Introduction
Welcome to our forum today as we continue to share the diverse knowledge relating to the labour laws and practice. In the previous article we have introduce the rule against Child Employment. We have dealt with general rule of not employing children under 14 years and some exception to the rule for employing children of 14 years and above. In today’s article we are going to look upon conditions that employers are prohibited to employ children under 18 years.
Child defined
Section 4 of the ELRA defines a child to mean
‘a person under the age of 14 years; provided that for the employment in hazardous sectors, child means a person under the age of 18 years;
The definition of a child as far as the employment is concerned is a person under 14 years, means any person of 14 years can be employed. However, as far as condition of employment is concerned for hazardous sectors a child is any person below 18 years.
The law has stated clearly the hazardous sectors for which a child or person below the age of 18 years is not allowed to be employed.
The Employment and Labour Relations (General) Regulations, G.N. No.47 of 2017 listed hazardous work for children
Agriculture
- Do not employ a child under 18 years
to planting, weeding, applying pesticides, prepare seed beds, pruning, harvesting and sorting, operating farm machinery and driving farm vehicle.
Fishery
- Do not employ a child under 18 years
Placing and hauling fishnet, repairing fishnets, sorting fish or carrying fish baskets, cooking, carrying ice blocks, fish salting and drying, deep sea fishing etc
Mining and Quarrying
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on mining and quarrying to do the following;-
Shaft, drift or trench digging, carrying ore from shaft, drilling and blasting, crushing ore, grinding ore etc
Construction
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on construction to do the following;-
Cement mixing, painting, brick making, trenching, carrying water, carrying bricks, excavation operation, demolition operations etc
Service Sector
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on service sector to do the following;-
Preparing food, cleaning kitchen equipment and utensils, washing clothes, hauling market supplier, clearing equipment furniture and furnishings including toilets, maintaining outside area etc
Restaurants/Hotels/Bars/Guest House
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on restaurants/hotels/bars/guest house to do the following;-
Utensils equipment cleaning, scrubbing floors, window cleaning, bed making etc
Service Sector – Community Service
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on service sector – community services to do the following;-
Cobblers, electrical repair, auto repair, tyre repairing, laundry shops, tailoring shop, hair dressing saloon, barber shop, shoe polishing etc
Trade Sector
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on trade sector to do the following;-
Carrying and selling merchandise in the street
Transport Sector
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on transport sector to do the following;-
Auto repair workshops, service station, garage, carrying luggage, cleaning vehicles, loading goods into vehicle
Other Informal Sector
- Do not employ a child under 18 years on other informal sector operations to do the following;-
Carpentry and fixture workshop, cotton ginning processing and production of hosiery goods, detergents manufacturing, jute textile manufacture and coin making, lime kins and manufacture of lime etc
The employer has to be careful before making arrangement with an employee so as to ascertain the age of the employee to be allowed to work on the above sectors and carrying the required duties.
Yours,
Isaack Zake, Esq.
Isaack Zake an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania, he is passionate in pursuing matters in relation to labour and Human Resource Management and has been labour lawyer practitioner at various areas of practice such as FIBUCA Trade Union, Commission for Mediation and Arbitration, Labour Court of Tanzania and Labour Office at the Ministry of the Labour Affairs. Mr. Isaack is also a founder of www.ulizasheria.co.tz a blog that offers legal education to the public but also specifically to the labour stakeholders who has been able to publish more than 100 articles relating to labour laws in Swahili.
Mr. Zake is also working with the legal team of Tanzania Association of Agriculture, Commerce, Industry and Mining Employers (TAACIME) an Employer’s Association. You are all welcome to join TAACIME for advocating employer(s) rights.
For more information, questions and suggestions please contact0713 888 040 or with email info@taacime.co.tz