Letters | Ending youth labour exploitation should be on global agenda
- Readers discuss how young people are vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace, and the need for companies to assess the outcomes of their social programmes at different stages
The Global Peace Summit held in Doha, Qatar, last month brought together young representatives from around the world to discuss pressing issues, including the alarming prevalence of youth internship exploitation around the world.
As a fully funded delegate, I had the opportunity to participate in discussions on this matter. One of the distressing practices that came to light during the summit was the overreliance of companies on interns as a source of cheap labour. There are companies that employ a large number of interns while maintaining only a minimal full-time staff. Once the internship period concludes, a new cohort of interns is brought in. These companies thus have a sustainable supply of inexpensive labour.
Unfortunately, this approach often hinders interns’ ability to learn from experienced professionals. Some companies even pressure them to sign letters exempting them from employee or minimum wage protection, exploiting their vulnerability.
It is essential for international organisations to take the lead and propose measures to governments worldwide to address this exploitation. One such measure is the establishment of a standard percentage for the proportion of interns versus full-time staff, ensuring that internships do not become a system of abuse. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that interns are not exempt from employee protection, safeguarding their rights and well-being. Furthermore, a list of companies earning more than a billion US dollars while not paying their interns should be published by a third-party organisation.
At the summit, deceptive labour practices were discussed. Youth have been deceived into working in prison-like compounds in Cambodia and Myanmar, where they were forced to engage in cyber fraud for criminal syndicates. Around 120,000 people in Myanmar and 100,000 people in Cambodia have been coerced into engaging in cyber fraud.
While it takes time to address corruption, international youth organisations can play a crucial role in verifying companies through testimonials and videos, creating a trusted platform for youth workers around the world.
Furthermore, it is imperative to invest in the participation of Hong Kong’s teenagers in international conferences. By empowering our youth to represent Hong Kong, China, on the global stage, more business opportunities and international cooperation can be fostered in the long run and grant us greater international influence.
Bonnie Lee Tin-sum, Fo Tan
How companies can better assess social impact
The Hong Kong stock exchange (HKEX) plans to make it mandatory for listed companies to make climate-related disclosures in their environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports. Less reported but equally important are HKEX’s standards on social reporting. HKEX has said social impact is on par with environmental impact, and requirements related to both are subject to the same “comply-or-explain” basis. As reporting standards become more stringent, companies will need to apply better tools to assess their social impact.
Ensuring that corporate social responsibility programmes effectively achieve their intended objectives and deliver genuine impact is essential. While traditional reporting metrics such as volunteer hours provide quantifiable data, they might not fully capture the true social impact of a programme.
For example, at my company, we work with Work for All, a project for young people with special needs run by the Dreams Come True Foundation. If we simply measure our volunteer hours, we wouldn’t know whether we’ve made a measurable difference in the lives of our beneficiaries. Instead, we look at outcomes such as skills developed, job placements and sustainable careers.
Social programmes should begin with clearly defined objectives targeting a specific social problem, and focus on achieving single-minded goals. Work for All focuses on enhancing job readiness for young people with special needs. Project objectives include career readiness and building positive mindsets. With our partners, we identify key activities, outputs and both short- and long-term outcomes – from knowledge gained to employment. We then collect data to track and evaluate each stage.
With in-depth audits, we can uncover challenges that we need to address at different stages. Measuring impact enables these initiatives to go beyond simple reporting requirements and evolve into engines of sustainable social progress. The Work for All programme has benefited more than 120 students in the last two years by boosting confidence, skills and employability. Of the 40 young adults participating in Hongkong Land’s Workplace Inclusion Forum, 28 per cent received interviews and 45 per cent of those interviewed secured jobs, showing how tracking employment outcomes leads to programme improvements.
By rigorously measuring outcomes at multiple stages, corporations gain insights that help improve corporate social responsibility programmes over time and demonstrate genuine social value creation. This approach leads to improved reporting and transparency, in line with HKEX requirements.
Natalie Wu, head of corporate social responsibility, Hongkong Land
