ANNEX II, INFOGRAPHICS 

EMPLOYERS' SECTOR POSITION
CORE IDEAS

Eradication of Child Labour and Abolition of Forced Labour.

  • Not hiring child labour is the right decision. To prevent and remedy the harm caused to children subjected to child labour is mandatory from an ethical and human rights perspective.
  • • Child labour prevents children from studying and training, confining them as adults to less qualified and poorly paid jobs, thus perpetuating the poverty cycle.
  • • Positive aspects: Compliance with the law, risk management improvement, positive impact on markets, and better access to business opportunities.
  • • The State’s responsibility to monitor the effective abidance by the legislation in place on child labour and forced labour. To a large extent voluntary initiatives have extended because legislation on child labour or social dialogue could not eliminate the problem. However, although voluntary monitoring systems are useful, the government should not avoid its responsibility to monitor and control.
  • • Improving institutional quality, particularly in the decentralised levels of provincial, state, and municipal jurisdictions, where employers' organisations play a role in contributing to the eradication of forced labour and the worst forms of child labour through their local representatives and second degree sectoral organisations.
  • • The upper echelons of employers' leadership in the countries of the region should be further sensitised to drive generational change since the input and new visions of younger leaders and business women are needed.
  • • Sensitisation and the self-assessment of systems and processes, risk management audits and lifelong training are key elements for companies.

Generating quality youth employment.

  • Enhance the links between education, enterprise and employment for private initiative to drive economies and the social and economic evolution of our peoples. Education is a key pillar of development, since it helps improve the countries’ social, economic and cultural conditions.
  • • Increased educational coverage, its levels, and the population’s educational quality relate to the enhancement of other key factors of development and wellbeing, i.e. productivity, competitiveness, social mobility, poverty reduction, construction of citizenship and social identity, all of which reinforces social cohesion.
  • • Education, both public and private, and professional training, apprenticeships and in-company professional practices play a key role in allowing youths to enter the labour market and further develop as adults.
  • • The design of educational policies aided by the private sector, overcoming ideological and other preconceptions and ensuring that youths are equipped with the skills required in the future. From such perspective, apprenticeship systems should be decidedly encouraged so as to be in line with the new professions required by companies, whose needs continuously evolve.
  • • Implement national chapters of the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN) as a successful example of the alliance between enterprises, and international and employers’ organisations to promote and share the best practices in apprenticeship programmes.
  • • Actively promote “mentoring”. One of the barriers is that the young and intermediate generations are not given opportunities to move up since the older generations do not leave their managerial positions. This leadership crisis should be overcome, since it prevents the training of new groups of leaders or the growth of middle managers.