The Netherlands Steps Up Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor

The Dutch Child Labor Duty of Care Law is a step in the right direction, but it remains to be seen how the government will structure the enforcement apparatus and whether regulators will have sufficient capacity to implement the expansive regulation.

The Binnenhof in The Hague, Netherlands. Photo: Rainer Ebert.

By: Aleydis Nissen, contributor

Child labor is one of the major problems of our time. Child labor has a severe impact on the fulfillment of children’s rights, including education, safety and health. Working children do not have the time or energy to invest in their overall development. Moreover, in various developing and emerging countries, where labor standards are low, inexpensive child labor deprives adult workers of employment in low-skill sectors.

International attitudes towards child labor have evolved slowly over time. In 1998, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) declared the abolition of all forms of child labor to be a core labor standard, requiring all ILO Member States to act in good faith to eliminate child labor. Up to that point, many states had refused to commit to the outright abolition of child labor. The issue persists to this day, as ILO Convention 138 (1973), which aims to abolish all forms of child labor and to raise the minimum employment age to 15 years, has garnered just 173 signatories. ILO Convention 182 (1999) — which prohibits only the worst forms of child labor — garnered 187 signatories.

In recent years, some ILO Member States have made significant attempts to curb child labor. For example, in 2016, the United States amended Section 307 of the Tariff Act (1930) to allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to more easily prohibit the importation of goods suspected of using forced or indentured (child) labor in manufacturing. In 2019, the Netherlands adopted the Dutch Child Labor Duty of Care Law (the “Law”), which takes effect in 2022. This contribution discusses the establishment of the Law, the obligations it places on various entities, and its mechanisms for conflict resolution.

Initial Passage

The Dutch Child Labor Duty of Care Law received strong support in the private sector, including from Heineken, the Dutch branch of Nestlé, and 40 other large corporations. Conservative parliamentarians and the food, beverage, and clothing industries opposed the law, arguing that a voluntary initiative would suffice. In response, the Law’s proponents cited the continued prevalence of child labor despite the extensive preventative measures already undertaken by many large multinational corporations. In the proponents’ view, the Law’s requirements would level the playing field by requiring all companies to engage in the same preventative measures.

Duty-Bearers and Obligations

The Law is extensive in scope. It applies to corporations registered in the Dutch trade register and to all corporations that sell or deliver goods or services to Dutch end-users more than once a year. The law defines “corporation” broadly to include any economically active entity, excluding only corporations concerned solely with the transportation of goods. While the Law currently treats businesses equally irrespective of size, the government will likely act by Royal Decree to reduce the burden on small and medium enterprises in the future. The government has not announced which authority will be responsible for enforcement under the Law, but a decision is forthcoming.

The Law requires corporations to take all reasonable measures to prevent the use of child labor in the production or delivery of goods and services to Dutch end-users. It does not apply to business-to-business transactions. The Law creates two specific obligations. First, corporations must assess whether there is reasonable suspicion that their products or services involve child labor anywhere in the world. Where there is reasonable suspicion, a corporation must develop and implement a plan of action to address the issue in accordance with the ILO and International Organisation of Employers’ Child Labor Guidance Tool for Business. Second, corporations must submit a “duty of care” statement to the regulatory authority. The authority will publish the statements online in a public, freely accessible, and digitally searchable register.

Conflict Resolution

Under the Law, subject corporations are primarily responsible for addressing grievances. Any aggrieved person or entity must first file a complaint directly with the allegedly noncompliant corporation and must support the complaint with concrete evidence. A complainant who believes that a corporation failed to adequately address his complaint can appeal to the regulator six months after the initial complaint. The regulator can inspect the corporation’s plan of action whenever necessary and can request additional information or act on its own initiative to determine whether the corporation has violated the Law.

The regulator will act primarily as a mediator and can issue binding orders. It can also impose fines for noncompliance, ranging from 8,700 EUR (9,723 USD) for failure to timely submit a “duty of care” statement to the greater of 820,000 EUR (916,493 USD) or 10 percent of a corporation’s annual revenue for failure to conduct the mandatory risk assessment or to develop an action plan. Additionally, criminal proceedings can follow if new offenses occur within five years of a previous offense if the two offenses occurred under the management of the same director. The public prosecutor can also conduct investigations outside Dutch borders.

Conclusion

The Dutch Child Labor Duty of Care Law subjects regulated entities to new and heightened scrutiny. It remains to be seen both how the government will structure the enforcement apparatus and whether the designated regulator will have sufficient capacity to implement the expansive regulation. The Law is not yet operational, but four Members of Parliament have already proposed a new and far more extensive legislative initiative that would reach a broad swath of human rights issues in corporate supply chains. If the Law is successful, it might prove a useful example for other nations seeking to eliminate the fruits of child labor from their markets.

Aleydis Nissen is a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden Law School. Visit her website at www.aleydisnissen.com.