BOTTLENECKS IN CHILD LABOR PREVENTION
4
BOTTLENECKS IN CHILD LABOR PREVENTION
Capacity Gaps
• 74 % of auditors consider hiring procedures to be the common capacity gap in factory HR procedures in terms of child labor
According to an experienced auditor from China, while child labor occurs in about half of the factories due to shortcomings in their hiring procedures, the other half deliberately use child labor to reduce labor costs and find ways to cover it up( for the full story, please refer to appendix 1). It is difficult for us to verify the extent to which factories are“ well intended” but have limited capacity to prevent child labor, or“ carelessly” hire child labor due to lack of commitment. However, Figure 13 shows that the“ hiring procedure” is the number one capacity gap at the factory level in terms of child labor. This indicates a huge potential for improved prevention by assessing risks in factories’ hiring procedures and providing clear guidelines and training to improve the factory procedures to prevent accidental recruitment of child laborers. According to an auditor from China, many factories that accidentally recruited child laborers are in fact grateful that the auditors helped them identify shortcomings in their hiring procedures. This indicates that many factories are willing to improve their practices if more support and guidance is given, instead of a negative audit report only. Closely following“ hiring procedures”, especially in the case of China,“ capacity and means of age verification” and“ child labor awareness” are also major gaps in factories’ HR capacity, which could also be improved with more training and support.
Figure 13:
100
80
60
40
Common capacity gaps at the factory HR level in terms of child labor
All Bangladesh India Vietnam China
20
0
74 % 65 % 63 % 50 % 49 % 31 %
Hiring procedure
Capacity and means of age Verification
Child labor awareness
Insufficient Coordination communication with
/ whistleblowing system production department
Identifying ethical hiring agents / vocational schools
13 Best Response: Auditors’ Insights on Child Labor in Asia