaged in hazardous work.

Way forward:

• Current efforts would have to be stepped up significantly to achieve the ambitious goal of total abolition of the scourge of child labour by 2025. 
• As the world prepares to designate 2021 as the year to abolish child labour, governments must seize the moment to instil hope in the future generations.

References:

1. https://www.ilo.org/global/standards/introduction-to-international-labour-standards/conventions-and-recommendations/lang–en/index.htm
2. https://labour.gov.in/lcandilasdivision/india-ilo
3. https://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/ILOconventionsonchildlabour/lang–en/index.htm
4. https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/historic-ratification/article32349541.ece