Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Antigua and Barbuda (Ratification: 1983)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous observation, which read as follows:

Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 3, of the Convention. In its previous comments, the Committee drew the Government’s attention to the fact that the provisions of the national legislation respecting the minimum age for admission to employment or work were not in conformity with the age specified by the Government when ratifying the Convention. Indeed, although the Government had specified the minimum age of 16 years when ratifying the Convention, section E3 of the Labour Code provides that no child shall be employed or shall work in a public or private agricultural or industrial undertaking or in any branch thereof, or on any ship, while the term "child", by virtue of section E2 of the Labour Code, means a person under the age of 14 years. The Committee has noted on several occasions that amendments to the Labour Code of 1975 were under examination with a view to bringing the minimum age for admission to employment or work into conformity with the minimum age specified when ratifying the Convention and with the compulsory school-leaving age which, under section 43(1) of the Education Act of 1973, is 16 years of age. The Committee notes that in its last report the Government refers once again to the draft amendment, without indicating whether it has in practice been adopted. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary measures to amend section E2 of the Labour Code so as to define a child as a person under the age of 16 years, which would bring the minimum age for admission to employment or work envisaged in the national legislation into conformity with the minimum age specified by the Government when ratifying the Convention.

Article 4, paragraph 2. The Committee notes that section E3 of the Labour Code provides that the prohibition upon the employment or work of children, that is persons under the age of 14 years (section E2), does not apply to any undertaking or ship on which only members of the same family are employed, to members of a recognized youth organization who are engaged collectively in such employment for the purposes of fund-raising for such organization, nor to a child who is working together with adult members of her or his family on the same work and at the same time and place. It requests the Government to indicate in future reports any changes in law and practice in respect of these categories excluded.

The Committee is drawing the Government’s attention to other matters in a direct request.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.