Stop child labor: Pro-Ge warns of step backwards in Europe!

Stop child labor: Pro-Ge warns of step backwards in Europe!

Deutschland - On June 12, 2025, worldwide is celebrating child labor worldwide. On the occasion of this important date, Reinhold Binder, the chairman of the Pro-GE production union, warns of a step backwards in the fight against child labor. He emphasizes that the international community still faces the enormous challenge that 138 million children worldwide have to work under dangerous and exploitial conditions. This child labor is often hidden in everyday products, especially in the service industry and in global supply chains, such as cocoa and textiles.

Binder emphasizes that harmful child labor is often not immediately recognizable, as is the case with underage household help, which are often hardly or not at all. He comments critically about the planned EU-OMNIBUS Ordinance, through which numerous regulations could be simplified, watered down or even deleted. This could result in deregulation of employee rights and human rights standards. Once again, Binder emphasizes the importance of the planned EU supply chain law, which is intended to stop taking responsibility for the conditions in their supply chains.

The dangers of a failed supply chain law

Binder warns that failure of the supply chain law not only increases child labor, but would also lead to more poverty. In order to effectively combat child labor, he demands that education be made possible and global responsibility must be taken over. According to an analysis by Save the Children, on which the SPIEGEL In 18 out of 20 cases examined, references to child labor in the supply chains of large companies.

The supply chain law, which was agreed in the coalition agreement of the 19th legislative period, stipulates that companies from a certain size are responsible for compliance with children's rights in their supply chain. It was adopted by the Federal Council on June 25, 2021 and entered into force on January 1, 2023. However, it initially only applies to companies with over 3,000 employees. From 2024, smaller companies with at least 1,000 employees must also implement the requirements.

The challenges of compliance with the law

However, the duty of care is only intended for direct suppliers, while references to violations in the case of upstream suppliers should also result in the human rights situation must be examined there. The direct contractual partner of German companies is often an importing middleman who has little influence on the upstream supply chains. According to Unicef ​​ there is therefore a risk that children's rights violations are shifted to lower stages of the supply chain instead of being fought.

For the success of the law, it is also crucial that the regulations not only focus on the big players. Currently only about 600 companies in Germany are obliged to take measures to comply with the law due to their size. Binder and many others require a comprehensive duty of care for all actors within the entire supply chain to effectively protect the rights of children.