HOW
TO HANDLE CHILD LABOR CASES BETTER Financial Guarantees
Clearly the foremost goal should be to prevent child labor, but as has been shown above there are great gaps in how child labor cases have been dealt with and there are surely better ways to handle it. From an auditor’ s perspective, we looked at what was needed in terms of costs and support from brands( or buyers) and third-party“ organizations.
7
HOW
TO HANDLE CHILD LABOR CASES BETTER Financial Guarantees
Clearly the foremost goal should be to prevent child labor, but as has been shown above there are great gaps in how child labor cases have been dealt with and there are surely better ways to handle it. From an auditor’ s perspective, we looked at what was needed in terms of costs and support from brands( or buyers) and third-party“ organizations.
As implied in the Figure 18, if there is no budget in place for factories to take immediate action, it can lead to the possible failure of child labor remediation. Therefore, in order to start the remediation process without delays and to prevent the child from disappearing, there needs to be a specific budget to move the process forward. The majority of auditors( more so in other countries than in China) believe such a budget should include school fees and the child’ s wages until he / she is of legal working age( Figure 19).
“ The factory is supposed to support child’ s education until he / she reaches 15 years of age. It includes school fees and living expenses, but no amount is specified, and it depends on the policy of the brand and the factory”- an auditor from Vietnam.
According to the auditors from China, transportation costs for sending the child home and third-party follow-up are much more needed than in other countries.
Figure 19:
Financial guarantees needed to take immediate action for a successful child labor remediation
80 70 60 50 40 |
71 %
42 %
|
80 %
68 %
|
64 %
75 %
|
52 %
46 %
33 % 35 %
|
Others
China
|
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
20 |
|
|
|
|
|
10 |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
Transportation costs to send the child home |
School fees |
Child’ s wages until he / she is of legal working age |
Costs of third-party follow-up |
Costs for temporary accommodation outside the factory |
19 Best Response: Auditors’ Insights on Child Labor in Asia