With ten years behind, Panama updates the list of the worst forms of child labor. By Executive Decree No. 1 of January 5, 2016, which amended Executive Decree No. 19 of June 12, 2006, the Ministry of Labor and Workforce Development (Mitradel) updates the list of prohibited jobs for minors.
Although the 2006 decree states that every two years should be reviewed worst forms of child labor, it is not until now that the record is updated.
The amendment also seeks to provide greater protection for the rights of young people and gives them the opportunity to learn a trade without leaving the school, says Marisol Lineros, the National Council of Private Enterprise (Conep), part of Committee on the Elimination of Child Labour and Protection of Adolescent Workers, who drafted the new opinion.
«It is an opportunity to ensure a safe work for young people, because the work is not bad, is part of the learning that has in life, the trouble is exploitation and which threatens the integrity and life of the child ‘ stresses Lineros.
The amount of prohibited work remains the same, but in some ways the concepts are simplified and others are more specific.
Linares said that another change is that the prohibitions are not economic activities and sectors, as it was previously.
Thus, he said, minors are allowed, between 14 and 17 years old, do work in areas that had previously been prohibited.
‘Within the same activity, there are things that may or may not make minors’ he said Lineros.
Previously it stated that a dangerous task was ‘working at heights’, but with the new decree this work is prohibited from the 1.80 meters, with or without safety equipment.
Another difference is that the current decree establishes that hazardous work involving exposure to ionizing radiation from industrial activities, spoke previous jobs with exposure to explosive and flammable substance.
The new list was agreed between the various sectors that make up the Committee on the Elimination of Child Labour and Protection of Adolescent Workers.
EXCEPTIONS
The executive order states that restrictions on the list do not apply to work done by children or minors in general schools, vocational or technical education or in other training institutions.
It also creates an exception for young people between 14 and 17 years of the new prohibitions when it comes to ‘activities for purposes of artistic representation’.
Article 3 of the law states that ‘the competent authority may, after consultation with the organizations of employers and workers concerned, individual permits exceptions’. The permits granted limit the number of hours of employment or work and the conditions in which they can perform detailed.
To work, minors between 14 and 17 must obtain a permit to work in the National Anti-Child Labor and Protection of Adolescent of Mitradel.
Young people should take the employment contract and be accompanied by their parents and confirm they are attending school. According to the Labour Code, young people can take six hours working hours in a day than night. According to the latest Survey of Child Labour, 2014 prepared by the Comptroller, Panama registered 26,710 child workers. Eliminating child labor is one of the Millennium Development Goals.
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‘As business sector we are committed to youth development, which has rights such as education and labor, the latter must be regulated’
Source: http://laestrella.com.pa/