Child labour/Forced labour

Forced labour is any work or service performed against a person’s will under the threat of punishment. Found increasingly in the private economy in labour intensive and under-regulated sectors such as construction, agriculture, fisheries, domestic work, and mining as well as in prostitution, more than 12.3 million people are in forced labour today, and almost all countries are affected. (...)

Human trafficking, debt bondage and forced prison labour are a few examples of forms of contemporary forced labour. Trade unions in most countries around the world are campaigning for “Decent Work for all”. We cannot be serious about this if we allow forced labour to thrive. Therefore, the ITUC is leading a Global Trade Union Alliance to Combat Forced Labour and Trafficking in order to promote geographical and institutional commitment and cooperation to eradicate forced labour and human trafficking.

Child labour refers to work for children under the age of 18 that is mentally, physically, socially and/or morally dangerous or harmful and that interferes with their schooling. Forced labour and child labour are closely linked. They occur in the same geographical areas, the same industries and are mainly caused by poverty and discrimination, and up to half of all people in forced labour are children. Forced child labour is one of the worst forms of child labour as stipulated in ILO Convention 182. A working child is not necessarily a forced labourer. As long as the child works voluntarily and free from threat of penalty or coercion, the harm done is in the nature only of child labour, not forced labour.