Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Minimum Age (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 5) - Saint Lucia (Ratification: 1980)

The Committee notes with deep concern that the Government’s report on Convention No. 5, due since 2017, has not been received. In light of its urgent appeal launched to the Government in 2019, the Committee proceeds with the examination of the application of the Convention on the basis of the information at its disposal.

Application of the Convention in practice. Labour inspection. In its previous comments, the Committee noted an absence of information from labour inspection reports. The Committee notes that the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its 2014 concluding observations, recommended the Government to strengthen the capacity of the labour inspectorate to effectively monitor the implementation of child labour laws and places of work, especially in the informal sectors (CRC/C/LCA/CO/2-4, paragraph 59). The Committee reiterates its request to the Government to provide information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including information from labour inspection reports relating to inspection of industrial establishments and the number and nature of the contraventions reported and penalties imposed. The Committee also requests the Government to provide information on measures taken to strengthen the labour inspection services to ensure that children under the age of fourteen years are not employed or work in any public or private industrial undertaking, or in any branch thereof.

The Committee has been informed that, based on the recommendations of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (SRM Tripartite Working Group), the Governing Body has decided that member States for which Convention No. 5 is in force should be encouraged to ratify the more recent Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) (see GB.328/LILS/2/1). Convention No 138 reflects the more modern approach to admission of young persons under 18 years to any type of employment or work. Ratification of Convention No 138 will involve the automatic denunciation of the outdated Convention No. 5. The Committee therefore encourages the Government to follow up the Governing Body’s decision at its 328th Session (October-November 2016) approving the recommendations of the SRM Tripartite Working Group and to consider ratifying Convention No. 138 as the most up-to-date instrument in this subject area.