Child labor and unfree labor: Evidence from the palm oil sector in Sabah (East Malaysia)

Abstract

By focusing on child labor in oil palm production in Sabah (East Malaysia), this study contributes to the ongoing debate about unfree labor from three perspectives. First, the study highlights the importance of measuring the incidence of child labor from an individual basis and subsequently advances discourse on what is acceptable and unacceptable in the context of children’s involvement in oil palm production. Second, it advances children’s voices that reflect their perceptions, everyday realities, and social expectations behind their active participation in oil palm production. Third, it highlights the reoccurrence of unfree labor relations and conditions as a result of employment transition among working children within the agricultural sector and from agricultural to the fishing sector. Here we argue that, although not all children’s participation in oil palm production constitutes child labor, the presence of unfree and unacceptable labor relations and conditions suggests strong indicators of child labor. This study, however, cautions that the blanket use of child labor may not only ignore local dynamics and societal expectations but also hinder effective policy intervention and business actions.

Acknowledgments

This article is a revised version of a working paper presented at the First Online Conference on Combating Child Labour in ASEAN/Southeast Asia, organized jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Viet Nam, Law School of the Vietnam National University, and Southeast Asian Human Rights and Peace Studies Network (SEAHRN) & the Strengthening Human Rights and Peace Research and Education in ASEAN/Southeast Asia Programme (SHAPE-SEA) on June 3–4, 2021.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Geran Kluster Kursi Endowmen MPOB-UKM [Reference no. MPOB-UKM-2021-001], 2021–2022.

Notes on contributors

Andika Wahab

Andika Wahab is a senior lecturer and fellow at the Institute of Malaysian & International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). His fields of research include forced and labor migration; corporate respect for human rights; and corporate anthropology, which focuses on corporate disclosure, compliance, and the politics of sustainability.

Ramli Dollah

Ramli Dollah is a senior lecturer at the International Relations Programme, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Malaysia. His fields of expertise and current research projects include migration, security, and border studies in the Sulu-Celebes Sea.