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Hewer · Centurion Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 545 Location:

Hard labor: Children at risk in brick factories

The prevalence of child labor in Cambodia's brickmaking industry is increasing due to a nationwide construction boom driven by the explosive growth of tourism, experts have told the Post. With funding from the International Labor Organization (ILO), the government plans to launch two programs to eliminate child labor in the brickmaking sector. Next month the campaigns will begin in Kampong Cham, where more than 5,000 children are working in the industry, and Siem Reap, where new hotel projects have spurred demand for inexpensive building materials. "There is a lot of child labor working in brick factories in Phnom Penh, too, but due to limited funding, we can only focus on Kampong Cham and Siem Reap first," said Veng Heang, cabinet director of the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training (MLVT). Additionally, the Australian Embassy-funded PACT Against Child Labor is starting its own program to eradicate child labor in Phnom Penh brick factories. According to Chuon Mom Thol, president of PACT Against Child Labor, there are at least 5,000 children working in more than 55 brick factories around the capital.

Cambodia's Labor Law sets the general minimum working age at 15 years, but allows children aged 12 to 14 to do "light" work that is not hazardous to their health and does not interfere with their schooling. The law sets a minimum age of 18 for work that could be hazardous to health, safety or morality. The ILO classifies brick-making as extremely hazardous work. A recent report by the ILO found that extruding machines in brickworks lack safety devices, and that child workers are often sent inside kilns to remove bricks when the temperature is still dangerously high.

"The working conditions are very bad," the Labor Ministry's Heang said. "It's dangerous to children. They break their legs and feet when moving clay into machines." The horrific and all-too-common injuries inflicted on children working in brick factories are well documented. But even with such knowledge, families and factory owners continue to employ child workers, many of whom receive no compensation when injured, maimed or worse. "I am not sure, but I think it is very unlikely for them to get compensation under the circumstances in Cambodia," said Menacherry Paul Joseph, chief technical adviser to the ILO's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.

In June, a 9-year-old boy lost one of his arms when it was smashed under the stone crusher he was operating at a brick factory. The boy received compensation only after the incident came to the attention of news media and NGOs, according to DanChurchAid (DCA). There have been two other serious child labor accidents in Phnom Penh recently. One victim lost a leg, the other a hand, according to PACT's Mom Thol.
"We asked $5,000 for compensation, but they only gave $3,000,"Mom Thol said. "The children were in the hospital for two months and their employers were held responsible for the medical fees. The victims went back to their home town to run a small business with the money."

According to Mom Thol, employers are often reluctant to pay, and generally claim that they cannot afford to provide compensation. Insurance is not an option. "Now there are fewer accidents in Phnom Penh. Maybe because we told the employers that they had to pay at least US$5,000 for each victim. And last year, 18 factories were fined millions of riels by the government," Mom Thol said.

Heang confirmed that the MLVT has been active in fining child-labor abusers, and that without government intervention compensation is scarce. "Compensation that comes from private discussions is usually limited," he said. "But if the government forces employers [to pay more], it would be a lot."

Khou Heng, owner of a brick factory on Route 6 that produces more than one million bricks every month, said that using children for labor is not cost-effective and that the government has been increasingly vigilant. "Child workers bring many problems," he said. "They are careless and get hurt easily. Before I opened the factory, the government gave me some documents to read to understand the law, so I don't hire child laborers." Heng told the Post that the two brick factories neighboring his hired child labor. The Post saw youngsters working at the factories, but the owners refused to be interviewed. Heng said many children come to his factory to ask for a job and many are obviously lying about their age. Heng employs between 60 and 70 workers. Most of the employees live on the factory grounds with their entire families, including in many cases young children and infants. He insists that the children do not work in the brickworks, but concedes that the environment is both unsafe and unhealthy. "Owners of brick factories usually do not demand that children work, but children who are living in brick factories may help their parents - then accidents occur," Heang said. "Some parents just are not aware of the dangers."

Heng said parents working at his brick factory did not care about their children because they lacked education. The day the Post visited, dozens of children were seen living in his factory with their parents, most were naked and their whole bodies coated by dust, sand and industrial grime. Groups of children ranging from infants to adolescents were playing on and around heavy machinery and close to the searing heat of giant open-fire kilns. "I provide them with clean water to wash their children, but they just don't care," Heng said.

It is also reported that almost 20 percent of child brick-workers said they often got fevers, headaches and coughs. Nearly half of the children said they did not like being a brick-maker. Although the Labor Law forbids children under 15 to do hazardous work, including brick making, "it is only applied to organized factories," Joseph said. The MLVT's Heang agreed: "There is a lack of law control of small enterprises - it's difficult to enforce the law," he said.

Joseph said a law which will cover small household brickworks will be passed soon. Heng said the MLVT would then send out child-labor inspectors to brick factories to withdraw the children. "We will talk things over with their parents and send them to schools," he aid. "Their school fees will be funded by the NGOs. They can finish high school as long as the funding is sufficient."

Phnom Penh Post, July 13th, 2006.
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Hewer · Centurion Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 545 Location:

Believable that it goes on in Cambodia but still shocking all the same.

Sounds like they have some pretty horrific accidents.

I can't believe the Cambodian labour laws allow 12-14 year olds to work in factories. Shocked

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RahulDG · Scribe Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 1218 Location:

Isn't limited to Cambodia ...

In India, extreme poverty in some parts forces (or otherwise causes) parents to "sell" their kids off as bonded laborers, factory workers, and household help ...

The fireworks industry and carpet industry in India are two MAJOR culprits - kids as young as 4 or 5 work for 12 to 13 hours a day ... often with no or very little pay and precious little (if any) nutrition ...

Of course, the law states one has to be 18, recieve fair wages, holidays, bla bla bla but it's followed more in the breach than in actuality.

Sad, but true Sad

.
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Alan Stepney · Centurion Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 853 Location:

Why all the fuss?

In my schooldays, most people left to start work at age 15. (Apart from those who stayed on and went to university.)

Only a few years before, the normal school-leaving age (and hence the age to start work) was 14.

I have several friends who left at 13 and a few who started work aged 12.

We are talking about guys who are still around today, so it isnt that far back in time.
(One of my friends joined the navy when aged 13. Didnt do him much harm as he ended up as an Admiral!)

You dont need to go back many more years to the time when children working at an even younger age was commonplace in most western countries.

Yes, some are exploited and treated badly, but the sort of employer who does that, no doubt treats all their employees badly.
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RahulDG · Scribe Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 1218 Location:

Mike · Site Admin Joined: 07 Sep 2004 Posts: 4512 Location:

no doubt there is a big difference between someone leaving home at 13 to join the navy and someone being sold by their parents to work in a factory.
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Hewer · Centurion Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 545 Location:

Illegal dodgy third-world factories are one thing, but the fact that this is written into law that 12-14 year old can work in a factory in Cambodia is still surprising.

Kids much younger than that work all over the world, just not necessarily legally.
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RahulDG · Scribe Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 1218 Location:

The worse off the country is, the more lax the laws become.
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Hewer · Centurion Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 545 Location:

Alan Stepney · Centurion Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 853 Location:

RahulDG,

There might be a difference of degree, but not of principal.

But, OK. Go back just a very few more years, say, 100 years ago, and we still had 5 year olds working as chimney sweeps.
For that, they had to climb up the inside of the chimney, their clothes or skin, brushing the soot off, and this nearly always with the fire alight below them.
The death rate was horrendous.

It was only WW1 that put an end to such practices,

Let me tell you a story.
When I was in Bangladesh I visited a rural area where young boys were weaving silk which, later was made into saris.
They got paid according to the amount they made, but also on the amounts that were required.
No sales = no work.

There was a group of women, mostly American, campaigning to get all prospective buyers to boycott the place, so that it would close, the kids have no work, and then, according to these women, the kids would be able to go to school and have a normal life.

A total lack or reality!

I bought several lengths of cloth (made me popular with daughters-in-law) in the knowledge that it would give them a little more work, and hence, more income.

(Also had a row with the women, but that is another topic.)

All many people do is complain and condemn the situation, but have no practical suggestions to offer regarding alternative economics etc in the countries concerned.
In time I am sure the practice will end.

Meanwhile, I'm not young enough to reckon I can save the world.
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Hewer · Centurion Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 545 Location:

Going back to pre-1914 just takes away the shock factor I'm afraid.
Neutral

And we have have to go back much longer to find child factory workers in England - this was made unlawful in the 1830s.
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madwolfie · Cohort Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 178 Location:

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Hewer · Centurion Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 545 Location: