Child Labour

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), Child Labour refers to work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. Any person below 16 years of age is a child and they cannot be employed in any type of employment except engage in light agricultural or similar activities carried out by family members before of after the school hours. Sri Lanka has taken various measures to eliminate child labour, including The National Policy on Elimination of Child Labour in 2017. In the National Steering Committee (NSC) on Child Labour where all the relevant parties meet, special attention is paid to eliminate child labour and it has identified Elimination of Child Labour as an ongoing process. Department of Labour (DOL) Conducts awareness programs for public officials and the general public to eliminate child labour, conducts raids on Child Labour and execute the law related to the Child Labour and hazards forms for Child Labour. DOL has identified 71 types of work which are hazardous to both physical and mental health as well as the safety and wellbeing of persons under 18 years old and; employment of any person below 18 years in hazardous work has been prohibited.

Employment of Women in Night Work

Employing women from 10.00 PM to 5.00 AM (11 consecutive hours) is known as women in night work. Female employees above 18 years old can employ night work in industrial undertakings with a prior written permission of the Commissioner of Labour. The employer is obliged to obtained that written permission from the Commissioner of Labour before employing women in night work. It is obligatory on the part of the employer to fulfill certain conditions before seeking such permission. No women should be forced to do night work against her consent, and a woman employed in between 6.00 AM and 6.00 PM on a particular day should not be employed after 10.00 PM on the same day. There are many other conditions to be fulfilled to employ women in night work and the DOL conducts inspections to check whether the relevant conditions are followed.

Maternity Benefits

Female employees who are covered under the Maternity Benefits Ordinance are entitled for maternity leave of 12 weeks for any live child birth. This can be obtained as 2 weeks prior to the confinement and 10 weeks after the confinement. If the child birth is a still birth, the female employee is entitled for a maternity leave of 6 weeks. This can be obtained as 2 weeks prior to the confinement and 4 weeks after the confinement.

Female employees who are covered under the Shops and office employees (Regulation of employment and remuneration) Act are entitled for maternity leave of 84 working days for any live child birth. This can be obtained as 14 days prior to the confinement and 70 days after the confinement. If the child birth is a still birth, the female employee is entitled for a maternity leave of 42 days. This can be obtained as 14 days prior to the confinement and 28 days after the confinement.

There are other relieves with regard to the protection of the mother and child under these acts and ordinances such as 2 feeding intervals per day.