China's education officials are joining with employment
authorities to mount investigations into reports of agencies and
individuals who lure minors to work, said the Ministry of Education
on Thursday.
"We have received reports that some agencies and individuals
lured minors to work on the pretense of introducing them to
part-time jobs or internships," said the ministry in a
circular.
Education authorities across the country will join with
officials who have law enforcement powers in labor departments and
commerce and industry administrations to intensify supervision and
management to stop illegal employment of minors by agencies and
individuals, it said.
The ministry asked its local branches and all schools to be
aware and report illegal employment to the authorities.
Chinese law bans minors under the age of 16 from working and
those between 16 and 18 must be given easier and safer work than
adult workers.
Employers who violate the law can be fined and, if the crime is
serious, their business licenses will be withdrawn.
In June, private brick kilns in north China's Shanxi Province
were found abusing workers, many of whom were underage, in a forced
labor scandal.
A total of 95 officials in the province have been punished in
the wake of the forced labor scandal.
The ministry also warned vocational schools not to violate
regulations on internships, which ban students from interning
during their first year.
Most vocational schools in China take in students who finish
three years in secondary school, but do not go to high school.
In 2004, a private vocational school in southeast China's
Jiangxi Province was caught luring first-year students to work
full-time in an electronic hardware factory during their summer
vacation by promising free tuition.
(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2007)