Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Dominican Republic (Ratification: 1999)

Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 4, of the Convention and Part V of the report form. Minimum age for admission to employment or work and practical application. In its previous comments the Committee noted the ICFTU’s assertion that, although 14 years is the minimum age for admission to employment or work and that education is compulsory up to this age, child labour is nonetheless a major problem in practice. Owing to high unemployment and poverty, particularly among the Haitian community, children join the labour market at a young age and work in the informal sector or in agriculture. Moreover, the number of Haitian children working on sugar plantations alongside their parents is increasing.

In reply to the ICFTU’s observations, the Government indicated that the Dominican Republic is very poor. However, the national inspection service had not reported any such cases and given that labour in sugar plantations had been mechanized, there had been no reported cases of child labour in this sector of economic activity. The Government also said that it could not deny that children enter the labour market at a very young age. However, with the support of the ILO/IPEC programme, it is making efforts to improve the situation. Thus, the Secretary of State for Labour, in collaboration with the National Committee to combat child labour and with the employers and the workers, removed more than 2,000 children from work in the agricultural sector. These children were later reintegrated into school. The Government also pointed out that, in collaboration with the Secretary of State for Education, awareness-raising activities for children and the general population had been organized. The Committee notes the information sent by the Government that with technical assistance from ILO/IPEC, it is pursuing the measures to eliminate child labour. Thus, children working in agriculture are being withdrawn from their activities and campaigns are being organized to alert the population about the problem of child labour.

The Committee notes that according to the statistics in the "Report on the results of the national study on child labour in the Dominican Republic", published in 2004 by ILO/IPEC, SIMPOC and the Secretariat of State for Labour, some 436,000 children aged from 5 to 17 years were working in the Dominican Republic in 2000. Of these, 21 per cent were aged from 5 to 9 years and 44 per cent from 10 to 14 years. The sectors of economic activity most affected by child labour are services in urban areas and agriculture in rural areas. Furthermore, the commercial and industrial sectors likewise have many child workers. The Committee notes that according to the abovementioned statistics, the legislation on child labour appears difficult to apply and child labour constitutes a problem in practice in the Dominican Republic. The Committee expresses its deep concern at the situation of children under the age of 14 years who are compelled to work in the Dominican Republic. It therefore strongly encourages the Government to step up its efforts gradually to improve this situation. Furthermore, referring to its general observation of 2003, the Committee invites the Government to continue to provide detailed information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice including, for example, the fullest possible statistics on the nature, extent and trends of labour among children and adolescents of an age lower than the minimum specified by the Government upon ratification, extracts of reports by the inspection services, data as to the number and nature of the infringements reported and the penalties applied, particularly in services, agriculture, commerce and industry.

The Committee is also raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.