Jun 22, 2013
Some 197 million people were jobless worldwide in 2012, and an additional 39 million workers have dropped out of the labor market, unable to find employment, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The ILO predicts the situation will only get bleaker this year, with 5.1 million more workers likely to be unemployed. Young people are the hardest hit: 74 million young workers worldwide are unemployed, a staggering 40 percentof those unemployed globally.
“Global Employment Trends 2013” notes that although the global economy is expected to recover, growth will not be strong enough to bring down unemployment quickly, and predicts that unemployment worldwide will remain at 6 percent up to 2017, not far from its worst level in 2009. The number of unemployed workers is expected to rise further to some 210.6 million over the next five years.
Read the full report.
Jun 14, 2013
Workers this week are marking the second anniversary of the historic passage of a global standard covering the rights of domestic workers. The International Labor Organization (ILO) “Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189) covers written employment contracts, protection from harassment, abuse and violence, hours of work, job safety and other workplace safeguards.
As in many countries around the world, domestic workers and their supporters in the Dominican Republic are campaigning for ratification of Convention 189. When a country signs the convention, it agrees to abide by its rules. Seven nations have ratified it in the past two years, a number that illustrates the challenges domestic workers face in achieving their rights on the job. In the Dominican Republic, domestic workers’ struggle for recognition of their rights on the job has involved decades of hard work, strategic coalition building, broad public outreach and much perseverance.
In 1989, the Asociaciün de Trabajadores (Domestic Workers Association, ATH), a non-governmental organization, sought to modify the nation’s employment law to include domestic workers. Early on in that campaign, ATH reached out to numerous women’s rights group for support and built a strong coalition which engaged in widespread media outreach—through posters, leaflets, seminars, workshops and press coverage. The campaign enlisted the backing of popular television personalities who served as well-known proponents appreciated by Dominican decision-makers and the populace.
Passage of the law in 1992 culminated “an arduous struggle” to convince members of Congress “that domestic workers were a fundamental part of society,” says Elena Andrea Pérez García, ATH organizational secretary. ATH, which now represents more than 3,500 members, affiliated in 2010 with the Confederaciün Nacional de Unidad Sindical (National Confederation of Labor Union Unity, CNUS).
One of the main roadblocks for domestic workers in the Dominican Republic, as elsewhere around the world, is overcoming the perception that because their labor takes place within a home, it is not “real” work. Some 90 percent of the 300,000 domestic workers in the Dominican Republic are women, and female immigrants, primarily from Haiti, comprise between 10 percent and 33 percent of domestic workers.
“In remunerated domestic work, which is performed mainly by women, social subordination and machista cultural stereotypes play a major role, as does the social devaluation of domestic work,” says Max Puig, who served as Dominican Republic Minister of Labor from 2008 to 2011.
In 2011, CNUS and a coalition of other unions and organizations helped move a bill to Congress that would provide domestic workers with social security coverage. Eulogia Familia, vice president of the 500,000-member CNUS, said getting the bill introduced involved “one-on-one interviews with key legislators to raise awareness” and meetings with government agencies responsible for shaping the legislation. Domestic workers’ participation was fundamental to these meetings, enabling legislators and policy-makers tolearn firsthand about the often daunting working conditions the women face. Further, says Familia, domestic workers could convince legislators “that they and their families are an important social group and that their vote will help elect” them. Following this outreach, the National Social Security Council issued a resolution to conduct studies on the best way to incorporate domestic workers into the social security system.
Domestic workers, energized by passage of Convention 189, are pushing hard for its ratification in the Dominican Republic—and are well positioned to do so. They are the women who leafleted, held meetings and reached out to the public for years in multiple campaigns, becoming empowered in the process.
Isolated behind the closed doors of private households, domestic workers are difficult to locate and gather in networks where they could learn their rights as working people, share experiences and gain confidence in their ability to improve workplace conditions. Outreach to this overlooked workforce by ATH and CNUS and their partners changed all that.
This report is an excerpt from the report, Dominican Republic: Domestic Workers Struggle for Rights. The report is part of Catalyst for Change, a Solidarity Center series supported by the National Endowment for Democracy. The series features the working people, their unions and activists who are advancing worker rights and greater equity in their societies. Their experience and efforts provide real, transferable lessons for others seeking to affect positive change.
May 6, 2013
Kenyan domestic workers celebrate the adoption of Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers.
Employers in Kenya now must abide by the verbal contracts they make with domestic workers, following a landmark ruling by the nation’s high court that also effectively places domestic workers under Kenya’s employment law. Saying that under the Employment Act, “a verbal contract is a contract that can confer rights and can be enforced,” the judge ruled that domestic workers are covered by the national minimum wage and other provisions of the employment law.
“This court notes that many employers fail to issue their employees with a contract of service and this acts to their detriment as non-issuance of this document leaves the court to interpret the relationship between the parties which could have been well outlined by the mutual agreement of the parties,” Justice Monica Wanjiru Mbaru wrote.
The ruling, which came in December 2012, was apparently unnoticed until it was first reported April 29 in Kenya’s Business Daily. Two days later, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) warned, through advertisements, that it would enforce the law and that employers who do not obey it face serious consequences. The NSSF said employers are required to register domestic workers and other low-wage employees such as gardeners, and contribute monthly payments to the NSSF to cover workers’ health care and other services.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s newly elected president, Uhuru Kenyatta, on May 1 raised minimum wages by 14 percent.
“The elevated court will serve worker rights as long as the law is followed to the letter,” said Albert Njeru, secretary general of the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA). The union, a Solidarity Center partner, has been at the forefront of championing the rights of domestic workers at the national level and working locally to organize workers into the union and educate them about their rights. “The union is very excited with this ruling as it has finally drawn attention to the plight of domestic workers in the country.” He reiterated that “the union will carry on with its campaign to get full rights for domestic workers and ensure their visibility in the labor force.”
KUDHEIHA is pressing the government to pass the International Labor Organization’s Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The groundbreaking convention, passed in 2011, requires nations that ratify it to adhere to standards such as ensuring domestic workers are paid the nation’s minimum wage and have access to health coverage and other social security benefits, including paid leave. Convention 189 recognizes domestic work as any other work and ensures that domestic workers are treated as any other worker under labor legislation.
The Industrial Court ruling came after Robai Musinzi, a domestic worker, sued for wrongful dismissal by her employer, Safdar Mohamed Khan. Musinzi, who had worked for Khan for more than four years under a verbal agreement, won $2,057 after Khan summarily dismissed
Mar 18, 2013
Short-term work contracts are one way employers around the world deny workers job security, seniority rights and health benefits, often while paying them low wages. So it’s noteworthy that six international apparel companies now support repeal of a law in Peru that allows employers in the garment and textile export industries to hire workers on consecutive short-term employment contracts.
In a letter to Peru President Ollanta Humala Tasso earlier this month, the companies write that repeal is “an opportunity for your government to demonstrate its strong support for social inclusion and decent working conditions.” The law, DL 223422, allows companies that export “non-traditional products” to employ workers on short-term contracts—typically for six months, but often for three months and sometimes for as little as one month—to work on specific export orders. The workers are re-hired on subsequent contracts, but never attain full-time job status.
The letter from New Balance; Nike; PVH Corp (owner of the Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein brands); VF Corporation (owner of Wrangler, Lee’s, North Face, Nautica and Timberland brands); 47 Brand; and Life Is Good, comes as the Peruvian Congress is getting set to reconvene. A proposal to repeal the labor provisions of DL 223422 has been presented to congressional committees by members of congress, but textile and apparel manufacturers strongly oppose it.
Passed in 1978 to promote the textile industry, the law was slated to be in place only 10 years, says Vicente Castro, secretary general of the Textile Workers Federation of Peru (Federación de Trabajadores en Tejidos del Perú, FTTP).
In their letter, the corporations also wrote that “in addition to monitoring our suppliers in order to ensure compliance with labor standards, we also look to governments to support and enforce the rule of law in order to ensure that business and workers can operate in a fair and safe environment.”
Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union says: “Peru produces quality cotton and fibers and has succeeded in positioning itself as a provider for major brands.
However, the ‘made in Peru’ label is being tainted by the abuse that comes with the use of short-term employment contracts.”
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has repeatedly asked the government of Peru to amend the law and during his 2011 election campaign, President Ollanta Humala promised to abolish the decree.
The two Peruvian textile federations, Federacion Nacional de Trabajadores Textiles de Peru (FNTTP) and the Federacion de Trabajadores en Tejidos de Peru (FTTP), are urging members of the Peruvian Congress to ensure that the legal reform proposal is discussed in committee.
The federations also are working with their membership and media to generate grassroots pressure so that if needed changes are not made, the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration can add their influence on behalf of Peru’s workers.
Read more at The Maquila Solidarity Network and US LEAP.
Dec 3, 2012
Jalila Al-Salman, acting president of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association, was released from prison Nov. 25, according to Education International (EI). Jalila, who was jailed in March 2011, was serving a three-year term for exercising her right to freedom of assembly and for demanding reforms in Bahrain’s educational system. Education International and LabourStart spearheaded a global petition campaign urging Bahrain’s government to release both teachers, sparking international outrage that aided in Al-Salman’s release.
Her colleague, Mahdi Abu Dheeb, president of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association, is still incarcerated. A military court sentenced Al-Salman and Dheeb in September 2011 and the verdict was upheld by the Manama Court in October.
The global union and human rights movement has repeatedly called on the government of Bahrain to halt its attacks on workers. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has voiced grave concern over the Bahraini government’s failure to honor its commitments to the ILO.
Read the full story from the Education International.
