Forced child labour will cease, pledges deputy minister

Myanmar will eradicate forced child labour, the Deputy Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, U Htin Aung, pledged at a May Day event in Yangon.

U Htin Aung issued the pledge in an address to more than 3,000 workers who gathered with dignitaries at a football stadium in Yangon's outer western Hlaing Tharyar Township to mark International Labour Day on May 1, the state-run New Light of Myanmar reported.

The deputy minister said the government would eradicate child labour by 2015 through its adherence to the International LabourOrganisation's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, adopted in June 1999 as ILO Convention 182.

Myanmar became the 178th state to ratify the convention in December last year.

U Htin Aung said action would be taken against employers who forced children to work or who underpaid, overworked, or denied sleep, accommodation and salaries to children as well as those who trafficked child labour.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/05/03/forced-child-labour-will-cease-pledges-deputy-minister/