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tagged: AFC FINDS MINISTER NADIR’S REMARKS ON CHILDREN TO BE UNBELIEVABLE
Posted by cathy in Press Releases
Unbelievable and disgraceful are the only words the AFC can find to describe Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir’s statement that he will be introducing legislation to lower the age limit for children to commence working from 15 to 13. The AFC states categorically, that it will never support any legislation, or initiative, to reduce of the age at which a child can be allowed to work.
The laws that were introduced in 1994 which set the minimum age at 15 were done with good reason; taking into account international conventions, and the scourge of child labour and exploitation that had started to rare its ugly head in Guyana. The PPP/C should have been pushing a programme to educate children aged 13, and not one that will see our children going into the fields, factories and offices to work at that tender age. What manner of man is the Minister of Labour?
We demand an explanation from the President as to whether this is the opinion of his Government, and call on all Guyanese to voice their objections to this latest outrage.
In typical PPP fashion. Dumb down the population so they can pull the wool over the Guyanese eyes.
The AFC must vigorously protest this assinine proposal and the AFC must be at the helm of exposing the true impacts of this legislation which is only geared to provide cheap labour, turn Guyana into a sweatshop economy and leave an artificial legacy of improvement for the outgoing administration.
The impacts of lowering the age limit for employment will be detrimental to the Guyanese society:
– It will encourage a higher rate of high school dropouts. Imagine a country where a large number of the skilled and educated have left for greener pastures and the remaining adults only have a grade 8 or 9(equivalent to Forms 2 and 3)education. What sort of productive economy can such a nation promise?
– It will displace a more skilled adult workforce purely because of the cheap labour a child can provide; afterall, a child does not have rent to pay, a family to upkeep, does not own a car and therefore doesn’t have the overhead that comes with it, etc. etc.
– It will have the effect of increasing crime (murder, theft,sexual assault and abuse etc) because it’s what ultimately happens in a society where a large population of its adults are jobless and hopeless.
– It will ensure a perpetual cycle of illiteracy and poverty.
The AFC has a mandate to ensure that Guyanese people of every party affiliation understand that such legislation is not in their best interest.
The rest of the worl is moving forward while Guyana is moving backward. It is unthinkable how the disgraceful minster can look at his grand children with silverspoons in their mouth while he send other children to the fields and factory floors. Where is our children innocence and what is the price of it. Will sending children to the workforce bring the Guyana economy out of its misery? We should support this legislation but onlt after the minister and his associates send their children to the work force.
I am sure the US state department is taking note and is prepare to put Guyana manufactured product under the child labour restriction.