Child labor is illegal but often seen in Greece
An estimated 100-150,000 youngsters under the age of 18 work in Greece. They are children who left school early or never went to school at all (Gypsies, immigrants and refugees), and minors who work evenings, weekends and holidays, as well as attending school, according to Arsis, a youth support organization. Arsis collected the data in cooperation with the National Center for Social Research (EKKE), the National Statistical Service and Panteion University. «We only get an idea of what’s happening on the street through the complaints that come to us. Children sell tissues, they beg at traffic lights, play music,» Constantinos Yiannopoulos, president of the Child’s Smile charity, told Kathimerini. But that isn’t all. «Child labor is more common in the Greek countryside,» explained Yiannis Kouzis, assistant professor of labor relations at Panteion, who also collaborates with the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE). Helping the family Not that child labor is absent from large towns, he pointed out, especially in disadvantaged areas. «Children work on dairy farms, and in tanneries, in factories making clothes and toys, and on the islands in summer they work in restaurants and family businesses.» Though the law stipulates that children under the age of 16 are not permitted to work, they are seen as helping out the family. That raises the question of how illegal child labor is monitored. «The Labor Inspectorate is short of staff,» Kouzis said. «It’s hard for them to get to remote areas, and so illegal child labor is rife in such places. The law is strict, but hard to enforce.» Greece has ratified the International Convention on Children’s Rights (2101/1992) on the definition of child labor and the International Labor Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor (2918/2001). It passed Law 1837/1989 on the protection of minors from work, included a clause on the protection of working minors in Law 3144/2003 and a clause on minors who are victims of trafficking in Law 3064/2002. Yet working children are unprotected in Greece. «When labor law is violated even in the case of adults, you can imagine what happens with minors,» said Kouzis. «Greece is first when it comes to violations of labor legislation. Six out of 10 businesses that are re-inspected for labor legislation violations are found not to have complied or only partially complied with the law. Very few of the legislative provisions on children are implemented. Many break the law because they can turn a profit.» This is not a purely Greek phenomenon. «The environs of Paris are full of working children, while the USA has not ratified six of the seven international labor laws,» Kouzis noted. Tomorrow is World Day Against Child Labor, this year dedicated to abolishing child labor on farms. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that more than 100 million boys and girls aged 5-14 work on farms.
