Lesson learned
Diversity is important while establishing a child labour task force
In this case, the task force members were mostly grouped within Inno based on the basic information of the clients and the region of factory K. The task force consisted of members having different professional backgrounds such as a humanistic psychological counsellor with an expertise in children counselling, a social worker, a programme lead with a focus on family communication at the workplace, and a coordinator with experience in multi-stakeholder communication. Diverse backgrounds helped the team to communicate smoothly with different stakeholders, and also leverage various perspectives and analyse available information more thoroughly and accurately.
Development perspective as an alternative to rescue perspective
Words like save, rescue and help are frequently used when Child Labour cases are discussed. And that signals a rescue perspective in handling such cases. It focuses on time detachment and it is useful and efficient only when there is an emergency related to people's lives. That's why many governments, organisations or groups are keen to handle child labour cases through rescue perspective, including Inno until 2020. In 2018, one of the minor clients slapped a task force member of Inno and accused them of depriving her of a chance to make money for her dying siblings. After that incident, Inno realised that the rescue perspective to cope with this kind of case is becoming less and less applicable. It implies that the relationship between task force members and clients is unequal with a power imbalance, and also lacks a long-term development angle. Development perspective is an upgrade on rescue perspective. It means to listen carefully and fully understand clients' thoughts and needs focusing on a more lasting picture. For instance, supporting minor clients with personal development and career enhancement training resources, providing psychological support for a resilient attitude.
Avoid single channel attribution analysis
Workforce shortage has been a major problem in China's manufacturing industry lately. Factory K is a typical example in this context. In recent times, factory K has gradually deepened its cooperation. The task force members disguised themselves as students chatted with 20 employment agencies as job seekers in Dongguan. Among them, 16 refused to recruit minors under the age of 16, but 4 still claimed that they could help us get into the factory to work although we said we did not have any identity documents. This clearly indicates that child labour can't be easily attributed to clients, factories, brands and employment agencies,. Insufficient employment auditing systems in factories, incomplete standards in the employment agencies' service, general employment difficulties, poverty, and Imbalanced urban-rural divide have all contributed to the occurrence of child labour. Identifying these key factors as much as possible will promote understanding among all the parties and help them in coming up with a better solution.
Establish the Task Force
Inno has formed a task force including four members since the request. The lead of the task force took the responsibility of coordinator. Two team members are operators. And the task force also included one psychological counsellor from external organisation.
Multi-stakeholders Communication
The ideal remedy plan should be client-centred because the minor client is the most vulnerable within all the stakeholders. The diagram shows the remedy expectation results that the task force force hopes to meet and the actual remedy results of multi-stakeholder communication.
At the early stage, stakeholders include clients, factory K and brand F, and Inno's task force is the bridge of the tripartite connection. The task force learned from Chee and Lam that after being reported in the factory audition, she was immediately evacuated from the position and returned to the rental room. No any physical examination was done during this period. However, the client's physical function is not yet mature, and compared with adults, she is more likely to be harmed by noise, irritating odours, corrosive solutions and other harmful materials at work. In order to find out whether the client has caused any physical damage during the nine-day work in factory K, a work-related injury body check-up is necessary.
With Chee's consent, the task force immediately urged factory K and brand F to arrange a physical examination for Chee in a qualified hospital, accompanied by her guardian, Lam. In view of the previous information, the client had stress reaction that she once stood on the rooftop of the dorm and claimed she would jump. Therefore, the task force strongly suggested that psychological support to the client is urgent and necessary. After multiple times of communication, brand F purchased a face-to-face psychological support service for the client with the purpose of assessment. From then on, the counsellor joined the communication and gave many recommendation from her perspective.
In terms of financial compensation, the task force referred to the 24 cases of child labour in the past, and recommended that factories and brands could go beyond compliance and pay a living deposit until the client reached 18. In addition to the health and economic status remedy, career development was also a topic pointed out by the task force during the communication. See Tailored Intervention for more details.
Tailored Intervention
Work-related injury body check-up
Chee had worked in the position for 9 days. But she had not undergone any type of health appraisal. Referring to the COC from the brand, other counterpart brands and Responsible Buisness Alliance(RBA), the examinations are compulsory. To find out whether Chee's physical condition had impaired due to the 9 days of work, Inno urged brand F and factory K to confirm the occupational safety and health examinations were conducted. Fortunately, all the physical indicators were all good.
Financial compensation
According to the internationally accepted standard and the local regulations, factory K should provide living allowances to Chee with an amount not lower than the monthly minimum wage in Dongguan. Referring to the past cases, Inno recommended factory K and brand F kept following up till Chee reaches 18. At last, Chee gained her compensation with the amount of CNY 18,900 (CNY 2,100 per month × 9 months) offered by factory K.
Psychological resources connecting and support
Chee thought her brother suffered from depression, so she bought a lot of books related to psychology and counselling, expecting she could make some changes in this situation. The team understood this situation and asked Chee whether she needed a counsellor for herself due to this great pressure. Chee said yes and then it was brand F's turn to make the decision. In the past, when brands and factories address child labour cases, mental health was rarely included in the plan. Therefore, Therefore, in the beginning, brand F thought psychological support was completely unnecessary and to provide this was beyond their duty while addressing this case. Factory K also believed that offering legal and compliant financial compensation and additional training subsidies had fulfilled its responsibilities. The team explained the importance and necessity of psychological support repeatedly, and finally brand F agreed to pay for the first psychological support with the evaluation function.
Career enhancement support
Urged factory K and brand F provide access of vocational education and training
opportunity to Chee referring to the international standard for child labour relief. In order to work in the packaging and labelling position in factory K, Chee gave up the days that ought to be spent on study. Therefore, factory K should be responsible for the continuing education cost and the following support. Inno provided vocational soft skills-related training courses and resources based on ProF, a female empowerment programme.
Lasting follow ups that beyond the case
Except for the actions focus on this case it self, Inno also suggest factory K and
brand F can do more to prevent more cases happen in the future.- Raise the awareness of the significance of the non-judicial grievance mechanism. In factory K, the mechanism equals to Handshake Worker's Hotline. Still, the promotion of the hotline is limited. If the knowledge of the hotline can be expand to the whole factory, that would be of great help to identify similar issues and immediately conduct appropriate interventions.
- Strengthen the verification of identity information during the on-boarding procedure. Factory K was inspired by the communication and promised they would try to contact the local police station for establish a more flexible identity verification mechanism.
- Strict with the audition when cooperate with the employment agency. Factory K has terminate the contract with the agency involved after the case was reported.
