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In certain areas, law and practice in several European Union (EU) member states require further government efforts in order to respect the commitments to fundamental workers’ rights supported by the EU at Singapore in 1996 and Geneva in 1998 in the WTO Ministerial Declarations and in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted in June 1998.

All EU member states have ratified both the main ILO Conventions on trade union rights. In general, trade union rights are respected in law and practice throughout the European Union.

All EU member states except Luxembourg have ratified both the main ILO Conventions in the area of discrimination and equal remuneration. Various mandatory European Union Directives provide for equal pay and equal treatment in employment. However, in all the member states, gender differences are still very pronounced in the labour market. Women workers are concentrated in low-paid work, part-time work and other forms of atypical employment which have increased over the past twenty years, mainly in the service sector. These factors mean that the gender pay gap has been highly resistant to change.

With the exception of Austria, all EU member states have ratified the long-standing ILO Convention on child labour. All EU states have either ratified or expressed an intention to ratify the new Convention on the worst forms of child labour. However, while child labour is not widespread in Europe, unacceptable exploitation of children is occurring in most - if not all - countries to some degree, mainly in the informal sector and in agriculture.

All EU member states have ratified both the main ILO Conventions on forced labour. Forced or compulsory labour is prohibited in all countries of the Union but there is trafficking in women and girls for the purposes of forced prostitution.

The EU further supports respect for core labour standards in its own trading system for access by products of developing countries, its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). Countries engaging in forced labour have been liable to lose their duty-free access to the EU market since 1995, while since mid-1998, countries which respect the ILO standards on freedom of association and the minimum age for employment have been eligible for additional trade preferences.

This report on the respect of internationally recognised core labour standards in the fifteen member countries of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) is one of the series the ICFTU is producing in accordance with the Ministerial Declaration adopted at the first Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (Singapore, 9-13 December 1996) and endorsed at the second WTO Ministerial Conference (Geneva, 18-20 May 1998) in which the Ministers stated: "We renew our commitment to the observance of internationally recognised core labour standards." These standards were further upheld in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted by the 174 member countries of the ILO at the International Labour Conference in June 1998.

This ICFTU assessment of core labour standards in the EU has been prepared to coincide with the WTO’s trade policy review of the European Union on 12 and 14 July 2000. It was prepared in consultation with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the ICFTU’s affiliates in these countries.

The report considers the situation with regard to respect of each of the core labour standards in turn, using a common approach in every case. First, the situation with regard to ratification of ILO conventions in all the fifteen member states is considered. Secondly, more detailed coverage is provided of the situation in those countries where there is a particular problem. Therefore, trade union rights are detailed only in the countries with the most serious problems – notably the UK, Germany and Belgium – while with the other core labour standards, such as discrimination, problems are described in most or all EU member states.

The ratifications by EU member states of ILO Convention No. 87 (1948), Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, and ILO Convention No. 98 (1949), the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, are as follows:

No. 87 No. 98

Austria 1950 1951

Belgium 1951 1953

Denmark 1951 1955

Finland 1950 1951

France 1951 1951

Germany 1957 1956

Greece 1962 1962

Ireland 1955 1955

Italy 1958 1958

Luxembourg 1958 1958

Netherlands 1950 1993

Portugal 1977 1964

Spain 1977 1977

Sweden 1949 1950

United Kingdom 1949 1950

The Employment Relations Bill was passed into law in July 1999. It restored legal rights to recognition for collective bargaining to representative trade unions. It also went some way to restoring other basic rights relating to anti-union discrimination and industrial action which had been removed by the eight pieces of employment law adopted in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The automatic route to recognition contained in the Act is 50-per-cent-plus-one membership in the bargaining unit. Otherwise, a union has to show at least 10 per cent membership in the bargaining unit to trigger a ballot. It has to win a majority in the ballot, and 40 per cent of those eligible to vote must also vote in favour.

The Act makes it unfair to dismiss employees taking part in industrial action for the first eight weeks of a dispute. Previously it had been legal for an employer to sack everyone on strike and - after a limited period - selectively rehire people who had been dismissed. After eight weeks a dismissal will only be fair if the employer has taken all reasonable steps to settle the dispute and has not refused offers of conciliation or mediation.

The new law protects union members against discrimination on the grounds of trade union membership or activities when applying for jobs. It also protects them against discrimination by employers withholding pay increases or other benefits from union members who refuse to opt out of collectively bargained terms and conditions. The ILO has asked the government to make amendments to the original pieces of law.

It will still be possible for an employer to agree individual contracts with employees, even in a workplace where a union is recognised for collective bargaining.

Ballots for industrial action have changed so that a union will no longer have to provide an employer with a list of names and addresses of employees being balloted. Ballot procedures have been simplified.

The two-year qualifying period for protection against unfair dismissal has been halved. Employers can no longer force employees to sign away their rights to protection against unfair dismissal in employment contracts. Employees have gained the right to be accompanied by a trade union representative in disciplinary or grievance procedures.

However, the following aspects of the 1980-1993 laws remain on the statute books:

Extensive interference into trade unions’ internal affairs, in particular by preventing them, under threat of severe fines, from disciplining union members who refuse to take part in legal strikes or who try to persuade other union members not to go on strike, even though a majority has voted for a strike in a ballot. The government has said that it does not intend to repeal this provision.

A narrowed system of legal immunities from prosecution for unions engaged in lawful industrial action. Strikes are limited to disputes that involve union members and their immediate employer. Legal protection for taking part in other forms of industrial action has been removed, making unions liable to crippling fines. It is thus virtually impossible to engage in lawful secondary or sympathy action, protest strikes or other forms of boycott action.

The narrow definition of a trade dispute so that unions cannot strike in situations where their employer, with whom they are in dispute, hides behind a layer of subsidiary companies. The TUC has said that employers have restructured their businesses in order to make primary action secondary. The government has said that it has no plans to legalise secondary action.

The law obliges unions, with few exceptions, to admit individuals or groups of workers into membership whether they wish to or not. This undermines the ability of the TUC and its affiliates to make their own decisions about areas of organisation, and disrupts established patterns in industrial relations.

For several years, employers, influenced by certain specialised lawyers, have made applications to civil courts in order to end strikes, by calling into question acts committed in the course of strikes, such as pickets. Civil court judges have often ruled in the employers’ favour without giving a hearing to the unions. The purpose of this action was to end strikes under threat of massive fines, and to prohibit picketing, on the basis of the employers’ property rights or freedom of access.

There were no improvements in 1999. Several cases were brought before the courts by third parties claiming financial losses because of strikes. These included clients of companies where strikes were taking place as well as public services. The SNCB Belgian Railways went to court in every district with a railway station in order to avoid a strike in December 1999.

Public servants who have civil service status (which includes teachers) cannot go on strike, irrespective of the function they exercise and the sector to which they belong. Many railway and postal workers (including post delivery workers, counter clerks and telephonists in the postal service) are included in this category.

This restriction has been criticised by the ILO Committee of Experts since 1959, as well as by the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association. They have asked the Government to ensure the full implementation of the rights recognised by Convention No. 87, including the right to strike. The Committee on Freedom of Association has also asked the government to ensure that teachers with civil service status have the right to bargain collectively. In 1999 the government said that it had launched a pilot project with trade union participation which aimed at extending participation rights.

The ratifications by EU member states of ILO Convention No. 100 (1951), Equal Remuneration, and Convention No. 111 (1958), Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) are as follows:

No. 100 No. 111

Austria 1953 1973

Belgium 1952 1977

Denmark 1960 1960

Finland 1963 1970

France 1953 1981

Germany 1956 1961

Greece 1975 1984

Ireland 1974 1999

Italy 1956 1963

Luxembourg 1967 ------

Netherlands 1971 1973

Portugal 1967 1959

Spain 1967 1967

Sweden 1962 1962

United Kingdom 1971 1999

The wage structure is marked by a clear discrimination against female workers. The OGB trade union centre has said that the amount of damages payable as compensation for violations of the principle of equal treatment in employment are insufficient, and has questioned whether some of the Austrian states were fully implementing the Equality of Treatment Act in the fields of agriculture and forestry. Women remain underrepresented in the civil service especially in high-level posts.

There is still a considerable gap between men’s and women’s salaries, especially in the private sector where in 1995 women labourers earned 75 per cent of male labourers’ earnings and non-manual women workers earned 67 per cent of the salaries of their male counterparts. Overall, the net average salary for a woman is only 84 percent of the national average salary. The female unemployment rate, 10.9 percent at the end of 1998, exceeds the male unemployment rate of 6.7 percent.

A 1998 government investigation of sexual harassment determined that one out of three women is harassed sexually in the workplace. Sexual harassment is illegal and is covered by a May 1999 revision of the law on equal opportunity in the workplace which stated that sexual harassment can be a form of sexual discrimination.

Denmark

The wage gap between men and women has broadened slightly over the past twenty years owing to the government’s restrictive policy on public sector pay, where almost 50 per cent of the female labour force works, which has resulted in increasing differentials between the public and the private sectors. The higher level of unemployment among women has also been a contributing factor.

In Finland, women’s incomes remain lower than those of men. Women's average earnings are 81 percent of those of men, and women still tend to be segregated in lower paying occupations. For several years the trade union centres have expressed their concern over the lack of significant progress in this respect. Other important equality issues are division of labour market according to sex, women’s low representation in decision-making and unequal rights pertaining to family policy. The SAK trade union centre has said that the percentage of women part-time workers among its members had risen considerably in the 1990s, although the majority of these women did not wish to work part-time. The trade union AKAVA also noted that 53 per cent of women under 30 years of age with a degree were employed on temporary and fixed-term contracts in 1996, as opposed to 33 per cent of men.

Few women hold top jobs in Finland. While women individually have attained leadership positions in the private and public sectors, there are disproportionately fewer women in top management jobs. Industry and finance and some government ministries remain male dominated. The SAK trade union centre has further expressed concern that the penalties against discrimination in employment are not large enough to have a preventive effect. Discrimination on the grounds of employment with regard to wages and other working conditions, concerning the treatment of part-time or temporary workers, is of great significance in the contemporary labour market in Finland.

There are sizeable gaps in both the private and the public sector between men’s and women’s earnings. Reports by various governmental organisations indicate that men continue to earn more than women, and unemployment rates continue to be higher for women than for men. A report released in September 1999 by National Assembly Deputy Catherine Genisson indicates that in the 5,000 largest French firms, the average difference in salary between men and women is 27 percent.

There are reports of difficulties in implementing laws prohibiting sex-based job discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. The scope of the law has been criticised for being too narrow and the fines and compensation as being too low.

There are continuing pay differentials between men and women. The DGB trade union centre has attributed this to the many forms of indirect wage discrimination which need to be eliminated and require action in the legislative and political spheres is many areas, such as education, social insurance and family policy, and the promotion of women and employment policy. In June 1999 the government adopted a national platform of action, "Women and Occupation," containing regulations to promote the equality of women and men in the workplace, including equal opportunity plans with binding quotas for women in employment and vocational training within the jurisdiction of the federal administration; a mandatory government report on the development of earnings and the economic situation of women during every legislative period; and measures to promote vocational training of women in information technology.

Greece

The National Statistical Service's most recent data, from 1998, show that women's salaries in manufacturing were 70.8 percent of those of men in comparable positions; in retail sales, women's salaries were 88 percent of those of men in comparable positions. The GSEE trade union centre reports that women receive lower salaries overall than men because they are hired for lower-level jobs. Although there are still relatively few women in senior positions, in recent years women have entered traditionally male-dominated occupations such as the legal and medical professions in larger numbers. However, women still face discrimination when they are considered for promotions in both the public and private sectors. According to the women's section of the GSEE, 58.6 percent of the country's long-term unemployed are women, while women constitute only 38 percent of the work force.

The GSEE women's section reports that sexual harassment is a widespread phenomenon, but that women are discouraged from filing charges against perpetrators by family members and co-workers. Lawsuits for sexual harassment are very rare: only four women have filed such charges in the past 3 years. In all four cases, the courts imposed very lenient civil sentences.

Laws mandating the hiring of disabled people in public and private enterprises are poorly enforced, particularly in the private sector.

Discrimination against women in the workplace is unlawful, but inequalities persist regarding pay and promotions in both the public and the private sectors. Women hold about 43 percent of public sector jobs but are underrepresented in senior management positions. According to 1998 statistics, women's earnings have increased more rapidly than men's since 1985, albeit from a lower starting point. The weekly earnings of women in industry still averaged only 65 percent of those of men in 1998. Research commissioned by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) found that 61 per cent of low-paid workers are women.

A government report, issued in October 1999, found that at least 50 percent of state-sponsored bodies have no guidelines for dealing with sexual harassment and no policy on equal opportunity.

There is no law to protect persons with disabilities from discrimination in employment and 80 per cent of them are unemployed.

The wage gap persists in Italy. According to research conducted by the CGIL, women's salaries are 20 percent lower than men's for comparable work. The trade union confederations CGIL-CISL-UIL said that one of the main factors responsible were the greater family responsibilities assumed by women.

Women are underrepresented in many fields, such as management and the professions. The National Council for Economy and Labour (CNEL) reports that in 1998, 3 percent of executives in large firms were women, a figure that rose to 5 percent in mid-size firms and 8 percent in small firms. In the public sector they are concentrated in low-paid positions. The ILO Committee of Experts has reminded the government that it must ensure that the principle of equal pay is in fact being applied in the public sector. The law does not specifically prohibit sexual harassment although many collective agreements do address the problem.

In 1999 male unemployment was 9.6 percent, while female unemployment was 16.8 percent. Youth unemployment (ages 15 to 24) was 30.2 percent for men (53.5 in the south) and 39.0 percent for women (66.9 in the south).

Legislation in Italy with regard to discrimination against disabled people is very positive, with requirements stipulating that disabled people should make up 15 per cent of the workforce where there are at least 35 workers. However, compliance with this and other laws protecting disabled people is only partial.

Luxembourg is the only EU state not to have ratified Convention No. 111 on Discrimination. It is also one of the four EU member states with the widest gender pay gap. According to government reports, women are paid from 9 to 25 percent less than men for comparable work, depending on the profession, with the greatest differences in lower paying professions. This may be due partly to the fact that almost 90 per cent of women are employed in the service sector, which has the highest rate of part-time employment in the European Union.

The participation of women in the labour market has increased significantly in the last 25 years, from 34 percent of the working-age female population in the mid-1970's to 54 percent in 1999. However, about 42 percent of women hold part-time jobs. In 1998 the government passed a law that prohibits employers from treating part-time workers differently from those in full-time jobs.

According to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, the difference in earnings between men and women remains at 24 percent. Women often have less chance of promotion than their male colleagues. They often hold lower level positions than men, mostly because of their part-time status. The FNV trade union centre has said that the various forms of flexible employment, which are undertaken mainly by women, are a primary source of pay inequality.

The law requires employers to take measures to protect workers from sexual harassment. Research shows that about 245,000 women, or 6.6 percent of the female working population, are confronted with sexual intimidation in the work place each year.

The government has made some effort to eliminate discrimination in employment, particularly by implementing legislation on equality of opportunity and treatment of men and women in employment. However the UGT trade union centre says that compliance is inadequately monitored and there is still unequal treatment in employment. Women’s earnings are lower than those of men.

While the law mandates equal pay for equal work, a 1997 report by the Economic and Social Affairs Council shows that women's salaries still remain 27 percent lower than those of their male counterparts. The CC.OO. and the UGT say that this is due to indirect discrimination based on an under-valuation of the work carried out by women. There is also a tendency for women to be employed on temporary contracts and part-time.

The Minister of Social Affairs reports that women constitute 43 percent of the work force. However, according to the Taxation Agency (Agencia Tributaria) and its 1997 report "Employment, Salaries and Pensions", women hold only 18 percent of better paying positions. The female unemployment rate, at about 30 percent, is roughly double the male unemployment rate.

The UGT says that enforcement of laws on non-discrimination in employment remains inadequate. It has said that irrespective of ability and training, women are denied promotions to certain posts traditionally held by men. A 1998 study of 100 trade union contracts revealed that 38 contracts failed to use gender-neutral language, 22 employed gender-specific job titles resulting in the imposition of discriminatory wage differentials (i.e., the salary of a male secretary, "secretario," is 13 percent higher than that of a "secretaria" in one food processing industry contract), and only 17 addressed the problem of sexual harassment. A 1989 law prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace, but very few cases have been brought to trial under this law.

The UGT has also criticised discrimination in employment against young workers engaged in the new form of apprenticeship contracts, and people infected with the HIV virus.

Some 80 per cent of rural women are not formally employed but aid their husbands in farming or fishing. These women lack titles to family enterprises and do not receive the same social security benefits as the male head of household.

In Sweden, the sex-based wage gap has widened over the past two decades. According to Statistics Sweden, women's salaries were 83 percent of men's salaries in 1997. Taking into account differences in age, education, and occupational groups between men and women, the adjusted result is still on average 93 percent of men's salaries.

Pay differentials exist in both the private and public sectors. They have been attributed to the sex segregated labour market in which men are overwhelmingly employed in higher-paid jobs, individualised wage-setting which probably has been more favourable to men, and cuts in social sector jobs.

The law prohibits sexual harassment. During 1998 the law was amended to specify clearly employer responsibility to prevent and - if applicable - to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace and to formulate and post a specific policy and guidelines for the workplace. Employers who do not investigate and intervene against harassment at work can be obliged to pay damages to the victim.

To combat gender discrimination in the longer term, the equal opportunities act requires all employers, both in the public and private sector, actively to promote equal opportunities and for employers with 10 employees or more to prepare an annual equal opportunities plan.

Women’s average hourly earnings are lower than those of men. According to the Equal Opportunities Commission, women working full time earn approximately 20 percent less than their male counterparts in similar positions. Progress towards equality of pay for equal work has been limited, with only an 8 percent increase in relative pay in the past 25 years. The introduction of the national minimum wage in April 1999 should constitute an important tool in the effort to equalise pay.

No law specifically prohibits sexual harassment. Civil suits concerning sexual harassment and discrimination on the basis of gender sometimes take up to 3 and a half years to appear before an industrial tribunal.

The ratifications by EU member states of ILO Convention No. 138 (1973), Minimum Age, and ILO Convention No. 182 (1999), the Worst Forms of Child Labour, re as follows:

No. 138 No. 182

Austria ------ ------

Belgium 1988 ------

Denmark 1997 ------

Finland 1976 2000

France 1990 ------

Germany 1976 ------

Greece 1986 ------

Ireland 1978 1999

Italy 1981 2000

Luxembourg 1977 ------

Netherlands 1976 ------

Portugal 1998 2000

Spain 1977 ------

Sweden 1990 ------

United Kingdom 2000 2000

Austria has taken steps with a view to ratification Convention No. 138 without indication of an expected date.

All EU member states have stated their intention to ratify Convention No. 182.

In Portugal, the minimum age for the employment of children was raised to 16 years (from 15 years) on 1 January 1997. The government also introduced laws to make nine years of schooling mandatory.

Child labour is found all over Portugal but especially in the north. The greatest problems are reported in Braga, Porto, and Aveiro. Children are often employed by small businesses. They are used in less skilled jobs and paid at piece rates. In particular, the metallurgy, tourism, textiles, clothing, footwear and wood industries, as well as agriculture and commerce, have been found to use child labour. The construction industry uses children to perform hazardous work on construction sites. Children are employed in the ceramics industry to carry and work clay and to paint pottery. Children also work in domestic service and on the streets carrying out various forms of activity.

One study in 1998, conducted by the government in conjunction with the ILO, found there to be as many as 40,000 children under the age of 16 engaged in some form of labour. The study estimated that some 11,000 children were working for non-family employers, about 0.2 percent of the labour force. Many children work between 10-14 hours a day. Some start at 7 am and return at 11 pm or midnight. They often work in illegally established enterprises and are fired when they get older. There are reports that some of these children are abused by employers and many suffer serious mental and psychological damage.

In 1993-94 the government began to step up its enforcement of child labour laws and in September 1996, the government created a new inter-agency Commission to Combat Child Labour (CNCTI). The Commission can impose heavy fines on employers with children on the payroll; subsidise vulnerable families with children; and change school curricula with the aim of keeping children in school. It also works with two NGOs, the National Confederation of Action on Child Labor (CNASTI) and the Institute of Support for Children (IAC). The Commission is also charged with upgrading the General Labour Inspectorate which is responsible for enforcing child labour laws. However, the Inspectorate itself acknowledges that the transfer of work involving children from factories and workshops into the home and other settings beyond the reach of inspectors complicates the task of accurately measuring and stopping child labour violations. In March 1999, the Council of Europe announced that the European Committee of Social Rights, made up of independent experts, would investigate the effectiveness of the government’s efforts to eradicate child labour.

In Italy, with limited exceptions, the law forbids employment under 15 years of age. The law is enforced in the formal economy with few exceptions. In the extensive informal or underground economy, enforcement of the minimum age laws is not so effective.

Estimates of the number of child workers are therefore difficult and there are no official data on child labour in Italy. According to a study by the CGIL trade union centre, the total ranges around 300,000 with 60% of the children working full-time and 40% part-time or seasonally. About 20% work with parents or other relatives. Around 40% of these children play truant from school in order to work. Child labour is present both in the most industrialised regions in the North and North-east of Italy and in the Southern regions with the highest rate of unemployment. Each year around 1,000 accidents at work affect children. A 1998 study reported that labour inspectorates often saw their job as pointless because when small factories were closed down because they employed children, they merely relocated and started up again as before.

Some other studies have estimated the numbers of working children in Italy to be lower. The National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) is engaged in discussions with the social partners on establishing common criteria to understand the dimension of the child labour phenomenon in Italy.

Outworking is a significant form of exploitation of children and the shoe industry is a major area where the informal economy operates in thousands of small, scattered workplaces, making law enforcement difficult.

Some reports indicate that the problem of child labour is more serious in Southern Italy, as poverty and social exclusion is higher and school attendance is lower (in Sicily and Sardinia around 12% of children leave school during the 1^st of the 3 years of secondary compulsory school). The presence of both small-scale crime and of organised crime weakens law enforcement, including labour laws and labour inspections, and so creates an environment conducive to child labour. There is a demand for child labour in small industrial workshops and in agriculture which are neither registered nor regulated, and where children work in unhealthy and unsafe conditions. The leather industry is considered particularly hazardous.

There is evidence of cases of direct involvement of organised crime concerning children smuggled into Italy from the former Yugoslavia to work as forced labourers in mafia-style gangs where they are trained and then sold into crime rings in large cities; the same happens to young Albanian girls who are forced into crime-controlled prostitution rings.

Many child workers are immigrants, from Northern Africa, the Philippines, Albania, and increasingly China in recent years. ISTAT and the Ministry of Labour are seeking to calculate the numbers involved. According to the Carabinieri, an estimated 30,000 illegal Chinese work in sweatshop conditions near Florence, with many minor children working alongside the rest of their families to produce scarves, purses, and imitations of various brand name products. Many of these factories are run by an emerging Chinese mafia and are equipped with escape tunnels to thwart labour inspectors.

The Government, employers associations, and unions signed a charter in April 1999 that included: the extension of compulsory education; better enforcement of school attendance regulations; programmes to reduce the number of school dropouts; more prompt assistance to families in financial difficulty; further restrictions on exceptions to the minimum age law; and cancellation of all economic or administrative incentives for companies found to make use of child labour, including doing so abroad. The Prime Minister's office provided a toll-free telephone number to report incidents of child labour.

Unions are also engaged in promoting the conversion of enterprises from informal and illegal activities to formal one through agreements which create the conditions for a gradual enforcement of labour laws and national contracts, and a stronger monitoring system by the Labour Inspectorate.

The UK’s minimum age laws require children to attend school until they are 16, under which age they cannot work in an industrial enterprise.

However, reports by the British trade union centre the TUC have drawn attention to the scale of the problem of child labour in the UK. In total, there are estimated to be some two million children who combine school with regular employment. The TUC criticised the previous UK government for delaying the implementation of the 1992 European Directive on the Protection of Young People at Work, which should have been implemented in national law by EU member states by June 1996.

A number of surveys carried out over the past ten years have found that around 40 per cent of children aged between 13-15 have some type of part-time employment which is usually unregistered, and often illegal. One study in North-east England by the Low Pay Unit found that 44% of children at work had suffered an accident during their employment, and that a quarter of the children at work were under 13. UNICEF has said that the growth of the service sector and the quest for a flexible workforce has contributed to the expansion of child labour in the UK.

A Council of Europe 1997 report said that in the UK around 50% of children aged between 13-15 were engaged in some kind of part-time employment, most of them working illegally without formal registration, and thus without an assessment of whether their employment is exploitative.

Child prostitution is a major problem in the UK and a common source of income for homeless children. Many missing children are at risk. There are also a large number of street children in large UK cities who live and work under extremely hazardous conditions at high risk of abuse and criminalisation. Conditions of children working in agriculture have also been noted as problematic. The Council of Europe states that for poor families in the UK, the income from child work can make an important contribution to the household budget.

In Spain the minimum age for employment is 16. It is generally enforced effectively in the service sector and in major industries, but is more difficult to control on small farms and family-owned businesses.

Children are particularly engaged in work in subcontracting businesses, in particular in the shoe industry, and in family businesses including shops, bars, agricultural jobs and street markets. Other children work on the streets, cleaning shoes, selling, cleaning car windows at traffic lights, collecting cardboard and refuse, begging and in prostitution. In 51 per cent of the cases surveyed the reason the children worked was to increase low family incomes. In 14.4 per cent of cases their parents pushed them into work. Most of them began to work before they were ten years old and another third between the ages of 11 and 14.

Seasonal harvest work in Spain and by Spaniards in France frequently takes children out of school for months at a time.

The minimum age for employment in France is 16 with the exception of some apprenticeships. The law is enforced and generally protects children.

Adult unemployment has been accompanied by a significant increase in work by young children in the informal economy such as street hawking; service activities (cleaning car windscreens), and distribution of publicity. The CFDT trade union centre says that there is no legislation on the minimum age for employment of domestic employees; children of farmers can work from the age of 12 under the surveillance of their parents, and the procedures for legal exemptions allowing for the participation of children in artistic performances and modelling agencies are inadequate and ineffective.

The minimum age for employment in the industrial sector is 15. The minimum age for employment is 12 in family businesses, theatre and the cinema, families in agriculture, food services and merchandising, which in itself is a violation of ILO Convention No. 138. But even this law is not respected and often such concerns have family members under the age of 12 assisting them, at least part-time. Reports exist of child labour in the tannery sector

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of street children who peddle at city road junctions on behalf of adult family members or criminal gangs.

The economic exploitation of children is serious in the European Union as well as in the rest of the world. While child labour is not widespread, unacceptable exploitation of children is occurring in most - if not all - countries to some degree, mainly in the informal sector and in agriculture. Much, if not most of European child labour has not yet been documented properly. There is a compelling need for further research in this area, as well as a strengthened political commitment to eradicating the problem.

IV    Forced Labour

The ratifications by EU member states of ILO Convention No. 29 (1930), the Forced Labour Convention, and ILO Convention No. 105 (1957), Abolition of Forced Labour are as follows:

No. 29 No. 105

Austria 1960 1958

Belgium 1944 1961

Denmark 1932 1958

Finland 1936 1960

France 1937 1969

Germany 1956 1959

Greece 1952 1962

Ireland 1931 1958

Italy 1934 1968

Luxembourg 1964 1964

Netherlands 1933 1959

Portugal 1956 1959

Spain 1932 1967

Sweden 1931 1958

United Kingdom 1931 1957

In addition to the specific problems noted below, it should be emphasised that in the majority of EU member states, trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of forced prostitution is a problem.

France

The ILO Committee of Experts has commented on several aspects of French law and practice in respect to forced labour of prisoners made available to private enterprises, in particular the lack of an employment contract and exclusion from coverage by labour law. It has recommended an improvement in their wages and working conditions.

Germany has been criticised for many years by the ILO Committee of Experts for hiring prisoners to private enterprises without their formal consent, without implementing provisions of the law which allows for an increase in their wages, and without including them under social security coverage.

The Committee of Experts has drawn attention to the lack of a free employment relationship in cases where some of the work done by prisoners is carried out in workshops run by private enterprise. This include taking into account the wishes of the prisoners, their pay, and coverage by unemployment insurance and other social security provisions.

Greece has been criticised by the ILO Committee of Experts for a 1974 law in respect to civilian planning for a state of emergency under which citizens can be fully or partially mobilised even in peace time. The government has indicated its intention to change the law but there are no reports that it has done so.

Ireland has been the subject of attention from the ILO Committee of Experts because persons who freely enlisted in the defence forces at an age lower than 18 cannot resign from the service on reaching 18.

Spain

Spain’s Prison Regulations, revised in 1996, according to which prison labour is mandatory, have been criticised by the ILO Committee of Experts because they do not establish that work by prisoners in private enterprises is voluntary..

The ILO Committee of Experts has criticised compliance with provisions of the convention in respect to prison labour where prisoners perform work for private enterprises (whether they are held in state-run or privately-run prisons) but not in conditions of a free employment relationship. The report of the Committee for 2000 was again strongly critical of the government’s position on this issue. In the June 2000 discussion in the ILO Conference Committee on the Application of Standards, the TUC trade union centre pointed out that prisoners were required to work or be put on report, which reduced their chances of early release, and so hardly had a free choice in the matter. The prisoners received between 8 and 20 per cent of the minimum wage in force outside prisons. The Conference Committee in its conclusions again called for the government to ensure that any prison work was carried out in conformity with ILO Convention No. 29.

The EU supports respect for core labour standards in its trading system for access by products of developing countries, its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). Countries engaging in forced labour have been liable to lose their preferential access to the EU market since 1995. In June 1995, the ICFTU and the ETUC filed a joint submission concerning forced labour in the country of Burma, as a result of which Burma was excluded from the EU’s GSP by a Decision of the EU Council of Ministers on 24 March 1997. A similar submission concerning forced labour in Pakistan remains pending before the EU’s Generalised Preferences Committee.

Since mid-1998, countries which respect the ILO standards on freedom of association and the minimum age for employment have been eligible for additional trade preferences. Further details are available in the ICFTU report indicated in the references.

EU external trade policy regarding its GSP for developing countries provides an important link to respect for core labour standards in the areas of forced labour, freedom of association and child labour. At the same time, in certain areas law and practice in several European Union member states require further government efforts in order to respect the commitments to fundamental workers’ rights supported by the European Union in the Singapore WTO Ministerial Declaration and in the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

There remain problems with regard to the right to freedom of association in some EU countries which have not yet been fully tackled, requiring further changes to the labour laws in those countries on the basis of the recommendations formulated by the trade union centres concerned.

All EU member states still face serious discrimination against women and need to step up their actions to comply with the ILO conventions on non-discrimination and promote equality for women.

Many, if not all EU countries still have problems with child labour in the informal sector, although efforts to eradicate it are underway. There is a compelling need for further research into the extent of child labour in EU member states.

Those EU member states which use prisoners to work for private enterprises in violation of ILO Convention No. 29 must cease such practices.

A major effort is required to prevent trafficking in women and girls for forced prostitution.

Consistent with the commitments accepted by the European Union at the Singapore WTO Ministerial Meeting and the obligations of EU countries as members of the ILO, the EU member states should therefore, where necessary, report to the ILO on their intentions in order to bring their labour laws into conformity with internationally recognised labour standards in the area of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. The WTO should also request the ILO to intensify its work with the member governments of the European Union in the areas of discrimination and child labour.

Furthermore, EU member states should ratify all ILO core labour standards, meaning that Austria should ratify ILO Convention 138 without delay, Luxembourg should ratify Convention No. 111 and that all the EU states that have not yet ratified Convention 182 should do so in the shortest possible time.

 

 

 

 

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CFDT, Syndicalisme (weekly journal), various editions.

CGIL, CISL and UIL, various information.

Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Report on combating child labour exploitation as a matter of priority, 1997

Education International (EI), Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998.

European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), various reports including Child Labour in Europe (minutes of April 2000 seminar).

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Force Ouvrière, Femmes, Egalité, 1999.

ICFTU, Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights, editions from 1995 – 2000 (forthcoming).

ICFTU, No Time to Play - Child Workers in the Global Economy, 1996.

ICFTU, Trade Union World (monthly journal), various editions.

ICFTU/ ETUC/ WCL, Assessment of new European Union (EU) Regulation on Special Incentive Arrangements for labour rights and environmental protection, 1999.

ILO, Convenio sobre las peores formas de trabajo infantil (press release), 2000.

ILO, Lists of Ratifications by Convention and by country, 2000.

ILO, Reports of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, editions from 1990 to 2000.

ILO, Reports of the Committee on Freedom of Association, recent years.

ILO, Reports of the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards, recent years.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mainstreaming Equality, 1998.

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SAK, Gender Equality, Work Organisation and well-being, 1998.

SETCa, Vos droits, 2000.

TCO, Work, Pay, Power: equality between women and men on the Swedish labour market, 1995.

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Country Organisation

Austria Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund (ÖGB)

Belgium Fédération générale du Travail de Belgique (FGTB)

Denmark Landsorganisationen i Danmark (LO)

Funktionaerernes og Tjenestemaendenes Faellesrad (FTF)

Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC)

Finland Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö (SAK) r.y.

AKAVA r.y.

Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK)

France Confédération générale du Travail - Force Ouvrière (CGT-FO)

Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT)

Germany Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB)

Great Britain Trades Union Congress (TUC)

Greece Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE)

Ireland Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU)

Italy Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori (CISL)

Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL)

Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL)

Luxembourg Confédération générale du Travail du Luxembourg (CGTL)

Netherlands Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV)

Portugal Uniâo Geral de Trabalhadores (UGT-P)

Spain Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT)

Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO)

Spain Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos(STV-ELA)(Basque Country)

Sweden Landsorganisationen i Sverige (LO)

Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation (TCO)

Swedish Association of Professional Associations (SACO)