Bill Aims to Ban Child Labor in Turkey

CHP deputy Süleyman Çelebi submitted a bill proposal regarding the ban of child and adolescent workers under 18 years old in Turkey's labor force.

Describing the child labor as "the most fierce exploitation of labor", the bill proposal underlined that it encouraged employers to cut down expenses for more profit, caused adult workers lose their jobs, and made families economically dependent on their children who should rather be in school. It also claimed that women and child workers were exploited due to lack of adequate legislation.

"With no legal, moral or social criteria we can accept to see a 15 year old adolescent working on night shift or a 13 year old getting killed on a farm.  

Tolls

The bill proposal cited tolls from Turkey's Statistics Institute.

"There are 292,000 child workers between 6 and 14 years old, while the number of child workers between 15 and 17 years old are 601,000. 5.9 percent of children in Turkey engaged in economic activity. Compared to similar statistics in 2006, 3,000 new child workers joined Turkey's workforce. Out of all child workers in Turkey, 50.2 percent cannot go to school.

The bill proposal also cited a report from DİSK-AR, a research institute of Turkey's Progressive Workers' Confederation Union.

"The rise of domestic labor doesn't at all point out that the child labor in general is taking a dive. On the contrary it proves that it got relocated and augmented even more. On the other hand, the number of child workers under more severe conditions has skyrocketed, though the rise of child employment has slowed down a bit," the report said.

Bill proposal

The bill proposed an amendment in Labor Law Article 71, to augment the age limit of children who completed their primary education from 14 to 15.

The bill also stressed that it should strictly be forbidden for children under 18 to work in heavy industrial workplaces such as factories. It underlined that it should not on,y be banned for night shifts but also for all shifts. Otherwise, the bill said, it will encourage child workers to work at night shift after school.

In detail, the bill proposed as follows:

"The absolute prohibition of labor under 15 years old and the prohibition of child labor under 18 years old in industrial workforce." (YY/BM)