ILO achieved the inclusion of Standard Clauses against Child Labor in five collective agreements

The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Office for Mexico and Cuba, through AccioNNAr Project, has achieved, with Sindicatos Unidos con México Moderno (SUCOMM), the inclusion of Standard Clauses against Child Labour in five collective agreements, distributed as follows:

ILO’s AccioNNAr Project is a part of the Inter-Secretarial Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Child Labour and the Protection for Legal Age Working Adolescents in Mexico (CITI) and has collaborated with the Commission’s members, developing various deliverables proposed in the CITI’s Workplan for 2021-2024.

In this sense, for these specific actions, the AccioNNAr Project has technically assisted the Secretariat of Labour and Social Welfare (STPS) by promoting the inclusion of Standard Clauses against Child Labour to protect legal-age adolescent work among the collective agreements whose holder/bearer are unions that act as the ILO’s constituents.

These Standard clauses are included in collective agreements through collective bargaining, with the ends of prohibiting the use of child labour and protecting legal-age adolescent work. This material holds its relevance because it intertwines two of the ILO’s fundamental principles and rights at work, such as freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, and the effective abolition of child labour.

According to STPS’s and the ILO’s Office in Mexico’s records, this is the first time that this kind of standard clauses are included in collective agreements in Mexico; that is why they are of such great importance.

Sindicatos Unidos con México Moderno clusters over 11 trade unions, representing over 140 workers in more than 800 work centers. SUCOMM, in the framework of the Mexican labour reform of 2019, has legitimized 306 collective agreements and has obtained 71 Certificates of Representativeness from the Federal Conciliation and Labour Registration Center.

These numbers demonstrate SUCOMM’s adherence to applicable regulations on freedom of association and collective bargaining in Mexico. Likewise, SUCOMM has opened two Resource Centers for Migrant Workers (CRTM), one in Tijuana and another one in Cancun, in collaboration with the ILO, and now, they are adding the inclusion of the aforementioned clauses.

This joint effort is a clear example of the need for intersectoral collaboration to face child labour.