1. First Project Stage:

TİSK introduced in the period of 1993-1994 “Manager Training on Child Labour Project” within the framework of ILO-IPEC programme.

In the first project period, a survey was carried out to identify the number of children workers (those under the age of 18) and their statutes in the affiliated enterprises of TİSK’s member employer associations. The survey results covered 1 million employees in 485 enterprises in 12 sectors. The results demonstrated that only 2.9% of those employees were children and that 94.1% of those children were students of vocational training schools who were receiving practical training in line with the Vocational Training Law.

2. Second Project Stage:

The seminars, working group meetings and research carried out by other institutions during the first project stage demonstrated that the main problem of child labour existed at the small scale enterprises and therefore the second stage TISK-IPEC project entitled “Awareness Raising Project for Small Scale Metal Industry Employers” was launched during the period from April 1995 to March 1996. TİSK’s main working topic within IPEC project for this purpose was “to inform and raise awareness of small scale metal industry employers in Istanbul on apprenticeship training system and its legal framework”.

Within this framework, three representative industrial sites intensively accommodating small and medium scale enterprises (1-24 workers) in metal industry in Istanbul were selected. These were “Doğu” Industrial Site, “Pendik” Industrial Site and “Atatürk” Industrial Site.

3. Third Project Stage:

The third TİSK/IPEC Project period that covered the period from August 1996 to July 1997 involved field work in child labour-intensive small and medium scale metal industry enterprises and the third stage project was launched with the name “Improvement of Working Conditions of Children Working Small and Medium Scale Metal Industry Enterprises”.

In this project stage, enterprises in İstanbul “IMES” and “Fatih” Industrial Sites were dealt with and employers were given training on health and safety at work and also on first aid and awareness of the issue was raised.

4. Fourth Project Stage:

In the fourth project stage of one year which started in July 1998, our Confederation, in cooperation with employers in İstanbul Pendik Industrial Site, started reaching out directly to the children working in the industry and established “TİSK Bureau for Working Children” to provide health and training services to children as well as to institutionalize the efforts that had been continuing since 1993.

“TİSK Bureau for Working Children” was put into service on 22 April 1999 in its newly constructed building and project services started to be provided from that location.

This “Bureau for Working Children” is a pioneering model for employer organizations and is considered to be a model for especially developing countries.

The services provided at the Bureau for Working Children include training on first aid procedures, protections against diseases, hazards of smoking and drugs, occupational health and safety, personal hygiene, dental and mouth hygiene, adolescence, sexually transmitted diseases and healthy nutrition which were provided by the faculty and students of Marmara University Health Education Faculty, TİSK project partner. The aim in these activities was to ensure that today’s children should be able to transfer this knowledge to new apprentices when they grow up to become future employers.

Within the project, our Confederation, with help from Fişek Institute (www.fisek.org.tr) Foundation of Science and Action for Child Labour carried out a health screening for 350 working children at the Pendik Apprenticeship Centre. Although the registration procedure at the Centre requires a health report, most of the apprentices have confessed to be going through a check-up first time in their lives and most of them turned out to have health problems. The project implemented by our Confederation in this period is particularly important in that it constitutes a “synthesis”.

The Project “synthesized” the experiences and resources of TİSK, the employers at Pendik Industrial Sites, Marmara University Health Education Faculty, Fişek Institute Foundation of Science and Action for Working Children and MoNE Pendik Apprenticeship Training Centre.

Strategy Identification Meetings

In this period, group meetings were initiated aiming at transfer of knowledge to employers and identification of contributions for working children and it was underlined that TİSK’s contributions would be aimed directly at children working in the industry.

In parallel to that, focus group meetings covering 30 children working at Pendik Industrial Site were held and their needs were identified.

The meetings were attended by ILO and TİSK officials as well representatives from Marmara University Health Education Faculty and Pendik Apprenticeship Training Centre. The meetings concluded that the children wanted to be perceived as adults in work life and that they did not consider themselves to be children.

This, in turn, demonstrated that the children needed guidance and psychological support which would show the way for right decisions and logical thinking in preparing for the future as individuals.
The efforts and contributions of Pendik Industrial Site employers and Governing Body demonstrate the success of awareness raising activities undertaken by TİSK in previous years.

Health Screening

In October 1998, 175 children between the age of 13-15 attending Pendik Apprenticeship Training Centre and working at Pendik Industrial Site were provided with health check.

The health check provided by Fişek Institute Foundation of Science and Action for Working Children included hearing tests with odiometer, respiratory functions tests with spirometer and colour vision ability tests.

As a result of the screening, 91.4% of the children were found to have less than good health. The most frequent problem was ear drum irregularities due to previous story of otitis media disease while 20 children were found to have respiratory function problems, 17 children were found to have vision problems, 8 were found to be colour blind, 4 had ear inflammation, 3 had heart murmur, 2 had low blood pressure.

Through the survey made during the screening, the demographic, social economic backgrounds as well as social tendencies of the children were also identified.

The results of the survey demonstrate that working children have left their schools either because they did not find the education sufficient or because they simply could not afford it and started working. 50% of the working children said they would like to return to school if they had the opportunity.

In addition, 30% of the children expressed that they did not like being a student, 29% said they started work to earn a qualification and 23% said they started working because of financial problems.

The fact that most of the children confessed to have a health check for the first time in their lives demonstrates their low level of access to health care.
It goes without saying that the recurrent health screenings also serves as training and that the apprentices who earn a culture of health and occupational safety would have more positive attitude in work life when they grow up to become masters and employers.

It is almost inevitable that these children who struggle to pursue their education while working would face psychological and physical difficulties. It is not easy to obtain the necessary efficiency neither from education and nor from work under these conditions. The extension of compulsory basic education to 8 years in 1997 has proven to be the most effective way to prevent children between 12-14 ages from leaving education in high numbers.

A second health screening was carried out in May 1999 to analyse the health situation of children below the age 18 working at Pendik Industrial Site.

Only 24 out of 155 children of which 35% were below 15 were found to have no negative health symptoms in the health screening which took into account the health conditions in the work environment.

However it must be stated that not all of these problems are directly related to working. For example 61 cases of perforation, deformation or inflammation in ear drum are most probably due to otitis media that the children may have suffered earlier and that went untreated. 37 cases of decreased hearing ability related or not to this problem are assessed in this framework.

The most frequent negative health finding in the children turned out to be insufficiency of respiratory functions identified by Spiro meter test. The evaluations were based on comparisons with children of same age, weight and height and therefore those children having respiratory function performance below 85% in comparison to other children were included in this set of negative cases. This case which was observed in 65 of the subjects constitutes 43% of the children screened. This situation might be a direct result of working conditions as well as a result of smoking habit that appears to due to the social risk created by working environment.

It was demonstrated also during the screening that working children were “valued” and that “they were individuals different form adults and cared for”. Two children who turned out to have heart problems were taken to Koşuyolu Cardiological Hospital for further analysis and treatment and were applied ECG, lung roentgen and blood tests..

These activities also served to make small employers understand the philosophy of health services and their obligations understand better.
The information obtained through the screening gives the opportunity to identify the weak points of public health policy and as well as for policy making in view of the priorities to be followed in the activities of the project.

Health Training and Guidance Services

Health screening was followed by andragogical (adult) training which aimed at establishing multi-faceted communication which working children. Pendik Apprenticeship Training Centre was a partner in this activity and the working children continued to receive training on first aid procedures, protection against diseases, occupational health and safety, hazards of smoking and drugs, mouth and dental health.

The project also contributed to the development of an unprecedented cooperation between universities, apprenticeship training centre, small enterprise employers.
In addition, guidance unit services were introduced within the Working Children Bureau to provide working children, having left formal education prematurely and started working, with guidance services which would enable them to explore themselves, learning about the opportunities open for them in their environment, developing untapped skills and adapting to the environment.

Working child profiling service:

A profiling survey was carried out for all children that could be reached at Pendik Industrial Site and it surroundings. The survey aimed at identifying the child’s workplace, home address, age in which he started working, whether he attended apprenticeship training centre, family situation, number of brother/sisters, reason for working, way of spending the wage, whether he had a girl friend, job satisfaction, whether he changed jobs and whether he wanted to return to formal education.

According to the survey results;

• 39% of the children were born in Marmara region and 38% were born in Black Sea region.
• The fathers of 39% are workers while the fathers of 39% are self-employed.
• 44 % have a family of 4 or more children.
• 67% help their families with their earnings.
• 46% started working because of financial problems while 25% started working to earn a qualification.
• 27% attend apprenticeship training centre.
• 48% play football for leisure while 51% don’t have a girlfriend.
• 73% are satisfied with their workplace.

Information service for working children:

All children working at Pendik Industrial Site were invited in groups to the Bureau one afternoon every week and were given training on first aid procedures on dummies as well as adolescence training on their physical, mental, emotional and sexual development.

Psychological Guidance Service for Working Children:

A survey was conducted for working children to identify the problems of children having problems in adaptation, feeling themselves alone, unsuccessful and valueless. The “problem screening test” survey was developed which covered such topics as mental and physical development, work life, home and family life, communication skills, contact with opposite sex, plans on future work life and personal designs. The survey results demonstrated that;

• Of all the children, 18% reported a health complaint in eyes, 16% in ears, 15% reported a headache. In total 87% of children reported health problems in which 37% were above average.
• 74% of children reported problems in family life of which 28% on living far from work, 12% demand by the family to earn more, 10% on insufficient information about sex from their families while 27% remained above average.
• 67% of children reported problems in social communication while 36% were above average; 20% reported being reluctant to befriend the opposite sex, 10% reported being introvert against everybody, 9% thought themselves to be too sensitive.
• 11% reported themselves to be nervous, 9% reported feeling lonely. 84% of children defined personality problems with 43% over average.
• 16% mentioned not having a girl friend. 78% of children reported having problems in friendship relation with 35% above average.
• 24 % reported they did not know what to do in the future, 23% reported did not want to live in problems and constraints, 16% did not get along with the families on future plans. In total, 82% of the children defined problems in financial, professional lives and future plans with 35% above average.
• 99% of the children defined a general problem with 43% above average.

Monitoring service for working children:

Working children were monitored in work environment to observe the adaptation in work life and to identify their needs and 200 children were provided with food, clothing (shoes-coats) and health care.

5. Fifth Project Stage:

In this project stage which started in May 2001 and lasted for 8 months, the aim was to strengthen the TİSK Bureau for Workers and to withdraw children under 15 from work in a systematic and planned manner while improving working conditions for children above 15 and orienting them toward education.

In light of the experience before the fifth project stage, it was concluded that education plays a crucial role in preventing the early engagement of children in work life and was stated that the legal and social protection for children were important for social development and human rights.

From the point of worker health, helping the working children adopt positive attitude to use protective equipment (masks, etc.) at early ages has been an important part of the aims of the training activities undertaken by “the bureau.”

One other point to be taken into consideration in giving this training is that in addition to the guidance services to be provided to the children, it is important to provide guidance to the employers and enterprise owners as well.

Enterprise Joint Health Centre

“The Regulation on Working Conditions of Workplace Doctors and Their Duties and Authorities”, enacted in line with Worker Health and Work Safety Statute, states in article 8, paragraph g, those enterprises employing less than 50 workers could setup “Joint Enterprise Health Unit”.

It is considered that the implementation of such a practice at organized industrial zones for SME’s and in industrial sites would serve the development of the country.

Establishment and usage by enterprises at organized industry zones and small industrial sites such Health Units to which they would contribute in proportion to their numbers of workers would not only help them fulfil the requirements of the occupational health and safety legislation protecting workers and enterprise from hazards but would also avoid duplication of efforts and waste of resources.

Health Screening

First year students of Pendik Apprenticeship Training Centre students, most of which were children working at Pendik Industrial Site, went through health screening covering general health check-up, hearing tests with odiometer, respiratory function tests with spirometer and colour vision tests.

A total of 258 working children (24 girls and 234 boys) were screened. 2 of them were 13, 20 were 14, 73 were 15, 83 were 16, 68 were 17 and 12 were 18 years old.

89 of the working children reported working in dusty environment, 114 reported smoking. In the respiratory function tests, 140 of the children turned out to have normal functions.

143 of the children reported to be working in a noisy environment and 80 reported to listen to high volume music. In the hearing ability tests, 60 children were found to have some degree of hearing loss.

At the screening, 80 of the working children complained from back ache. 63 of them had back ache that started within the last year while 17 had it for more than a year or longer. The number of those who have repeated complaints is 54. Four of the children previously consulted a doctor for this problem while 2 had absence from the school for this reason.

During the activities undertaken so far, it was observed that the enterprises employed very small numbers of workers due to the peculiarities of the small industrial site and efforts are underway to setup joint health unit.

Consultations at the Health Centre

Between May 2001 and December 2001, 103 first aid requests, 215 health complaints, 76 cases of injection, small operation or guidance requests, 15 cases of circumcision, 26 requests of check up were filed at the centre. 200 children were subject to anaemia test, the results of which showed that none had anaemia problem.

During the first health screening carried out in 1999, it was ensured that the Pendik Industrial Site was included in the vaccination campaign programme of the District Health Unit and 2000 children received vaccination against tetanus.

6. Sixth Project Stage:

“Social Cooperation against Child Labour and Time Based Policy and Programme Activities in Adana Support Project” under TİSK and TÜRK-İŞ partnership was signed on 12 December 2005.

The project which will last 16 months until March 2007 will contribute to the Time Based Policy and Programme Framework prepared in line with the opinions of the social and related partners to implement the ILO Convention No: 182 on “Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour” which is actually one of the 8 fundamental conventions of the ILO.

The project which is financed by the ILO’s International programme for the Elimination of Child Labour-IPEC was designed based on the activities of “TİSK Working Children Bureau” that was set up by our Confederation at Pendik Industrial Site.

The project aims at establishing in Adana a similar bureau which sets a model for developing countries, has earned appreciations through the training (for children, parents and employers), health and guidance services and has been proposed for dissemination to other sectors and regions. The Bureau to be established under the partnership of TİSK and TÜRK-İŞ will serve children working industry (furniture) as well is seasonal agricultural work and in the streets.
The project aims at achieving the following:

Capacity increase in the leading institutions,
Placement of working children at appropriate education institutions,
Making vocational education and training accessible for children and their families,
Awareness raising activities in Adana and in the whole country against the worst forms of child labour,
Training of parents on the negative aspects of child labour,
Awareness raising for teachers,
Development of local level child labour monitoring capacity at TİSK and TÜRK-İŞ,
Withdrawal of 100 children from street work, 75 children from seasonal agricultural work and 75 children from furniture sector (in total 250),
The prevention of 50 children from working in the streets, 25 children from seasonal agricultural work and 25 children from furniture sector (total of 100),
Establishing “TİSK & TÜRK-İŞ Working Children Bureau” in Adana.