On Sunday’s Q and A programme, a prickly Indian Minister cut short a question from Guyon Espiner about child labour in India, saying “it was insulting to India.”
When asked about it, John Key responded by saying that “an FTA was not the forum to address child labour issues. That must be done through the International Labour Organisation and New Zealand had raised the issues there”
No they haven’t. At least not since National has been in government. And Mr Key clearly hasn’t looked that closely at New Zealand’s own question of child labour. While we can’t compare our child labour issues with developing countries, we do have children at work, many exploited and who have few rights.
The classic are the leaflet deliverers. Some are paid around 25 cents an hour. They are employed as independent contractors, so they have no right to join a union, have to pay their own ACC and tax, don’t get sick leave and holiday pay.
Labour helpfully has a bill that Mr Key could adopt, if he really cares about child labour. It’s called the Employment Relations (Protection of Young Workers) Amendment Bill. The Bill provides that all workers aged 15 and under must be employed on employment agreements under the Employment Relations Act 2000 (and its amendments) and have all rights, including the right to join a union, bargain collectively and the rights to personal grievance currently provided to employees under the Act. No such worker can be employed as an independent or dependent contractor.
It’s not such an unusual thing to do. Homeworkers, under New Zealand law are considered employees under the Employment Relations Act, regardless of whether they are engaged, employed or contracted. This is because they are considered (and have been proven to be) vulnerable to exploitation if they are employed as contractors.
So, John Key he could do something about New Zealand’s child workers if he really cared.
Or will he wait until that’s raised at the ILO as well?
The FTA with China, and China’s record on similar ethical issues.
Your thoughts Darien?
@Rare Debt she’s not saying that we shouldn’t go into a FTA with India because of their child labour record.
I hope something does get done about the child leaflet deliverers… their like an anomaly from the distant past, they have no rights at all and get paid a pittance.
Rare Debt assumes all FTAs have the same terms and conditions – they don’t.
The classic are the leaflet deliverers. Some are paid around 25 cents an hour. They are employed as independent contractors, so they have no right to join a union, have to pay their own ACC and tax, don’t get sick leave and holiday pay.
@Darien
This is pretty crazy stuff but let’s break it down a bit.
25c/hr – I’m assuming this is the very low end of the scale and no-one is forcing anyone to accept these rates, right? (i.e you can chose not tio work for 25c an hour and you aren’t losing much). Surely it’s in a parent’s domain to ensure their kid isn’t getting ripped of if they are out there earning pocket money? We’re not talking about ‘wage earners’ here.
No right to join a union – a Union of (or representing) 10-15yr old leaflet deliverers? That’s a bit of a stretch. To what end? So that they can collectivly negotiate $12.50/hr? See above re parents.
Pay ACC + tax – I would assume most of this is rebated given the age and likely earnings. More of a red tape/compliance issue than a moral one I would think.
Sick leave & holiday pay – they are kids. Are they delivering leaflets for 30hrs a week and acting in the role of breadwinner?
I know this is just an example but it’s probably not a good one.
What would be more representative of the issue would be the 14-15yr old who works at the local McDonalds or supermarket and who might well be contributing to the household income.
Do all of the issues you have stated still hold true?
@Gregor W : read this : and other research done by CARITAS on children’s work. http://www.caritas.org.nz/?sid=1118
@ Darien
Do you by any chance have a link to the research?
The above is a press release.
In principle I agree with kids having (broadly) the same employment rights, particularly around H&S. Is leafleting an extreme case though and not really representative of child employment or are the issues in play here across the board?
If all kids were to be treated as employees (as some of them seem to be) would the most extreme (i.e 25c/hr) issues be alleviated or are you hoping to address the whole lot? (ACC, union representation, taxation etc.)
The main question I still have though is what kind of parent lets their kid go out and work a job for 25c an hour, where they might hurt themselves?
@Gregor W – http://www.caritas.org.nz/?sid=1044 – you will have to download the pdf. It’s called “Delivering the Goods”.
My 16 year old son approached one of the local fast food outlets for part time weekend or evening work and was told that he was too old. These giant profit making corporations prefer to employ very young people 13, 14 and 15 so they can get three good years of work from them paying whatever they like. No minimum wage for those under 16 and what about the Human Rights Act? discrimination on the basis of age…
Perhaps the Indians will insist we stop murdering and abusing our children.
You probably need to get something like that across all employment sectors. There’s a lot of people out there who are being employed as contractors who aren’t.
That said, you also need to get some legislation in place that allows proper work related expenses to be tax deductible for PAYE workers.
Oh, and ban the SPAM that turns up in my mailbox. It probably costs more to get rid of than the digital stuff that turns up in my email.
Rare Debt makes a useful point, China’s human right s are appalling, pay rates appalling, we boough the WTO line that trading improves human rights. Any proof?
Hey Darien why wasn’t these sort of issues fixed when your party was in government?
Nope, NAct laws seriously eroding worker rights to increase the labour market flexibility are part of that line. Indications are that it increases the wealth of a few while making the majority worse off. This was the case in the 19th century as well which is why we dropped it. Then we started heading back that way after the 1960s when capitalism went back into crisis after Keynes’ quick fix of borrowing the money accumulated by the few back into circulation failed to be permanent.
@hayley …happy to recite everything we did do if you want. There was a very long list and with some things we couldn’t get the votes to pass law changes. Give Laboue a majority and we will fix a lot more.
“The classic are the leaflet deliverers. Some are paid around 25 cents an hour. They are employed as independent contractors, so they have no right to join a union, have to pay their own ACC and tax, don’t get sick leave and holiday pay.”
25 cents an hour. The child tax rebate allows a child to earn $2340 per year without paying tax. That’s 9360 hours per year at 25 cents an hour. That’s almost 26 hours per day.
25c per hour and having to pay tax and ACC is bull.
“Perhaps the Indians will insist we stop murdering and abusing our children.”
Good point. That would make politicians actually care about real child abuse, for once.