Child labour exploitation

Press, 17 June 1986, Page 24

Child labour exploitation

PA Wellington Exploitation of child labour in New Zealand is insignificant compared with the international scene, but is still considerable, says the Federation of Labour president, Mr Jim Knox.

Children working in delivery jobs and plastic bag collections had no effective protection, Mr Knox told an international labour conference in Geneva.

“There is some protection for children working in milk and newspaper deliveries, but it is very limited,” he said. Codes of practice for employment of young people had been developed in some sectors and the F.O.L. hoped better arrangements for protecting the rights of young workers would emerge from the Government’s industrial relations review. Mr Knox dismissed as

simplistic the lowering of youth wage rates as a response to high unemployment among the young. The outcome was either the exclusion of adults from the workforce or pressure to lower adult wages.

Programmes for young employment had to serve young people themselves, not benefit economic elites through reduced labour costs.