Around the World

Despite progress on the issue, today approximately 211 million children can be found working underground in mines, on unsafe building sites, manufacturing centers, handling toxic substances, and sharp tools on farms (Child labor, n.d.) A considerable amount of the child labor is occurring at the bottom end of global supply chains. Companies that invest in and source from developing countries are at risk of being implicated in the use of child labor. Child labor in global supply chains is an important topic to activists, the media, the public and private investors and the consequences for businesses of being associated with the use of child labor can include damage of their reputation and shareholder disappointment or even divestment from the company. In the communities that are being affected by child labor, there is usually no remedy and the children are usually prevented from realizing their basic rights are being infringed upon.

To uphold universal values and avoid association in child labor problems, companies must take into consideration the amount of child labor in the countries and sectors where they operate their businesses. They must actively manage the risk that child labor will occur somewhere along their supply chains. Child labor is complex and dynamic, coming or going in response to changes in any number of conditions which most of the time are beyond companies' direct control. To make it worse, in most countries it is illegal and hidden from plain view which makes it harder to spot or for companies to try to control (Siddiqi & Patrinos, n.d.). Just one incident of child labor coming to light involving a company can cause the company considerable harm in many areas.

There are many different ways that companies can help curb the amount of child labor or at least make sure it is not happening in ways that involve their companies. Organizations can make it explicit in their formal policy or code of conduct that all forms of child labor falling under any laws or conventions will be avoided and if need be, combated. Since there are so many countries that renounce child labor, there is no conceivable reason why companies should act only against some types of banned child labor and not others. Another way they could do this is by making it explicit in contracts with their suppliers that they should erase child labor and make sure it does not happen in the process of producing the companies' products. Companies could involve their own staff and their suppliers in combating child labor while informing and involving them in the company's action plan against child labor (Siddiqi & Patrinos, n.d.). Company's could also verify the authenticity of age certificates and advocate jointly with other parties for the establishment of reliable birth registration systems in areas that don't have them because it is often difficult to verify age certificates.