38. The Anti-Slavery Society recommended to the Working Group that the Government of Italy should be invited to investigate the situation of working children; to review the relevant legislation and bring it into conformity with the terms of Italy's obligations under international treaties; to ratify the ILO Convention` on the Minimum Age for Admisstion to Employment, 1973 (No. 138) and accept the relevant Recommendation No. 146; to ensure that the labour inspectorate was trained, equipped and empowered to undertake all measures necessary for the protection of working minors; and to consider which reforms were both necessary and possible in the educatiom system and in the provision of recreational facilities.
4. Child labour in West Malaysia
39. The study, based on research conducted on Penang Island, stated that there was widespread employment of children in both rural and urban areas. In the urban areas, children made up one third of the work-force in the catering and small-scale industries. The study pointed out that in Malaysia there was no law totally forbidding the employment of children and that the country had not ratified any of the five ILO Conventions on conditions of employment of young persons. It also stated that employment of children and young persons was regulated by the Children and Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1966, which was applicable to West Malaysia only; the Act did lay down the type of work and hours of work for children and young persons but it did not stipulate a minimum wage. Children were alleged to be ill-protected by the legislation and, despite being recognized as part of the work-force, they were precluded from trade-unions as the minimum age for membership was sixteen. They therefore tended to be neglected and unacknowledged as a category within the labour force and their plight had passed unnoticed.
40. According to the same study, the demand for cheap child labour in West Malaysia was perpetuated and even increased by the uneven nature of economic growth in Malaysia which had made small enterprises increasingly dependent upon keeping the wages of the work-force as low as possible in order to remain viable. Social and economic inequalities in Malaysia, where there were no legal minimum wages and most workers were very poorly paid, forced children to enter employment in order to eam additional incomes for their families. The children worked for extremely low wages, in most cases without a work contract, for very long hours and with very few holidays, and were often subject to extreme dangers and risks in the course of their work.
41. In conclusion, the Anti-Slavery Society recommended that the Government of Malaysia be called upon to: consider undertaking or commissioning an intensive study of child labour, its causes and effects, and of the practicability of its progressive elimination; to review existing legislation and to enact and implement legislation in order to give to children effective protection from exploitation; to take steps to promote the conditions necessary to the fulfillment of the terms of the ILO Conventions relating to the employment of children and young persons; and to consider ratification as soon as possible of the ILO Convention on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973 (No. 138), and implementation of the relevant Recommendation No. 146.
42. On the same issue, the representative of the Anti-Slavery Society informed the Working Group that the Welfare Services Ministry of Malaysia had indicated an awareness of the problem of child labour and had expressed its intention to take appropriate measures.