Child labor in Mexico worries the United States; 28 million dollars will be invested to combat it

During her visit to Mexico, the United States Undersecretary of Labor, Julie Su, announced the investment of $28 million (MDD) to combat child and forced labor, as well as strengthen the rights of Mexican workers in the north and south of the country.

According to Undersecretary Su, $5 million will be allocated to curb child labor, forced labour and working conditions that are not optimal for workers in Baja California, Baja California Sur and Chihuahua, through Social Accountability International.

In addition, with the participation of the International Labour Organization, a 13 million million project will be created to combat child labour in southern Mexico, mainly in Chiapas, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. It will also seek to reduce trafficking in persons with countries in Central America.

Similarly, an amount of 10 million dollars will be awarded to the international organization Solidarity Center, in order to “promote trade union democracy and strengthen worker representation”. In this way, the aim is to improve collective agreements for wage increases and working conditions in the industrial sector.

According to the National Child Labour Survey (ENTI), in 2019 there were about 3.3 million girls and boys aged 5 to 17 who were in conditions of child labour in Mexico, representing 11.5% of the population in that age group. 61% were men (2 million) and 39% women (1.3 million).

Of that total, 1.8 million were working in an “unpermitted occupation”; 1.3 million were engaged in exclusively domestic duties “in unsuitable conditions” and 262,000 were engaged in “unpermitted occupation under unsuitable conditions”.

31.6% were engaged in agricultural activities; 24.5% were engaged in construction, mining and industry; 14% were trade; 7.9% were street vendors, while 5.6% performed personal services and 5.4% were domestic work. The states that concentrate the highest percentage of child labor are Oaxaca, Puebla, Chiapas, Michoacán and San Luis Potosí.

If this trend continues, the figures could increase to 5.5% due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the US Department of Labor.

According to the Federal Labour Act (LFT), it is forbidden to employ persons under 18 years of age within the family circle in activities that threaten their health, safety or morality.

In this regard, the US official also held a meeting with Luisa Alcalde, head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (STPS), and extended an invitation to Mexico to join the Multilateral Association for Organization, Workers' Empowerment and Rights (M-Power for its acronym in English), which is a multilateral initiative to guarantee trade union rights in the world economy.

It should be recalled that on February 23, the Senate approved a minute to amend article 176, section II, paragraph 8 of the LFT in order to legalize the work of adolescents aged 15 to 17 years in the agricultural sector (if there is no heavy machinery), against which the Save the Children association in Mexico ruled against it because it would affect the integrity of minors.

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