Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Ghana (Ratification: 2011)

Article 1 of the Convention. National policy and application of the Convention in practice. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that it has implemented several concrete measures within the framework of the National Plan of Action – Phase II on Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour 2017–21 (NPA2), including: (i) sensitization and awareness-raising (over 2 million people reached in 2021); (ii) capacity-building of various stakeholders, including Community Child Protection Committees (CCPCs), law enforcement agencies, parents, teachers and children (over 150,000 beneficiaries in 2021); and (iii) measures aimed at improving school enrolment and retention. The review of the NPA2, which has elapsed, has not yet been completed, and there are discussions on the possibility of either extending its implementation or elaborating a new plan of action. The Committee requests the Government to take measures to ensure that the NPA2 is either extended or that a new plan of action is elaborated. It requests the Government to provide information on the progress achieved and on the impact of the new or revised plan of action on the progressive elimination of child labour. Finally, the Committee once again requests the Government to continue to provide information on the application of the Convention in practice, in particular up-to-date statistical data on the number of children and young persons below the minimum age of 15 who are engaged in child labour, and information on the nature, scope and trends of their work. To the extent possible, this information should be disaggregated by age and gender.

Article 3(1) and (2). Minimum age for admission to hazardous work and determination of hazardous work. With regard to the determination and adoption of the list of hazardous types of work prohibited to children under the age of 18 years, the Committee refers to its detailed comments under the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).

Article 7(3). Determination of light work activities. The Committee notes the Government’s information that the list of light work activities permitted to young persons between the ages of 13 and 15 is included in the new Hazardous Activities Framework (HAF), which will be submitted as a legislative instrument to Parliament for consideration. The Committee expresses the firm hope that the list of types of light work activities and the conditions of light work permitted for young persons between the ages of 13 and 15, as required by Article 7(3) of the Convention, are duly integrated into the new HAF, and requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that the HAF is adopted into law in the near future. It requests the Government to provide information on the progress made in this regard, as well as a copy of the new HAF, once adopted.

Labour inspectorate. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes that the International Trade Unions Confederation, in a communication dated 1 September 2022 and submitted to the Committee for examination of Ghana’s application of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), observes that the labour inspection continues to be underfinanced and insufficiently manned, and that inspectors do not have adequate training and capacity to eliminate child labour issues.

In this regard, the Committee takes note of the Government’s information regarding the measures taken to reinforce the Labour Inspectorate. In particular, the Committee notes that the functioning and capacity of the Labour Inspectorate are strengthened through the Ghana Employment and Social Protection (GESP) project, in the framework of which the resources of the Labour Inspectorate were strengthened and labour inspectors were trained in various skills required to improve their operations and reporting, including on how to identify child labourers and refer them to the Department of Social Welfare for follow-up action. The Government indicates that 75 labour inspectors received additional training on inspections in the informal sector leading to 520 inspections, that a data collection exercise on these inspections began this year, and that the statistics collected will be communicated to the Committee in subsequent reports. Furthermore, the Committee notes the Government’s information, under Convention No. 182, according to which the Trade for Decent Work (T4DW) project of the European Union, supported the training of new labour officers and representatives of the office of the Attorney-General on the prosecution of child labour cases and other violations at the workplace. The Committee strongly encourages the Government to continue strengthening the capacity and functioning of the Labour Inspectorate, in order to ensure the effective supervision of the provisions giving effect to the Convention and to expand the reach of the labour inspection services to the informal economy. It requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken in this regard and on the results achieved, including the data collected through the labour inspections that have been conducted in the informal sector and the number of prosecutions of child labour cases facilitated through the support of the T4DW project.