The Dominican Labor Code stipulates that the workday of minors of 16 years cannot be more than six hours. It also bans minors of 14 years from working. The exceptions to the rule are those that work in art-related activities, cultural activities, science or educational activities. The same article allows minors to work in minor farm activities such as harvesting. According to El Siglo newspaper, the problem is that the children start by harvesting and then move on to other activities not appropriate for their ages. El Siglo newspaper published a report that a April-May 2000 UNICEF study of 573 farms showed that 415 or 72% admitted to employing children ages seven to 16 years. The most common jobs are harvesting, planting, removing weeds, and applying pesticides. Elisa Sanchez, director of the Department of Protection of Children and Adolescents of the Attorney General’s office said that child labor is usually only envisioned as prostitution in tourism sectors. But that sectors debating the topic forget about the thousands of children that suffer from exploitation in domestic labor, rural whorehouses. When asked to comment, President Hipolito Mejia said that it is nothing out of this world that children work on farms. He said that what he is against is their exploitation.
