An international trade organisation on Friday condemned the serious and widespread use of child labour and the worsening workers’ basic rights in Zambia.
Children were still toiling in even the worst forms of child labour such as small scale mining operations, agriculture and stone crushing, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU) said in a report released in Brussels.
This was in contravention of two core conventions of the International Labour Organisation on child labour.
”With children working in dangerous occupations including portering, street begging and domestic labour, child labour is a widespread problem in Zambia,” the report said.
The document was released to coincide with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) review of Zambia’s trade policy. The WTO review was produced on October 23 to 25.
The ICFTU represent 157-million workers in 225 affiliated organisations in 148 countries around the world. The ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions.
The ICFTU report stated that there were reports of forced prostitution in Zambia, particularly of children. And women and children trafficking was rife, it said.
”Many officials of municipal workers’ trade unions have been dismissed for union activities.
”Although the right to collective bargaining is recognised in law, and collective bargaining is relatively widespread in practice, a deteriorating situation as regards violation of basic workers’ rights in the private sector, including by multinationals present in the country is also reported.”
The report said women were severely disadvantaged in both employment and education in Zambia, including in terms of lower remuneration and inferior conditions of employment for working women.
”Without concerted efforts on behalf of the Zambian government to respect the eight core labour standards to which they have repeatedly agreed and with the scourge of Aids looming large, improvement for the beleaguered population looks distinctly far off,” report said. – Sapa