Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Tunisia (Ratification: 2000)

Article 3 of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour. Clauses (a) and (d). Forced or compulsory labour and hazardous work. Child domestic workers. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that a high number of children are victims of sexual abuse in Tunisia, particularly those engaged in domestic work.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that the study entitled “Monitoring the situation of children and women: Multiple indicator cluster survey”, conducted in 2011–12, shows that, among children aged between five and 14 years, 3 per cent are engaged in work, essentially in household work. The prevalence of children engaged in work is higher as they grow older, with 6 per cent of children aged 14 years being engaged in work. The Committee also notes the study entitled “Child domestic workers in Tunisia” (ILO, 2017). According to this study, although the law establishes the minimum age for entry into the labour market at 16 years (section 53 of the Labour Code), many children, and particularly young girls, are economically exploited as domestic workers at ages lower than 16. All of them work without written contracts and have no social coverage. They work around ten hours a day. Daily working hours amount to 12 for nearly 20 per cent of girls and exceed 13 hours for nearly 14 per cent of them. The younger the girls, the more likely they are to be called upon to work for periods exceeding ten hours. One third of girls aged under 12 years and half (52.1 per cent) of those between the ages of 12 and 16 years indicate that they have worked more than ten hours per day, while nearly 75 per cent of girls aged over 16 years indicate that they work less than ten hours a day (page 47). The study emphasizes that the extensive hours of work amounting to the exploitation of child domestic workers, does not constitute a brief episode in their lives. The children interviewed spent more than two years on average with the same employer. In certain cases, the exploitation would last up to eight years (page 48). The study also shows that girl domestic workers are often victims of health problems related to the arduous nature and long hours of work, and highlights the dangers to which children may be exposed in the performance of various household tasks and other types of work performed in the employer’s house (page 96). Finally, the study stresses the absence of a clear strategy to combat child domestic work in Tunisia, as well as, the obstacles of a legal nature, essentially related to the access of the places where children work, which impairs their action (page 70).

The Committee expresses deep concern at the exploitation of children under 18 years of age performing domestic work in Tunisia in hazardous conditions, which could result in situations of forced labour. The Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that domestic work carried out by children under conditions of forced labour or under particularly arduous and hazardous conditions, is one of the worst forms of child labour under the terms of Article 3(a) and (d) of the Convention, and shall be eliminated as a matter of urgency. In this regard, the Committee urges the Government to take immediate and effective measures to ensure the full protection of children under 18 years of age against exploitation in domestic work under hazardous conditions or conditions amounting to forced labour. It requests the Government to provide information on the specific measures adopted to address the situation of child domestic workers, particularly as a follow-up to the recommendations of the 2017 study referred to above, and the results achieved in this regard.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request address directly to the Government.