Age for Working Children is Synchronized
Friday, 14 March, 2008 | 16:28 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Businessmen admitted they have been facing the problematic situation regarding age limits for working children. The community demands that their children be employed while the state forbids it.

“The community doesn't like it when we have to employ people from another region for age reasons,” said Zainudin from PT Warna Makmur in Tuban in his dialog with minister of manpower and transmigration, Erman Soeparno, in the award ceremony for Zero Accidents, Secured Management System, and Health, last Wednesday.

In response, Erman promised to synchronize the age limit for working children between a manpower regulation and the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention. In the convention, the ILO mentioned the age limit for working children is 18 while regulation No. 13 year 2003 about manpower is 15.

This promise has also been conveyed to the Indonesian Commission for Child Protection one day previously. According to head of the commission, Masnah Sari, the age difference is also found in the manpower regulation and child protection regulation that is referred to in the ILO convention. In its implementation, heads of villages and immigration do not often obey the rules. “People are not responsive to children's rights for education, health, and engaging in recreation,” she said.

She admitted her difficulty in collecting data and discovering how many underage working children there are, because generally they work for the private sector. Masnah said this has been one issue that will be disseminated by the commission. “We will work together with the manpower department.”

Iqbal Muhtarom