Minimum age of employment to be raised from 14 to 16

By Chaminda Silva

Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva is scheduled to move a Bill for debate to increase the minimum age of employment from 14 to 16.

The Bill, titled Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children (Amendment) Bill, would make it an offence to employ anyone below the age of 16, Labour Commissioner Prabhath Chandrakeerthi told The Island.

He said that the United Nations had declared the year 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour and Sri Lanka in line with UN guidelines would amend domestic laws so that it would be an offence to employee anyone below the age of 16 years.

Chandrakeerthi said that the UN General Assembly had unanimously adopted a resolution declaring 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, and asked the International Labour Organization to take the lead in its implementation.

The resolution highlights the member States’ commitments “to taking immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, ending modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and eliminating the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.”