Human Rights in Togo - Employees' Rights

Employees' Rights

Workers have the right to join unions, and most have the right to strike and bargain collectively, within certain limitations. Anti-union discrimination, forced labor and child labor are illegal, but these laws are not well enforced. Many children work as beggars, servants, farm laborers, and at other jobs, the most dangerous being in quarries, with some of them essentially being slaves, while many women are forced to work as prostitutes or domestics. Although employing children under 15 is illegal, some children as young as five years old are in employment. The Ministry of Social Action and National Solidarity is supposed to enforce the law against child labor, but enforcement is weak. There are minimum wages for various types of work, but they are very low and unenforced. There are also laws restricting work hours and the like, but these tend to be ignored and unforced.

According to a 2012 report by the U.S. Department of Labor, “Togo made a minimal advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor” in 2011, with local child labor committees expanding their efforts “by tracking the return of trafficking victims and improved coordination by sharing information with government officials during the reporting period.” Also, Togo's government cooperates with “donor-funded projects to combat the worst forms of child labor and operates a hotline to report child abuse.” Still, Togo has yet to devote “sufficient resources to enforce its child labor laws effectively” and minors “continue to work in dangerous conditions.”