I. Overview
Estimates of the number of children working in Portugal range from 200,000,
as cited by nongovernmental organizations,1 to
30,000, as reported by the Portuguese government.2
The footwear, garment, ceramics, and granite paving stone industries have been
documented to use child labor. Each of these industries, in varying quantities,
exports to the United States.3
II. Child Labor in Export Industries
A 1991 report by Anti-Slavery International (ASI) documents child labor in
the shoe and garment industries and, to a lesser extent, in the ceramics and
stone-breaking industries, all of which are export-oriented and concentrated in
the northern districts of Oporto and Braga.4 A
1993 government briefing paper reported that of businesses found to employ
children under the legal minimum age of 16, roughly 62 percent were either in
the clothing, textiles and knitwear industry or in shoe manufacturing.5 Each of these industries export to both the United
States and Europe.
Rising public concern and increasing labor inspections have driven most of
the child labor out of the legally organized factories and into "clandestine",
or illegal, garage workshops and home production where abuses of the law are
much harder to detect.6
While the government disputes some of the statistics cited in the ASI
report,7 it acknowledges that abuses exist and has
taken action to curb them.8
Garments
In 1993, Portugal exported $61.5 million in garments to the United States.9 Finishing work, such as cutting button holes and
sewing, is often subcontracted out from the larger factories. The textile union
confirmed that in garment production, children under the age of 14 work mostly
in clandestine shops and in their families' homes. A union representative said
that when children are found in a factory they are paid 10 percent of an adult's
wages; the piece-rate for work at home was described as "miserably low."10 Anti-Slavery International profiled two child
garment workers:
Sonia and Sandra are both 11 years old, and make dressing-gowns in the
same small garment factory in the town of Sao Joao de Ver, in the district of
Aveiro. The factory is in the basement of a house and, of the five workers, the
oldest is 25. Sonia has dropped out of school with only two years of schooling.
Sandra has had five years of school. Each of the girls earn £32 [$52] a
month for a nine-and-a-half-hour day.11
Footwear
As with garments, child labor appears mostly in small shops and in home
production. The system of rural delivery of cut pieces for finishing into
casual shoes for eventual sale by foreign retailers is well documented, in one
case showing children as young as 10 and 11 years stitching shoes.12
Children hand sew pre-punched, machine-cut pieces of leather together, cut
leather, and glue shoe pieces together. Anti-Slavery International profiled one
young shoe worker:
Francisco [age 12] works in a small shoe factory..which employs 15
workers. He cuts and separates the leather, working from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
with an hour for lunch- a nine-and-a-half-hour day- for which he earns £80
[$114] a month.13
The United States imported $65 million in footwear from Portugal in 1992.14 Child labor in the shoe industry merits further
investigation.
Ceramics
Children are used in the production of brick-red table and oven pottery,
fine china, and pottery ornaments in the ceramics industry located in the
municipality of Barcelos. Children carry and work the clay in addition to
painting designs on the pottery.15 Several
reports found that children in the ceramics industry often work only during
school vacations or attend school for half the day and then work the other half
in small workshops. Most ceramics production is exported to Europe, although
over $37 million in ceramic products was exported to the United States in 1993.16
Stone-Breaking
The granite industry in the north of Portugal "exploits cheap
sub-contracted labour, and the labour of children."17
Young boys were found to work with family members breaking cobblestones,
coping-stones and paving stones to be used in road construction. They hammer at
the stone with chisels and mallets, unprotected from the dust and granite chips.
Typically, a man will rent a small shack for stone-breaking and his family will
come to work with him, including his children. Exports are thought to go
primarily to France and Spain, though there are reports of granite stones being
exported to the United States for use in pavements.18
III. Laws of Portugal
A. National Child Labor Laws
The government raised the minimum age for employment to 15 years under
Decree-law 396/91 of the "Judicial Labour Law", and it plans to raise
it again to 16 years in 1997 when the period of nine years of compulsory
schooling takes effect.19 Currently, light work,
which is not yet defined under Portuguese law, is permitted by children 14 and
older. Hazardous work, also not yet defined, is prohibited for anyone under 18.20
Revised in October 1991, Portugal's labor laws include more severe fines and
sanctions for companies which violate them. To illustrate its work to combat
child labor, the government also points to its programs to increase the
effectiveness of its labor inspectors.
However, government efforts are still hampered by a lack of inspectors and
the dispersed locations of clandestine and home production--private property
which requires a search warrant to enter. The U.S. State Department's Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993 states that, "(t)he
Government has yet to allocate resources sufficient to cope with the problem [of
enforcing child labor laws in clandestine companies and home-based
production]...which has thus remained essentially unresolved."21
Unions, meanwhile, complain that labor inspectors have been known to "tip-off"
factories that an inspection is due and that the inspectors are incapable of
addressing what they assert is a growing phenomenon of child labor in home-based
subcontracting. A government briefing paper on child labor appears to justify
union concern: "Scenes of 'tilemaking' (stone breaking for pavements) and
of domiciliary work (sewing...shoes) have been amply publicized. These
situations are basically not considered as being 'subordinated work' as it
mainly occurs within the family, thus evading the [labor inspector's] control."22
The Deputy Chief of the government's labor inspectors categorically asserted
that the problem of child labor is not increasing. He also asserted that the
changes in the ages both of school attendance and the minimum for work would
result in significantly lower child labor in the future.23
While the unions agree that child labor has been falling recently, they
attribute the decline to the closing of factories and the rise of unemployment.24
B. Education Laws
Education is compulsory for children up to age 14.25
Article 74 of the Constitution states that, "(e)veryone shall have the
right to equal opportunities for access to and success in schooling....In the
implementation of its educational policy, it shall be the duty of the State to
ensure compulsory and free universal basic education.26
The Government of Portugal is currently making education a priority and plans to
increase compulsory schooling to nine years. The portion of the government's
budget going to education has risen significantly.27
The government claims to have reduced by 35 percent the number of children
who dropped out of school between 1991 and 1993.28
C. International Conventions
Portugal has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child. Portugal is not a party to ILO Convention No. 138 Concerning Minimum Age
for Admission to Employment or ILO Convention No. 59 on Minimum Age for
Admission to Employment in Industry.29 The
government has stated that it intends to ratify Convention No. 138.30
IV. Programs and Efforts To Address Child Labor
The Government of Portugal is particularly sensitive to the international
publicity the country has received as a result of the 1991 report by
Anti-Slavery International and several international television news programs
which have focused on children sewing shoes for export to Europe.31
Both the government and the major national unions have launched several
programs to increase public awareness. Most of the programs are aimed
particularly at parents and teachers. While some people complained of a lack of
substance in the programs, a Portuguese member of the UN Committee on the Rights
of the Child stressed the importance of changing the old attitudes among
parents, teachers and the Church of acceptance of child labor--and she noted a
positive trend in this direction.32
A promising program being developed in a small town in the industrialized
North involves a coalition of private social welfare groups, church based social
action organizations, local and national unions, local municipal and school
officials, and regional and national governmental authorities. The plan is to
use all available resources to address the problems of children working and
children at risk of dropping out of school, one child at a time. The program
may be replicated in other towns in the region.33
1 Suzanne Williams, Child Workers in
Portugal, No. 12 in the Child Labor Series (London: Anti-Slavery
International, 1992) 12 [hereinafter Child Workers in Portugal].
2 "Child Labor Falling," Publico,
May 1994 [hereinafter
Publico article].
3 United States Merchandise Trade: Exports
and General Imports by Country (Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1993) A-348 - A-351 [hereinafter U.S. Merchandise Trade].
4 Child Workers in Portugal at 26.
5 "Briefing Paper on Child Labor,"
prepared by a working group on child labor established by the Portuguese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993) 2 [hereinafter Briefing Paper].
6 Interview with Americo Monteiro, former
coordinator of the Confederation for Action on Child Labor (CNASTI), by
Department of Labor official (May 19, 1994) [hereinafter Interview with
Monteiro].
7 "...'mythical and fantasied' numbers of
200,000, that are persistently referred to by the 'media' of other countries."
Briefing Paper at 15.
8 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
for 1993 (U.S. Department of State, February, 1994) 873 [hereinafter Country
Reports].
9 U.S. Department of Commerce, International
Trade Administration, Office of Textile and Apparel, Major Shippers:
Textiles and Apparel (June 11,1994).
10 Interview with Jose Fernando Teixeira
Silva, Member of the National Board, Textile Federation, by U.S. Department of
Labor official (May 18,1994) [hereinafter Interview with Silva]; European
television documentaries [on file].
11 Child Workers in Portugal at 34.
12 See Child Workers in Portugal;
European television documentaries (ITV, Storyline, February 4, 1993) [on
file].
13 Child Workers in Portugal at 31.
14 U.S. Merchandise Trade.
15 Child Workers in Portugal at 32.
16 U.S. Merchandise Trade.
17 Child Workers in Portugal at 36.
18 Child Workers in Portugal at 36-38;
Interview with Monteiro; Interview with Alfredo Cardoso, Cultural Assistant,
Town of Braga, and former member of the Confederation for Action on Child Labor
(CNASTI), by U.S. Department of Labor official (May 19, 1994) [hereinafter
Interview with Cardoso]; Telephone interview with Suzanne Williams, author of
Child Workers in Portugal by Department of Labor official (May 13,
1994).
19 Country Reports at 1009.
20 Unofficial translation of report from
Portuguese Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
21 Country Reports at 1009.
22 Briefing Paper at 3.
23 Interview with Dr. Jose Manuel Garcia
Cristo, Deputy Inspector, General Labor Inspectorate, by Department of Labor
official (May 17, 1994).
24 Publico article.
25 Conditions of Work Digest, vol. 10,
no. 1 (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1991) 44.
26 Constitution of the Portuguese Republic,
2nd Revision, 1989 (Lisbon: Directorate General for Mass Communication, 1991)
51.
27 "Portugal May Have Crucial Lessons To
Learn," Financial Times (England), March 18, 1992.
28 Publico article.
29 List of Ratifications by Convention and
by Country (as at 31 December 1992) (Geneva: International Labour Office,
1993).
30 Interview with Dra. Marta Santos Pais,
Member, United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, by Department of
Labor official (May 20, 1994) [hereinafter Interview with Pais].
31 Child Workers in Portugal; European
television documentaries [on file].
32 Interview with Pais.
33 Interview with Monteiro; Interview with
Cardoso.
