In June 2002, on the occasion of the first 'world day against child labour', Italy's Istat statistical institute presented a study on the subject. It finds that in Italy there are some 150,000 children aged between seven and 14 who work, including around 32,000 who are subject to exploitation. Child labour is more common in the more economically developed regions of the country.
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In June 2002, on the occasion of the first 'world day against child labour', Italy's Istat statistical institute presented a study on the subject. It finds that in Italy there are some 150,000 children aged between seven and 14 who work, including around 32,000 who are subject to exploitation. Child labour is more common in the more economically developed regions of the country.
In Italy, attention has in recent years been drawn to the issue of child labour by trade union campaigns and by the impact on national and international public opinion of a number of cases of exploitation of child labour in developing countries in the manufacture of products for major western companies (IT9810185N). This has resulted in number of initiatives against child labour by the social partners and government ( IT9804162N, IT9801145N and IT9803153N).
On 12 June 2002, on the occasion of the first 'world day against child labour', sponsored by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a national conference on child labour was held in Rome. At the event, chaired by Roberto Maroni, the Minister of Labour, the president of the Italian National Statistical Institute (Istituto Centrale di Statistica, Istat) presented the results of a study on child labour in Italy.
Studies previously conducted on child labour in Italy had often produced diverging results (IT0012363F). However, during the 1990s the ILO developed a series of methodological recommendations for analysing the issue, and Istat took these into consideration when conducting its new study. The research is thought to be a pioneering analysis of the child labour issue in Europe, along with a similar study conducted in Portugal.
Content and methodology
The Istat survey analyses both: 'generic' child labour, ie 'all economic activities performed by children'; and genuine child labour exploitation, ie 'all activities which can have negative drawbacks on children's health, education and regular development.' All work activities performed by children aged between seven and 14 for at least one hour per week are considered to fall within the overall definition of child labour. The study takes as a reference period the whole year, instead of the week, in order to analyse seasonal child labour.
The approach taken by the Istat researchers was to focus the survey on interviewing young people aged between 15 and 18, asking retrospective questions on their first jobs and on the work they had done until the age of 15. This approach is said to have many methodological advantages:
a direct survey of children aged seven to 14 would have encountered problems linked both to the age of the interviewees and to the fact that children may have not spoken freely because of the presence during the interviews of their parents, which is mandatory by law;
it overcomes the reticence that the children would have shown if asked about current employment;
adolescents' concept of work of is closer to that of adults. This allowed the young people interviewed better to define their working experiences; and
asking the interviewees to look back at the past helped them to make a distinction between real working experience and small-scale odd jobs. Indeed, 'the most significant type of child labour analysed by the study is that closest to child exploitation, which is very difficult to forget.'
The survey lacks data on child labour by foreign nationals due to the difficulties encountered in contacting migrant families characterised by 'a high level of geographical mobility which makes contacts with them very difficult' and due to 'communication problems encountered during the interviews'.
Extent of child labour
The first findings of the research indicate that at present 144,285 children aged between seven and 14 in Italy are involved in some kind of working activity during the year, ie 3.1% of all children of that age. The rate increases with age: a rate of 0.5% for children aged between seven and 10 rises to 3.7% for children aged between 11 and 13, and reaches 11.6% for children of 14 years of age. According to the researchers, 'the annual Italian estimate of 3.1% could be about 1.7% if one took as a reference period one week.' The findings seem to comply with estimates made by the ILO for the rate of child labour in developed countries (of 2%).
Among the children who work, a number are defined as exploited children who carry out activities which might be dangerous, strenuous, or not compatible with leisure and educational activities - see the table below. These children number about 31,500 (0.66% of the population aged between seven and 14): of these, 12,300 perform a job on a continuing basis while 19,200 carry out odd jobs. The rate is highest among children aged 14.
| Type of work | No. | % of 7-14 age group | % of 7-10 age group | % of 11-13 age group | % of 14 year-olds |
| Continuing activity | 12,300 | 0.26 | 0.09 | 0.28 | 0.87 |
| Odd jobs | 19,200 | 0.40 | 0.06 | 0.36 | 1.87 |
| Total | 31,500 | 0.66 | 0.15 | 0.64 | 2.74 |
Source: Istat.
The key factors in child labour in general can be summarised as follows:
the phenomenon increases as age increases;
child labour in its most serious forms seems linked to needy families;
'generic' working activities by children increase as job opportunities increase in the area where they live. This tendency does not apply to the most serious exploitation; and
the sector where the father works is very influential in the incidence of both 'generic' child labour and child exploitation, with work in agriculture or hotels particularly likely to have an influence. Another important factor is if the householder of the child's home has a low educational level.
Characteristics of children's work
The interviews conducted with young people aged between 15 and 18 helped the Istat researchers make quantitative estimates of the child labour phenomenon and identify the characteristics of child workers.
The percentage of those aged 15-18 reporting that they had been involved in working activities between the ages of seven and 14 is higher among males (17.7%) than females (9.8%). Seasonal work is the most common type of work reported (usually for no more than three months per year) and the kinds of activity performed are almost always compatible with school. Only 12.6% of the interviewees stated that they had ever not attended school in order to go to work. Other findings include the following:
children's working activities are not usually linked to the kind of work they are likely to do when they become adults. In most cases, children's first working experiences relate to the activity carried out by their family while, as they get older, work tends to become something outside the family;
an early start to child labour tends to mean that the child involved will continue to work. The earlier the age of the first working experience, the more it tends to be repeated during the following years;
geographical factors seem to influence the extent of child labour considerably. 'Generic' child labour is more common in the North-East of Italy and less so in the South. It seems that children are pushed to work in areas of high employment (such as the North-East ) where competition between school and work starts very early. The situation is different for child exploitation, which has an even distribution all over Italy; and
school performances seems to influence whether or not children are involved in child labour. Conversely, child labour seem to have an influence on school performance - 20.5% of children who work before the age of 15 do poorly at school.
Types of child labour
The study identifies three types of child labour:
help with family activities (50% of cases);
seasonal work (31.9%); and
more fatiguing work (17.5%).
Working activities falling within the first category are usually less strenuous than those in the other two categories, which are characterised by more intense forms of labour and most often carried out outside the family for remuneration. Working activities falling within the third category are usually continuing activities, with the children involved very often working every day (81% of cases) or for more than four hours a day (85%).
Reactions
The findings of the Istat study, in particular those on the geographical distribution of child labour, drew numerous reactions. For example, representatives of employers in North-East Italy questioned the validity of the findings: 'if the survey on child labour were true, then there would not be a major labour shortage crisis in the Veneto region and in the north-eastern regions of Italy.' According to the employers, 'Istat makes a mistake in considering young people working during holidays as seasonal workers or as workers with a fixed-term contract'.
Preventing child labour
The prevention of illegal child labour is the responsibility of the public institutions which supervise the respect of health and safety at work rules.
In 2000, the National Institute for Industrial Accident Assurance (Istituto nazionale assicurazione infortuni sul lavoro, Inail) - which administers the compulsory system of insurance against accidents at work - inspected about 16,700 companies and recorded 2,525 breaches of rules on child labour. The majority of cases concerned: non-observance of the minimum recruitment age; failure to provide mandatory periodical health check-ups; young people performing forbidden jobs; and breaches of rules concerning rest periods, holidays and working time.
Commentary
The data presented in the Istat study, although provisional, make an important contribution to the understanding of the child labour phenomenon. The Istat findings indicate that the number of children at work is lower than suggested by earlier studies from other sources, which put the figure at around 300,000 (IT0012363F). However, the Istat study confirms that child labour is not a marginal phenomenon and is highly diversified.
The problem should be tackled with a range of tools which cannot just consist of simple suppression of child labour. Severe action against companies which employ children aged less than 15 (the minimum legal working age in Italy) should go hand in hand with a series of interventions aimed at supporting needy families. In particular, it is clear that in many cases child labour is linked to the difficult circumstances of the children's families. Many poor families make their children go to work. Economic and psychological support should be offered to help families to improve their situations.
Another dimension highlighted by the Istat study is child labour in the more economically developed areas of Italy. Child labour in these areas takes place within the family and contributes to school drop-out rates. The relevant institutions should organise guidance and support services aimed at supporting young people's choices and their families. The Istat data highlight the problems of the Italian welfare system, which focuses interventions almost exclusively on the pensions system and which is not able to offer support and aid to old and new forms of 'social poverty' through providing appropriate services. (Domenico Paparella and Vilma Rinolfi, Cesos)
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2002), Survey examines child labour, article.
