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253/981119/DD

Brussels. November 19 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): Child labour and cheap female labour, on which agriculture in West Africa depends, are helping many countries keep their export costs low, according to a new ICFTU report.

The union report on labour standards in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Togo, produced to complement the WTO's trade policy review (Nov 20) points to the extensive use of child labour in the countryside, some of it by children under conditions amounting to slavery. In the short term this helps encourage exports, by reducing the price of agricultural products, says the ICFTU, but in the long term is retarding the countries’ economic development.

For example in Burkina Faso, where there is a very high adult illiteracy rate, particularly in the countryside, many children work on small family subsistence farms rather than going to school. In Mali, where according to trade union research children are working as slaves in the salt mines, adult literacy is 11% for women and 23% for men.

The report found that in Guinea in the rural sector, 66% of children aged 7 to 14 are at work, while in Togo, where the legal minimum age for employment is 14, even very young children are working, particularly in farming and in the informal sector. Children in Togo are also the victims of forced labour, primarily as domestic servants.

The report showed that in all these countries, although the framework of free education and legislation banning child labour is in place, there must be major government efforts to extend education to all. Both in the interests of long-term economic development and for the benefit of the children themselves, policies to combat child labour need to be effective and properly enforced.

The report found that in all four countries studied women workers are strongly discriminated against. This institutionalised sexism, which is reflected in the low wages paid to women workers also has the indirect effect of helping the countries' export drives. In a sector where women are the main labour force, export costs are kept artificially low.

For example, in Burkina Faso women experience discrimination in education, employment and property rights, despite a labour code which explicitly prohibits sexual discrimination. They represent 45% of the work force, predominantly in the rural sector which produces cotton, livestock, fruit, cocoa and coffee for export.

The situation is particularly bad for women in Togo, where a husband may legally oppose his wife's right to work and control her earnings and employers are often reluctant to hire women, especially for higher level positions. In the countryside where most of the population live, women have little time for activities except for agricultural field work and taxing domestic work. In addition, because forced labour is not against the law in Togo, there is trafficking in women for prostitution or domestic service and a failure to protect children from being sold into indentured and exploitative labour amounting to slavery, often finishing up in other African countries, the Middle East and Asia.

To overcome discrimination against women, these countries need to implement legislation and action, particularly in the fields of education and training.

Violation of trade union rights is by far at its worst in Togo, where one trade union leader was murdered shortly after he opposed the privatisation of the pharmaceutical company, from which powerful local financial figures would benefit. In addition, workers in Togo's export processing zones are not adequately protected against anti-union discrimination.

None of the other three countries has an unblemished record on the right to organise or to bargain, either. In Burkina Faso the government has sacked workers for being union members and in Guinea teachers' unions faced mob violence, orchestrated by the government. In Mali, the right to strike is restricted, particularly in the public sector, which has been condemned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The ICFTU says that the WTO should draw these governments' attention to the commitments they made to observe core labour standards at the WTO's ministerial conference and that the WTO General Council should work closely with the ILO to ensure that the countries take steps to bring their legislation and practice in line with core labour standards and report to the WTO on the progress made.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
Boulevard Emile Jacqmain 155, B - 1210 Brussels, Belgium. For more information
please contact: Luc Demaret on: 00 322 224 0212 - press@icftu.org

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