Are You Covered by the Law?

I recall that not too long ago, two parents in Hong Kong were charged by the court for pulling their teenage daughter from school. The parents argued that their daughter could not cope in her school and could be better off schooled from home. While their case seems reasonable, they were fined for violating the compulsory education provisions within the law. The verdict, in a controversial way, shows how laws on children’s right to education can be enforced.

But lately, I have begun to learn that in some places, such controversies would not even exist because laws are not sophisticated and comprehensive enough.

Imagine that you are a 13-year-old child in Cambodia. You may be from a very poor family and your parents and siblings depend on your income for basic needs. Or, your family members may not be really poor. But they either perceive themselves as poor or are fearful of poverty in the future. They may think that sending you, a young child, to work can sustainably enhance the well-being of the whole family. In any case, going to school is a financial burden. Instead, you now work several jobs, pounding piles of salt under the scotching sun in the daytime and scavenging in rubbish dumps in the evenings.

Working under excessive heat, wading through junk and working long hours are all harmful activities to a child’s health and physical development. Stopping school for a youngster who has barely finished sixth grade may hamper intellectual development. Yet, believe it or not, in many of these cases, there are no laws that can protect a child from leaving school, entering child labour and even working under hazardous and demeaning conditions.

In Cambodia, Section 1 of the Labour Law of 1997 specifies that it only “governs relations between employers and workers resulting from employment contracts” and that workers are those who have “signed an employment contract in return for remuneration, under the direction and management of another person.” In effect, only those children contracted to work in formal registered businesses are protected by the Labour Law.

Various studies have already shown that many child labourers in Cambodia fall outside the scope of the Labour Law. A 2006 report of Understanding Children’s Work (UCW), a joint ILO, UNICEF and World Bank project, suggests that child labour in Cambodia is most prevalent in the informal economy. Children working as porters, scavengers and beggars often work on a casual basis without fixed employers or contracts. Such informal sector work provides a natural shelter for hazardous working conditions since workplaces are not accessible to the labour inspection regime.

Furthermore, an overwhelming 90 percent of economically active children work as “unpaid family workers.” These children usually work in small-scale enterprises that are home-based and part of the informal economy.

Sometimes, children simply follow their parents to work. In rubber plantations, studies found that parents rely on their children’s efforts to collect more sap and earn higher incomes.

In other cases, children are sent to be child domestic workers and toil within private homes (not their own home). In addition to not having legally bound contracts, these children may not be directly remunerated; the payment may go directly to their parents. At times, children can even be sent to work in order to pay off family debts.

The Labour Law, as it stands, does not cover any of these children. In fact, comparing the Labour Law and the ratified ILO Convention No. 138 (Minimum Age for Admission to Work), one may find that Cambodia’s declared minimum age in the Convention is 14 years old, while the Labour Law applies a stricter standard of 15 years old. This discrepancy implies that among formal, registered businesses, children can be prohibited from work until 15 years old. However, for those children working in informal, unregistered enterprises, there are even no laws to enforce the lower standard of 14 years old. Therefore, there are numerous legislative gaps that should be filled before children are fully protected by law to obtain basic education and to be prohibited from hazardous types of work.

To strengthen legislative frameworks on combating child labour, a separate Child Labour Law may be necessary. The Labour Law by nature covers only formal employment relations and should not delve into the informal economy. It may make no sense to add more and more provisions in child labour there. A separate law that considers the specific concerns and nature of child labour in Cambodia may be more appropriate.

This separate law can then define “employment” or “work” more broadly when children are involved. As an example, child labourers may be entitled to the same benefits and protection in the Labour Law whether under an employment contract or self-employed (without contracts), remunerated directly or not in cash or in kind, including within family undertaking and on means of transportation. Similarly, the definition of “employers” who may be held responsible for using children for work can be expanded to those within the informal economy, including owning home-based or family-oriented businesses. In turn, more of those working children now left out of the Labour Law can be protected by other laws.

Child labour is also closely linked to education issues; in fact, some practitioners would characterize them as “two sides of the same coin.” While it is difficult to make an account of child labourers in the informal economy, tracking children’s enrolment and attendance in school may be more manageable. Also, rather than spending much time and effort to track down shady informal economy employers, it may be easier to give parents, guardians, schools and the government some responsibility to put all children in school. These thoughts render an Education Law necessary. Specifically, laws on compulsory education can be in place to ensure that all children obtain at least 9 years of basic education, say from ages 6 to 15.

Education Law and the Child Labour Law complement each other in various ways. In the medium run, for example, parents who put their young children to work or permit their older children to work in exploitative conditions, as well as employers in the informal and formal economies, can be held responsible for child labour. Schools and the Labour Inspectorate can also become jointly responsible for issuing permits for underage workers (e.g. aged 12-15 years) to perform Light Work. These types of work, based on international law, should not be hazardous and would not interfere with schooling. In these cases, labour inspectors and school administers can jointly monitor whether the child’s working conditions meet legal standards.

An Education Law has been in place in Cambodia since 2008, but until now, its enforcement are still being debated and guidelines (Prakas) to operationalize the law have yet to be drafted. Expediting these debates can certainly accelerate the country’s progress towards achieving Education for All and fulfilling its commitment to eliminate all the worst forms of child labour by 2016.

As Cambodia develops its legislative frameworks on children, children’s education and child labour, it may also be necessary to check for inconsistencies, clarify ambiguities in law articles and their guidelines and set up an effective enforcement machinery.

To conclude this brief discussion on laws on child labour and education, I recently came across a Pamphlet on Child Labour Laws for the state of California in the U.S. I found that the California Labour Code close to 2,000 articles and its Education Code has almost 50,000 provisions. These numbers contrast with a Labour Law of only 389 articles and a non-operational Education Law in Cambodia. It is indeed inconceivable that a 400-article document can protect every worker in all possible economic sectors in the country. In quantitative terms (number of laws, guidelines and articles) and qualitative terms (coverage and enforcement of laws), there surely is still a long way to go.


Further Reading

“Children’s Work in Cambodia: A Challenge for Growth and Poverty Reduction,” Understanding Children’s Work, April 2006.

1997 Labour Law, Royal Government of Cambodia

"Experiences and Lessons Learned on Child Labour Monitoring: Rubber, Salt and Fish Sectors in Cambodia," ILO, June 2005.

"Pamphlet on Child Labour Laws," Division of Labour Standards Enforcement, Department of Industrial Relations, State of California.

A Cultural Experience at Sihanoukville

In Cambodia, they celebrate three New Years -- International New Year (Jan 1), Chinese New Year (on Valentine's Day this year) and Khmer New Year (around April 14 this year). Just before all my colleagues disperse to the provinces to visit their friends and families, we decided to visit Sihanoukville, a rather popular beach area in southern Cambodia, for fun. Here are some great pictures =)

On the way:

My lady colleagues taking a break from the four-hour drive... We stopped in Kampong Speu province and had "wildlife cuisine."

Preparing for the beach:

Cambodia road-trips = FOOD! One cannot do without food when traveling with Cambodians. Our journey was therefore partly occupied by buying food, cooking food and eating food. We stopped by a local market before heading to Sokha beach, one of the beaches owned by the fanciest hotel in the area. These fish product sellers from the market sells anything from grilled fish to fish sauce, fish paste, fish cakes, stir-fried fish, etc. Interesting local tastes.

Durian is a love-it-or-hate-it type of fruit and is a local delicacy. My colleagues would argue whether the durians from Kampong Cham province or Kampot province taste better and bash about durians imported from Thailand ("Buy local product!").

I was used to eating fruits plain. Say, for grapes, I would simply throw them into my mouth. But now I know about the local way for eating fruits; you must dip fruits (mangoes, grapes, apples and other exotic tropical fruits) into a mixture of salt and spices (the red stuff above). Sometimes, stronger sauces such as fish paste and shrimp paste may be used. When asked why they add some many additives into fruits, my colleagues would say that they need to "neutralize the sour taste." I would not approve this practice from the health perspective but that's the local way.

Going to Bamboo Island:

We set off to Bamboo Island, about an hour off the coast of Sihanoukville, at 8am. The boat was quite flimsy and most of life jackets were worn, but as my local colleagues would say, "the more the merrier."

Beautiful scenes from the boat trip:






Other memorable moments:

My colleagues heard about this "shark fin soup" place and thought it would be interested in try this prized Chinese delicacy. But... this "shark fin soup" turns out to be a version of the local "suki-soup" (same as the Chinese hotpot). They gave us a pot of soup and dumped in a few small pieces of shark fin and a few chunks of shark meat -- that's it! Though a bit disappointing, the seafood there is really tasty and fresh. We all ate like pigs.

Sunset in Sihanoukville:

We went to this beach to take pictures of sunset. From afar, we saw a few children running and dancing happily along the water. What were they doing?

They turned out to be scavengers. Waste collecting and scavenging is classified by the government as one of the "worst forms of child labour" and must be eliminated as soon as possible. But the problem is difficult to tackle as many of these children work in the informal economy and are hired only on a casual basis.

These four children said that every weekend, they would walk about 4-5km from their villages to pick rubbish. They earn about US$1 (4,000 riels) for their effort. Their income may supplement some family expenses. But being so far away from home and having no money for transportation place these children at risk. Even these children themselves recall sometimes being chased by strangers -- which some of my colleagues speculate as hand-hunters looking to sell children into the services sector (including working in entertainment, child prostitution, etc.). The look of these few children touched my heart even in the midst of this relaxing trip. There is still so much to do in this country and these poor faces remind us that many children like them are still working in hazardous and demeaning jobs and should be helped to get proper education...


This picture concludes our trip. It was really a cultural experience to travel with my Cambodian colleagues. Most of the time, I stood/sat silently to observe their actions. At times, I would give my Chinese opinion about the "best ways" to do certain things; they would return with unconvinced faces and strange looks. While many Cambodians have Chinese blood, in some ways, they are very Chinese (more Chinese than me). In other ways, they are very un-Chinese. This interesting mixture of cultures is part of why Cambodia is so fascinating to me.