A EUROPEAN committee has found that the UK did not fully comply with legislation relating to children, families and migrants in the three years between 2014 and 2017.
The European Committee of Social Rights – part of the 47-nation Council of Europe (CoE) – found the UK was not in compliance with The European Social Charter on several grounds.
It said the minimum wage for 16- and 17-year-olds was not fair, and working hours for schoolchildren – eight hours a day for 35 hours a week during school holidays – were excessive.
The committee was critical that pain-inducing restraint techniques were still being used in young offenders’ institutions (YOIs) and, while the age of criminal responsibility in the UK was said to be “manifestly too low”, members noted Scotland had raised the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years.
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One area the committee found particularly problematic was the rights of migrant workers, with all but three of the countries examined – Estonia, Lithuania and the UK – not conforming with the provisions of Article 19 of the charter.
It said: “In particular, the rate of non-conformity findings rose to 72% as regards infringements on the right to family reunion.
“The Council of Europe evidently faces a daunting challenge in persuading more member states to accept the right to family reunion and the obligations that follow from it. Family reunion procedures account for a very significant proportion of migration flows to Europe; in the EU area ranging from 30-50% of total legal immigration over the last decade.
“It is not surprising therefore that the right to family reunion leads an uneasy existence caught between mostly competing concerns: on the one hand a commitment to protect human rights and on the other hand economic and political interests in ‘managing’ migration.”
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The UK ratified the European Social Charter in 1962, the year after it was drawn up, although it was six years late in responding to the 2012 deadline for a report to the CoE on its application.
There were six conclusions of the UK’s non-conformity, said the committee, which added that it required further information about another six to properly assess them.
It added: “The committee considers that the absence of the information required amounts to a breach of the reporting obligation entered into by the United Kingdom under the 1961 Charter.
“The Government consequently has an obligation to provide the requested information in the next report from the United Kingdom on this provision.”
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