Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Uganda (Ratification: 2003)

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Article 2(1) and (2) of the Convention. Raising the minimum age for admission to employment or work. The Committee observes that, at the time of ratification of the Convention, Uganda declared 14 years as the minimum age for admission to employment or work. It observes, however, that section 8(2) of the Children (Amendment) Act of 2016, which amends the Children Act, Chapter 59, 1997, sets the minimum age of employment at 16 years of age.

The Committee brings the Government’s attention to Article 2(2) of the Convention, according to which a Member State that has ratified the Convention may subsequently notify the Director-General of the ILO, by declaration, that it specifies a minimum age higher than previously specified. The Committee therefore requests the Government to consider the possibility of notifying the ILO Director-General, with a new declaration, that the minimum age specified at the time of ratification of the Convention has been raised to 16 years.

Articles 3(3) and 6. Admission to hazardous work from the age of 16 years and vocational training and apprenticeship. The Committee once again notes that section 8 of the Employment (Employment of Children) Regulations, 2012, provides that the engagement of a child aged between 12 and 17 years of age in educational training or apprenticeship programmes which are on the list of hazardous work, shall first be approved by a commissioner before they can take part in such work. Section 9 provides that an employer who wishes to employ a child in an apprenticeship shall apply to the commissioner, and that the commissioner shall issue such permits restricting the age, number of hours of work and conditions in which work in this apprenticeship is allowed. The Committee notes that the Government once again indicates that it is developing a Labour Inspectors Guide to ensure that children below 16 years of age are not permitted to undertake education training or apprenticeships in jobs which are on the list of hazardous work under the first schedule of the Employment (Employment of Children) Regulations, 2012.

The Committee once again recalls that, under the terms of Article 3(3) of the Convention, national laws or regulations may, after consultation with employers’ and workers’ organizations, authorize the performance of hazardous types of work as from the age of 16 years on condition that the health, safety and morals of the young persons concerned are fully protected and that they have received adequate specific instruction or vocational training in the relevant branch of activity. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide a copy of the Labour Inspectors Guide it refers to, according to which children under the age of 16 are not permitted to undertake hazardous vocational training or apprenticeships. It once again requests that the Government provide information on the manner in which the application of this Guide ensures that children under 16 years of age are not permitted to undertake educational training and apprenticeships which are on the list of hazardous work, and that young persons between 16 and 18 years of age who do undertake such educational training or apprenticeships do so under the safeguards laid out in Article 3(3) of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2024 .]