University of São Paulo: IBGE Data Suggests Rise in Child Labor Linked to Supervision Gaps
Child labor increases as age advances. According to research by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the incidence is 1.7% among children aged 5 to 13, 7.3% between those aged 14 and 15 and, from 16 to 17 years old, the proportion more than doubles. , reaching 16.3%. The numbers, which were falling, in 2022 showed 1.9 million minors in a situation of child labor.
Guilherme Guimarães Feliciano, associate professor at the Department of Labor Law and Social Security at the Faculty of Law at USP, explains that, “between 2020 and 2021, there was the lowest number of labor tax auditors in activity since 2009. In December 2020 , there were 2,051 and they are the ones who effectively combat and monitor companies, agribusiness establishments and service stations in relation to child labor. The government opened a new notice to hire tax auditors after ten years without a competition. With the filling of these new vacancies, there will be a positive impact on these numbers for the coming years, but what we are seeing right now, especially in the 2022 numbers, are 1.9 million children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years old in child labor against 1.8 million in 2019.”
This is explained by the difficulties of supervision. The pandemic contributed to an increase in the work of children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17, as they stayed away from schools due to the difficulty, often, in accessing digital education, distance learning, in short, telematics. . With the removal from schools, these minors were reabsorbed into child labor, especially among families with lower average incomes. The lack of investment in the structure of the Ministry of Labor and Employment in terms of materials and personnel is now beginning to correct itself.
Brazilian legislation protects children and adolescents, including the amendment of the Constitution in 1998, by amendment 20 to comply with the ILO (International Labor Organization) convention, which deals with child labor, raising the minimum age from 14 to 16 years. “In Brazil there cannot be ordinary, productive work for children under 16 years of age. Between 14 and 16 only as an apprentice, which is an employment contract aimed at professionalization, not production, not profit. As for teenagers, that is, up to the age of 18, the legislation does not allow unhealthy, painful, dangerous work that is harmful to training. There is clearly a system of protection for children and adolescents that is recognized from the Statute of Children and Adolescents of the Constitution of the Republic itself and also from the consolidation of labor laws, diplomas that must be applied in order to dialogue with each other for this protection.”
Labor justice
Brazil has more than 4,000 labor judges who decide issues related to child labor, but inspectors are needed to assist in this role. Inspectors who are equal to this number are needed, it does not make sense to have fewer inspectors at the end, where the problem is identified in the public service environment, and a higher number of judges later.
In Brazil, child labor is not considered a crime, unlike what occurs in other countries; In this case, criminal protection can help in more serious situations and also specialization, which brings a series of advantages. These are judges who are more qualified for this type of analysis and for these cases to be judged in a shorter time. Several children work in the artistic field, as actors and singers, but, according to Professor Feliciano, there is a thesis that the Labor Court would not be prepared to deal with this issue.
“Review a thesis that the Federal Supreme Court established a few years ago, reported by the then minister Marco Aurélio Mello, that the Labor Court would not have jurisdiction over cases of artistic child labor, which is one of the few hypotheses that is admitted child labor for actors, actresses, singers, child singers and, for some reason, cases of artistic child labor are considered by the Common Justice, as understood by the STF. All other cases through the Labor Court. There needs to be a unique way of thinking about this, always from the perspective of protecting children and adolescents, not the interests of the businessman in the entertainment industry. For this reason, it would be important for this thesis of the Federal Supreme Court to be reversed by the Supreme Court itself, so that all this competence is concentrated in the Labor Court”, highlights Professor Feliciano.