From CRC/C/65/Add. 10 of 29 March 2000
259. The impoverishment of large segments of
the Guatemalan population has meant that many families’
subsistence depends to a large extent on income from child or
youth labour, and a high percentage of children have been
obliged to seek work in both the formal and the informal
sectors.
268. One improvement in the Children and
Adolescents Code over the earlier Minors Code is that it deals
openly with child labour and even stipulates the establishment
of administrative and organizational bodies. However, it does
not provide specific standards to regulate, protect, reduce or
eradicate child and juvenile labour, which is still regulated
by the Labour Code and the Constitution.
From CRC/C/3/Add. 33 of 20 April 1995
100. Article 102, paragraph l, of the
Political Constitution states, with regard to the minimum
social rights established in the labour legislation that
"minors under 14 years of age may not be employed in any kind
of work, with certain exceptions provided by law" (art. 150 of
the Labour Code).
101. The labour legislation specifies the exceptional cases
in which minors may work: for example, on production
of a permit issued by the General Labour Inspectorate when, by way
of exception, a minor aged under 14 years may be authorized
to work a six-hour day, and a minor over the age
of 14 years may be authorized to work up to seven hours.
For the purposes of such authorization it must be verified
that the minor will work as an apprentice or because
he or she needs to contribute to
the family economy, and that the work in
question is light in its duration and intensity and will
not prejudice the physical, mental or moral health
of the young worker, and that the requirements of his or
her compulsory education are met in some
way.
