>The Sydney Morning Herald
>
>http://www.smh.com.au/news/9808/18/national/index.html
>
>Tuesday, August 18, 1998
>
>Children young as 7 "in slave labour"
>
>By DAMIEN MURPHY
>
>One hundred years after laws stamped it out, child labour has
>re-emerged, with children as young as seven being forced to work
>in sweatshops, a State parliamentary committee was told
>yesterday.
>
>The head of the University of NSW's School of Industrial
>Relations, Professor Michael Quinlan, said children working in
>clothing industry sweat shops were already suffering injuries
>while others had their educational chances ruined by chronic
>tiredness and missed examinations.
>
>He estimated that up to 100,000 Australians were outworkers but
>the number of children working in sweat shops was unknown.
>His study of outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear
>industry found hourly pay rates between $2 and $5. Children
>were put on to help families meet production targets.
>
>"We do not know the extent of child labour in the outworking
>industry, but we know that it is there and we know that it is
>associated with other forms of home work," he said.
>
>"It comes about not because the parents want their kids to work
>but, like the 19th century, they are on such low pay that they
>have no choice. It becomes a question of economic survival."
>
>Professor Quinlan said outworkers would not allow children to
>reply to questionnaires for the study for fear of the government or
>being blackballed from the industry.
>
>The president of State Parliament's law and justice committee,
>Mr Bryan Vaughan, said: "The idea that today in Sydney
>10-year-old children stack up garments before and after school,
>and that the child's input is needed by the family, is
>extraordinary."
>
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>