Social partners in footwear sector extend charter on child labour to cover retail

On 16 September 1998, the European-level social partners in the footwear industry signed a common accord to extend the coverage of their charter on child labour, initially formulated in March 1995, to cover footwear retailing as well as manufacture. The issue of child labour has been one of the key concerns of the social dialogue in this sector.

The footwear industry constitutes a significant part of the European Union economy: in 1994, approximately 286,000 people were directly employed, with a further 150,000 indirectly employed (source: CEC/EFCI). However, although the EU is one of the world's leading footwear markets and accounts for 11% of world production, the sector has been experiencing falling levels of production and growing levels of unemployment over the past 10 years. For example, redundancy rates have been five times greater than the average for manufacturing, with a disproportionate impact on women's employment, resulting from the high concentration of women in the sector. The majority of job losses have been attributed to closures and relocation of production plants to countries outside the EU with lower levels of social protection. It is this issue in particular that the sectoral social partners' charter on the employment of children (see below) addresses, as well as concern about the abuse of international human rights conventions and declarations.

The social dialogue in footwear

The European-level social dialogue in the footwear sector has a relatively long history, as a European Commission-sponsored joint committee for the industry was active from 1977 to 1984. The dialogue was revived in December 1991 in a different format, with the formalised joint committee process being substituted with a more informal working party arrangement. From 1999, the informal working party, along with its counterparts in other sectors, is to be transformed into a "sectoral dialogue committee", according to the Decision attached to the Commission's May 1998 Communication on Adapting and promoting the social dialogue at Community level (EU9806110F).

The party to the footwear dialogue on the employers' side has been the European Confederation of the Footwear Industry (ECFI) - also known by its French name, Confédération Européenne de l'Industrie de la Chaussure (CEC). ECFI represents all major national footwear federations in the EU vis-à-vis all bodies whose activities and decisions influence the situation in the footwear industry in the EU and at world level. Currently, 14 member countries and 14,200 footwear manufacturers are represented through their national federations.

Representing the workers' side is the European Trade Union Committee: Textiles, Clothing and Leather (ETUC:TCL). This body brings together 47 trade union organisations from 23 countries representing more than 1.5 million workers across Europe. The ETUC:TCL is a European Industry Federation affiliated to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and works closely with the sector's International Trade Secretariat, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) and with the International Federation Textile and Clothing (IFTC), affiliated to the Christian-oriented World Confederation of Labour. ETUC:TCL seeks to represent and defend the interests of textile, clothing, leather and footwear industry workers in relation to all European institutions, employers' organisations and other transnational organisations.

The main issues of discussion within the social dialogue have been, and still are, connected or interlinked with the employment crisis in the sector. This has resulted, for example, in a joint opinion on employment in November 1993 and a joint statement on the Essen priorities concerning employment in November 1995. The issues of child labour and the adoption of "social clauses" in trade agreements has been a frequent subject for discussion by the footwear social partners over the past few years. Notwithstanding concern with the abuse of human rights involved, the prominence of the child labour issue on the social partners' agenda can be largely attributed to its detrimental impact on levels of employment in the sector, resulting from the significant increase in imports from countries outside the EU which tolerate lower thresholds of social protection.

In response to the recognition that child labour is a problem affecting several industrial sectors, in particular the footwear industry, the social partners formulated a draft agreement for a "charter on the employment of children" on 7 March 1995 through a working party, which was subsequently updated at a meeting on 13 December 1996, with a formal signing of the updated version - "Child labour - a charter by European social partners in the footwear sector" - on 21 October 1997 by ETUC:TCL and ECFI.

Outside footwear, child labour has also been a topic for social dialogue and joint texts in sectors such as commerce (EU9802188N) and textiles (see below). Furthermore, both ETUC and the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE) have at different times expressed support for and commitment to the abolition of child labour. ETUC adopted a resolution in December 1997 which called for "social clauses" to be introduced into all EU trade agreements (EU9801177F), while UNICE adopted a position paper welcoming the International Labour Organisation (ILO) declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work on 15 June 1998 (EU9807117N).

The charter on child labour

The footwear sector charter describes the existence of child labour as an intolerable violation of human rights and accordingly agrees with and supports ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for admission to employment, plus the EU Directive on the protection of young people at work (94/33/EC) and the commitments embodied in the action programme adopted at the 1995 United Nations (UN) World Summit for Social Development.

As part of the charter, the footwear social partners urge all governments of the Member States to ratify and fully enforce the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as ILO Convention No. 138. In addition, Member States are urged, together with the social partners to adopt measures likely to gradually eradicate the use of child labour, for example through the guarantee of compulsory schooling.

As well as committing themselves to action to eradicate child exploitation and to provide positive support for incentive measures to eliminate the use of child labour, the social partners' commitments embodied in the charter centre around four main points to be implemented by all employers and trade unions affiliated to the signatory organisations. These are as follows:

• not to employ, either directly or indirectly, children under the age of 15, or below the age of completion of compulsory schooling;

• to support the development of training and apprenticeship programmes within companies to provide for the personal development of young workers ;

• to distribute the charter to companies, subcontractors and suppliers; and

• to support ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age of admission to employment.

As part of the updated version of the original charter, the social partners agreed to draw up an annual report monitoring its progress and implementation.

Alongside the formulation and final signing of the charter, parallel developments were occurring within the social dialogue which supported the emphasis on the eradication of child labour and on job-creation strategies in the sector. For example, in 1994, a databank for the footwear industry was created, which collects and updates data on national social legislation and collective agreements. This data is meant to be used as a source of information by the social partners in their national negotiations, with the aim of harmonising conditions to discourage relocation of production between or outside the EU Member States.

In addition, the social partners initiated in 1995 a study on "the changing training needs in the footwear sector by the year 2005," with support from the European Social Fund (ESF), which examines trends in employment and skills needs in the footwear industry. The purpose is to anticipate the changing market in the industry, allowing training strategies to be aligned to these changes, so that the sector can respond effectively to new production and market conditions. This two-year tripartite study involved training centres, employers and unions in each Member State and also at European level. To follow up the study, ECFI and ETUC:TCL participated in a round-table conference in Dublin to disseminate the results. Another conference was expected to occur in 1998, organised by the ISFOL training centre in collaboration with the Italian social partners.

Working parties made up of representatives from the footwear social partners have also been responsible for setting up training projects funded under EU employment-creation initiatives such as Leonardo and ADAPT.

More recently, in September 1997 ETUC:TCL signed a European code of conduct in another of the sectoral social dialogues in which it is involved - that with EURATEX, the European employers' organisation for textiles and clothing. The textiles sector code of conduct calls upon member organisations to embrace ILO Conventions: Nos. 29 and 105, which prohibit the use of forced labour; Nos. 87 and 98, on freedom of association and negotiation; No. 138, on the prohibition of child labour; and No. 111, on the principle of non-discrimination in employment. ETUC:TCL and EURATEX call upon their members to include the code of conduct in all sectoral and company-level agreements, and have committed themselves to an annual follow-up process to monitor adherence to the code (EU9709150N).

Extension to charter

On 16 September 1998 the coverage of the footwear child labour charter was extended from footwear manufacturing to include footwear retailing, with the inclusion of the European Confederation of Shoe Retailers' Associations (CEDDEC). This decision, according to a spokesperson for CEDDEC, was based on a number of reasons: the organisation, in principle, is not prepared to tolerate the existence of child labour; while a market evaluation undertaken in the sector has found that consumers are increasingly aware of social and ecological arguments, with the issue of child labour being particularly sensitive. Resulting from these findings, retailers covered by CEDDEC, as part of their commitment to the charter are specifying to suppliers that products are to be manufactured without the use of child labour. In addition, CEDDEC has offered a commitment to DGV of the European Commission to be active in promoting the "social labeling" concept.

Commentary

Clearly, there are strong economic, as well as moral and social, motivations behind activities and initiatives that aim to curtail the use of child labour in the footwear sector. The charter and its extension represents a response to the problem of "social dumping" and declining employment within the sector, as well as addressing the abuse of human rights, reaffirming the importance of international declarations, and conforming to public opinion on the issue. However, for the charter to have a real impact on the current situation, its coverage must be extended to non-EU countries, where the extent of child labour is more prevalent, otherwise the actions of socially conscious producers and retailers may be undermined. (Peter Foster, ECOTEC Research and Consulting)