Child labor continues to persist within the fishing and aquaculture sectors primarily due to poverty, a practice the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) hopes to end by 2028 as it seeks to address challenges affecting the industry.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma made the remark on Monday as he noted that Dole, through the National Council Against Child Labor, continues to ‘coordinate with local government units and civil society partners to prevent and eliminate the worst forms of child labor in fishing and aquaculture.’
‘We have a target of zero child labor by 2028, and we hope our partners will help us realize that particular goal and objective,’ he said in his speech during the first National Industry Dialogue on Sustainable Aquaculture Supply Chains in the Philippines.
The dialogue seeks to establish reforms in the aquaculture sector, particularly in the shrimp and seaweed industries, given their significant role in ensuring food security and their potential as export commodities due to local and global demand, Laguesma explained.
He noted that, despite its potential, a study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) found that the ‘structure of the aquaculture sector remained largely informal,’ and that challenges regarding the application of basic labor standards remain unaddressed.
The report also raised deficiencies in the workers’ occupational safety and health, levels of skills and productivity, social protection coverage, and representation of both employees and enterprises in tripartite and social dialogue mechanisms.
‘As a consequence, workers in the sector are exposed to high levels of vulnerability, often working under challenging and hazardous conditions, and with limited and unstable incomes. Micro and small enterprises are similarly exposed,’ Laguesma said.
‘They operate with low profit margins, do not have provisions for business continuity in the face of contingencies, and are often hampered by lack of support facilities or taken advantage of by unscrupulous middlemen,’ he added.
Moreover, Laguesma noted that child labor persists within the industry primarily due to poverty as well as culture, pointing out that in certain areas, parents prefer to have their children help them in their work.
‘What we want to see are children in schools, not in factories, whether in aquaculture or any other form of employment. We only promote employment in programs where we can monitor the youth,’ he said.
‘We have government internship programs and job start, but we combine that with career support development programs,’ Laguesma added.
The labor secretary, however, said that the number of child laborers in the aquaculture sector has decreased due to various interventions by agencies such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
‘If the child is being forced by the parent to work instead of studying.first we will see how we can help in terms of livelihood or by providing employment. If the parents continue to be stubborn, that’s when the intervention by the DOJ will come in,’ Laguesma said.
He said another concern is that the current labor workforce no longer has the ‘incentive or the appetite’ to enter industries such as aquaculture, agriculture, and farming.
‘Much of this is due to the fact that aquaculture in general, and shrimps and seaweed farming in particular, is seen as an economic activity associated with low skills and productivity, subsistence-level income, and poverty,’ he explained. ‘We need to have a different mindset for us to uplift this sector,’ Laguesma said.