Child labour, forced labour and human trafficking

Since 1991, the brutality of the transition to the market economy, the dramatic increase of poverty and the growth of the informal economy, coupled with the degradation of the school system and the dismantling of families, have led to an increase in child labour, which in some post-Soviet countries at least, has become endemic.

The PERC is campaigning for the ratification and full implementation of ILO Conventions 138 and 182, and working with the European and international institutions on the adoption and implementation of policies that support universal access to education, investment in the future of the world’s children and the prohibition of child labour.

The struggle against forced labour and trafficking is an essential component of any trade union strategy aimed at ensuring Decent Work for All. In Europe, the increasing flows of both legal and irregular migration, wage disparity, the unemployment and poverty in many countries, the lack of efficient regulatory mechanisms for transparent employment, and the activities of criminal networks are creating an environment in which the risk of human trafficking for forced labour purposes are growing.

The PERC and its affiliates are working on promoting awareness about forced labour and trafficking, tgoether with bipartite and tripartite activities aimed at helping eradicate the phenomenon, including through the integration of such workers in trade unions.