Harsher penalties under deliberation for child labour

LAHORE: A cabinet committee is vetting the draft of a bill providing for harsher penalties for businesses caught employing children under the age of 14.

The draft has been approved by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Once vetted by the cabinet committee, it will be tabled in the Punjab Assembly. Labour Secretary Ali Sarfraz Hussain says that once passed into a law the Punjab Restriction of Employment of Children Act will help bring laws pertaining to labour closer to International Labour Organisation conventions. He says the bill seeks prohibition of child labour and prohibition of employment of adolescents in hazardous tasks.



The bill defines a child as someone younger than 14 years of age and an adolescent as some between 14 and 18 years of age.

Harsher penalties

The bill proposes stricter penalties to curb child labour. It proposes a prison term of between three and six months and a fine between Rs10,000 and Rs50,000 for those caught employing children at their businesses.   The proprietor of an establishment where a child has been engaged in a hazardous activity may be imprisoned for up to five years and fined.

Provincial Committee on Child Labour

The bill seeks the establishment of a body to advise the provincial government on appropriate legislative and administrative measures for eradication of child labour. The Provincial Committee on Child Labour may also propose changes to the minimum age at which a person can employed lawfully.  The draft suggests that the committee shall consist of no less than eight members representing the government, employers, workers and the civil society.



Work hours for adolescents

The bill prohibits businesses from employing adolescents in shifts that exceed three hours. It sets a seven-hour work day for adolescents (two three-hour shifts and an hour-long break in between). It prohibits employment of adolescents between 7pm and 8am, during school hours or overtime. The bill requires a weekly holiday for adolescent workers. It says information of weekly holidays of adolescent workers should be displayed at the workplace at a location that is easily accessible to all workers. The draft says that the day cannot be altered more than once in three months.

Further, the bill gives employers a month’s time to notify the Labour Department about the hiring of adolescent workers after the enactment of the law. It also requires employers to maintain records of their adolescent workers available for inspection.

Punishment for bonded labour, trafficking

The bill proposes a prison term of up to 15 years (no less than five years) and a fine of up to Rs1 million (no less than Rs200,000) for employers whose establishments hire bonded labour of  children or adolescents, engage in trafficking of child or adolescent workers for prostitution, use in armed conflicts,  production of  pornographic or other illicit activities.



Punishment for hazardous work

The bill proposes a prison term of up to a year and a fine of Rs75,000 for businesses that employ adolescent workers for hazardous tasks. The sentence prescribed for repeat offenders is a prison term of up to 15 years.

Abettors

The bill suggests that those caught abetting one of the offences defined in the law may be punished for the offence.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2015.