In response to the article by the Samoa Observer on the 4 th of January 2021 Monday Edition on the
above subject, the Ministry would like offer the following response for matters within the Ministry’s
mandate.
The scope of the Labour and Employment Relations Act (LERA) is limited to public bodies and private or
non-government business entities i.e. formal businesses. As such, the Ministry has carried out
monitoring and enforcement activities to ensure that Children under the age of 15 are not employed by
businesses under its mandate in various sectors such as construction, tourism and many others. What
was not mentioned in the Samoa Observer article is the current review of the Labour and Employment
Relations Act that is now in its final stages following multiple stakeholder and public consultations. The
review will include the following proposed amendments in line with our Ministry policy to strengthen
the current regulatory framework:
 Amend the general minimum age of employment to 16 years and above, in line with the
compulsory school-aged child of 4-16 years under the Education Amendment Act 2019;
 Set the lower limit for employment of children in safe and light employment to 13 years of age;
 The LER regulations will follow to support the amended LERA Act including a schedule of safe
and light employment for children aged between 13 and 16 years; and a hazardous occupations
list prohibiting the employment of all children i.e. under 18 years of age.
 The hazardous occupations list will include exposure to environments, substances, and
machinery that is detrimental to mental and physical development of all children.
Given the various activities classified as worst forms of child labour, inter-agency cooperation is required
in order to construct a cohesive and holistic approach. In this regard, the Ministry has prioritized the
Child Labour Taskforce as a key platform for a collective response to priority issues relating to child
labour including child street vendors and any other relevant action.