INDIA
Are trade unions and strikes called by them losing shine? Here’s what data show

Reported industrial unrest incidents among larger firms have been declining thanks to low success in achieving outcomes and reduced negotiating power by workforce or trade associations.

CHAITANYA MALLAPUR
MARCH 01, 2021 


The unrest at the General Motors plant in Pune shines the spotlight on labour rights and the trade union movement in India. The auto industry has often been in the news for labour unrest, but such strikes are becoming increasingly infrequent.

While at least 500 industrial unrest incidents such as strikes and lockouts have taken place over the five years ending 2019, these have been falling over the years, official data show. This is owing to the low success in achieving outcomes and reduced negotiating or bargaining power by workforce or trade associations over the years.

This fact could also perhaps be seen in the lukewarm response to the Bharat Bandh called by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on February 26 against rising fuel prices, the E-way Bill, and the goods and services tax (GST). Despite 40,000 traders associations expressing support, life pretty much went on as normal.The 421 strikes and 100 lockouts reported between 2015 and 2019 did result in a loss of over 14.5 million man-days, according to the ministry of labour and employment’s 2019-20 annual report. However, data show a decline here too. A caveat: this data captures only reported incidents and comes with a lag, so it doesn’t include recent incidents.

STRIKES, LOCKOUTS AND MAN-DAYS LOST

A Flourish chart



Why is there a decline in the number of incidents? Experts suggest a couple of reasons.


“There are not many cases of success,” said Bino Paul, Professor and Associate Dean at the Centre for Human Resources Management and Labour Relations, School of Management and Labour Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. “Very rarely, strikes evolve to the framework of industrial relations and collective bargaining.”

Workers strike or threaten to strike primarily due to two reasons – wages and layoffs.

According to Paul, “it is a stylised fact that the real wage rate in manufacturing and service activities/industries in India hardly keeps pace with the cost of living. It is not unusual to find a good chunk of the blue-collar workforce are paid just the minimum wage or slightly above it. It neither absorbs the cost of living nor premium for productivity or skill.”

Then, workers are increasingly vulnerable to job losses.

“Workers, in themselves, do not have the ability to enforce wage claims especially when they are vulnerable due to the fear of losing jobs and in the absence of a social security cover,” said Jayan Thomas, Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

In the five years to 2019, as many as 76 units have closed down affecting 6,726 workers, according to the labour ministry. Likewise, 150 units reported laying off 20,505 workers over four years ending February 2019. Another 4,345 workers permanently lost their jobs in 28 units during this period.

CLOSURES, RETRENCHMENT, LAY-OFFS

 AND WORKERS AFFECTED

A Flourish chart

Note that this data pertains to only those establishments that employ 100 or more people since they need to seek prior permission from the government to shut down, lay-off or retrench people. We rarely hear about job losses or unrest in smaller units.

Traditionally, trade unions have played the intermediary role in supporting and backing interests of workers at the workplace, helping to fulfil their demands by carrying out negotiations with the management. But they are becoming less effective over the years, said experts. Indeed, India’s trade union density (the percentage of employees who are part of unions) had declined to 12.8 percent in 2011, the last year for which data is available with the International Labour Organisation.

“With the nature of industry and social security of workers changing, the role of trade unions has also seen a change over the recent years,” according to Thomas of IIT. “Capital is now more focused on automated machinery and technology making labour a less critical factor in the production process. With such changes in the nature of industrial production and with the rising share of informal or unorganized workers in the labour force, trade unions are now less effective.”

That said, one area where trade unions have remained active is in the banking sector, perhaps not surprising given the dominance of state-owned lenders. Data showed that the banking industry accounted for a lion’s share – over 60 percent – of strikes recorded (under central sphere) in the three years to 2019, according to a reply given in the Lok Sabha on March 2, 2020. The United Forum of Bank Unions has called for another two-day strike on March 15 and 16 to protest the proposed privatisation of two banks announced in the Budget.

But in general, strikes are more sensitive to the nature of the value chain rather than the type of the industry, said experts.

“The upstream activities in the value chain that are made of micro and small industries resort to cheap labour for the production. This is essential for them since micro and small suppliers may not have good bargaining power over the downstream original equipment manufacturers (buyers),” said Paul.


In the larger analysis, the key issue that remains is the quality of labour standards in India and their enforceability.“India falls short of labour standards, while there are laws, enforcement is far from being satisfactory. A classic example is a minimum wage for domestic workers. Another gap is the inadequate link between wage, productivity and skill,” said Paul. “It is important to come up with workable and fair negotiation frameworks. This calls for creative collaborations between trade unions, industry and state.”

INDIA

Power engineers, staff to boycott work on Aug 10 to oppose Electricity (Amendment) Bill

The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said that the Bill listed for Monsoon session of Parliament should not be rushed through and instead should be referred to the standing committee on energy.

• PTI
 
• July 15, 2021, 

New Delhi: Power engineers and employees will boycott work for a day on August 10 to protest against the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021, AIPEF said on Wednesday. The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) in a statement said the Bill listed for Monsoon session of Parliament should not be rushed through and instead should be referred to the standing committee on energy.

The Federation alleged that Electricity Act 2003 allowed privatisation of generation and now in the proposed Bill, privatisation of power distribution is being done which will drive state discoms to bankruptcy.

"Power engineers and employees across the country will join a one-day work boycott call on August 10 to protest against the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021," AIPEF spokesperson V K Gupta said.

This decision was taken in the virtual meeting of the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey.

NCCOEEE core committee office bearers will meet Union Power Minister on July 27 to hand over a memorandum against the proposed Bill.

Gupta said consumers and power sector employees and engineers, the major stakeholders, are being ignored in finalizing the draft Bill and the Centre has not made any effort to discuss the issues with them.

The move to de-license power distribution is no way to ensure efficient and cost-effective electricity supply to the citizens, AIPEF said adding that unless the reform is designed taking into account ground realities, the well-intended objective of 'choice to consumers' may not be fulfilled.

The move to abolish cross-subsidy in a time-bound manner and proposing a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to such consumers by state governments will take away the rights of access to electricity for farmers and poor domestic consumers, it stated.

Gupta further alleged that the Centre seems more concerned over the profitability of private power companies than protecting consumer interests.

In case the government tries to pass the Bill before August 10, the work boycott will be brought forward to the same day, it stated.

Hashem Foods Factory Fire: Bangladesh Government Must Establish Inquiry

Thursday, 15 July 2021, 
Press Release: ITUC

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is supporting the call for an independent public inquiry into the devastating fire at the Hashem Foods factory in Rupganj, Bangladesh.

An unknown number of people died in the blaze. The police and fire service have confirmed that the factory exits were locked and that children were working there.

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said: “Firstly, our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy, and we’re horrified by the loss of life and the reports that people couldn’t escape because doors and gates were locked. Medical treatment must be provided to injured workers, and they must be fully compensated, along with their families, without delay.

“It’s appalling that children were working there and, due to the hidden nature of child labour, we may never know the number of children who died in the fire or their names.

“The ITUC stands with our affiliate, the ITUC Bangladesh Council, and the IUF in their fight for justice for the victims of this disaster.”

Clear demands

The ITUC is supporting the Sajeeb Group Workers’ Justice Committee, formed by the victims’ families, to demand compensation and to prevent similar tragedies.

Furthermore, the ITUC is backing the IUF and ITUC Bangladesh Council in their call for an independent public inquiry that covers:

the criminal negligence of the factory owner that created the deadly working conditions;

how the company could ignore health, safety and fire regulations;

why no factory inspection had identified the lethal work environment; and

the prevalence of child labour in the factory, in violation of ILO Convention 138 and the Fundamental Principles of Rights at Work.

“We support the call for urgent inspections of all food factories in Bangladesh to check they are safe and not abusing children through using child labour.

“The independent public inquiry and its outcomes should include an expedited implementation of the labour reform road map following the Article 26 complaint on Bangladesh at the ILO. This fire is another reminder that the ILO must recognise occupational health and safety as a fundamental right at work.

“It’s clear that to ensure occupational health and safety and the elimination of child labour, all workers in food factories must be guaranteed access to their right to freedom of association.

“Only independent, democratic trade unions of working people can enforce the right to a safe workplace that does not use child labour. Unions make work safer,” added Sharan Burrow.

© Scoop Media

Are your favourite fashion brands using forced labour?

‘Labour abuse is baked into the supply-chain model championed by apparel giants,’ one labour rights researcher said, and a recent report found luxury brands are among the worst offenders.

Garment employees work in a sewing section of the Fakhruddin Textile Mills Limited in Gazipur, Bangladesh, where one million garment workers were fired or temporarily let go when fashion brands cancelled orders at the height of last year's coronavirus pandemic lockdowns [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

By Radmilla Suleymanova
14 Jul 2021

The global fashion and retail industry’s reliance on producing quick-turnaround goods at a low cost through outsourcing and complex, globalised supply chains has allowed forced labour to thrive, workers’ rights advocates warn, claiming that major fashion brands profiting from the model seem reluctant to change.

The apparel sector employs over 60 million workers worldwide, according to the World Bank Group. And while 97 percent of fashion and retail brands have codes of conduct and corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards, such policies are neither effective in preventing forced labour nor in ensuring remedy outcomes for workers, according to advocacy group KnowTheChain.

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Fast Fashion

KnowTheChain’s 2021 Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Report (PDF) recently ranked 37 of the world’s biggest fashion companies on a scale of 0 to 100 on their efforts to fight forced labour, with 100 representing the best practices.

The group identified allegations of forced labour in the supply chains of 54 percent of companies it examined.

“What stood out to us is that the average score for the sector was 41 out of 100, which constitutes a significant failure to address risks,” Felicitas Weber, project director at KnowTheChain, told Al Jazeera.

The report also found that the world’s largest luxury brands are among the worst offenders in addressing the worse forms of exploitation in their supply chains, with an average score of 31 out of 100.

French luxury goods company Kering (owner of the Alexander McQueen and Gucci labels) scored 41 out of 100, while LVMH (owner of the Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton labels) scored 19 out of 100. Tapestry (owner of the Coach and Kate Spade labels), assessed for the first time this year, scored 16 out of 100.

A shopper exits a Coach store at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, California, the United States [File: Bing Guan/Reuters]

Kering, LVMH and Tapestry did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.

Italian luxury fashion house Prada ranked at a mere 5 out of 100 on KnowTheChain’s benchmark, and its score has worsened over time.

But in a statement to Al Jazeera, Prada Group said it strives to push its standards higher and challenged KnowTheChain’s methodology.

Prada claims KnowTheChain does not take into account the fact that most of Prada’s factories are located in Italy, which allows it to closely monitor and address any misconduct or violations.


While KnowTheChain’s findings are striking, they aren’t surprising to workers’ rights advocates.

Garment workers stretch their bodies for relaxation at the Fakhruddin Textile Mills Limited in Gazipur, Bangladesh [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

“Labour abuse is baked into the supply-chain model championed by apparel giants,” Penelope Kyritsis, research director at the Worker Rights Consortium, a labour rights monitoring organisation, told Al Jazeera.

By continually demanding shorter turnaround times and lower prices from their suppliers and fuelling competition among supplier factories, fashion and retail brands make it difficult for factory owners to adhere to labour laws and standards, she explained.

“This dynamic has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, when apparel brands sought to minimise their economic fallout by abruptly cancelling orders from their supplier factories, which led to mass layoffs, pushing workers towards the brink of destitution,” Kyritsis said.

For example, in Bangladesh, the second-largest employer of garment workers after China, more than one million garment workers – mostly women – were fired or temporarily let go when fashion brands cancelled orders during the height of last year’s pandemic shutdowns, according to research (PDF) conducted by Penn State University’s Center for Global Workers’ Rights.
Vulnerable migrants

While it is unclear exactly how many migrant workers and refugees are employed in the garment sector, they do make up much of the workforce across all regions, KnowTheChain told Al Jazeera.

For example, garment factories in Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan heavily rely on workers from neighbouring countries, according to the Clean Clothes Campaign.

Jordan’s garment industry is estimated to employ nearly 70,000 workers, 53,000 of whom are migrants, the IndustriALL Global Union found in 2019. And Brazil’s Sao Paulo textile sector is known to employ an estimated 300,000 Bolivian workers, according to nongovernmental organisations cited in a report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

.

Garment factory workers and staff are seen in a truck as they arrive to receive a coronavirus vaccine at an industrial park in Phnom Penh, Cambodia [File: Cindy Liu/Reuters]

Migrants are often more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, as they are often employed under informal agreements, are undocumented or lack adequate protection under the law.

“Migrants sometimes have to pay up to a year of their salary just as a fee to get the job, so really [it’s] quite extortionate,” KnowTheChain’s Weber explained. “We’ve seen more companies that reimburse these fees, but we need companies to step up significantly and not just take a baby step each year.”

Of the 28 retail and fashion companies disclosing migrant worker policies in the KnowTheChain report, just two companies provided examples of practical changes they take to address worker grievances. Those grievances can include withholding wages, abusive working and living conditions, intimidation, sexual harassment and threats.

While the ability to organise and challenge exploitative working conditions is crucial, thousands of unionised garment workers were reportedly targeted for dismissal due to union membership and organising during the pandemic, according to KnowTheChain.
‘Know and show’ supply chains

More broadly, companies in the industry need to be able to “know and show” their supply chains – and that means mapping and publishing the names of the suppliers they are working with at all levels, Weber said.


Exploitative working conditions thrive in countries where labour laws and enforcement are weak, but many fashion brands based in Europe and the United States continue to try and evade responsibility for what happens further down their supply chain, Chloe Cranston, business and human rights manager at Anti-Slavery International, told Al Jazeera.

Cranston cited the example of goods made using forced labour from members of the Uighur Muslim minority in China’s Xinjiang region.

Workers are seen on the production line at a cotton textile factory in Korla, Xinjiang in the Uighur Autonomous Region in China [File: cnsphoto via Reuters]

A recent Amnesty International report documented the mass imprisonment and systemic torture of Uighur Muslims living in China, including through first-hand accounts. Some of those accounts detail forced labour and Uighurs being “required to live and work in a factory”.

“Almost the entire fashion industry is implicated in Uighur forced labour, through yarn or cotton sourcing, for example,” Cranston said.

On Tuesday, the United States issued an updated business advisory warning companies doing business in Xinjiang that they faced a heightened risk of falling afoul of US law due to the “growing evidence” of forced labour in the region, as well as other human rights abuses and “intrusive” surveillance.

The administration of former US President Donald Trump banned all cotton products from Western China’s Xinjiang region over allegations that they are made with forced labour from detained Uighur Muslims. The US, Canada, European Union and United Kingdom have also sanctioned Chinese nationals over the abuse allegations.

“We’ve seen some progress around this in the past year, yet the sad reality remains that the fashion industry still has a long way to go to ensure it is not complicit in the crimes against humanity suffered by Uighurs,” Cranston said.

Fashion and retail companies have significant corporate power, she stressed, and they have a responsibility to ensure that the way they work with suppliers, trade unions and labourers allows for decent working conditions for people up and down their supply chains – from those harvesting raw materials like cotton to those spinning them into fabric in factories.

“It shouldn’t be the burden of a consumer to try and guarantee a slavery-free purchase,” Cranston said.

POD CAST FAST FASHION

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

 DENMARK

Large share of highly educated immigrants in unskilled jobs

Jan Petter Myklebust  17 July 2021

Half of all people overqualified for unskilled jobs are immigrants who have received higher education in their home country, new analysis shows, and of people with a PhD working in unskilled jobs, nearly 90% earned their doctorate abroad.

The analysis was carried out by Danish labour union Faglig Felles Forbund (3F), which has 370,000 members who comprise both unskilled and skilled workers. Among these, 18,000 have education beyond secondary school; 3,400 have a masters degree; and 270 have a PhD*.

Some 9,000 3F members have a higher post-secondary school education from another country, of whom “5,000 come from Western countries and 4,000 from non-Western countries”.

3F economist Jesper Grunnet-Lauridsen, who carried out the analysis, told University World News: “The biggest surprise is that so many foreigners with higher post-secondary school education work in unskilled jobs. About 33% of all foreigners in Denmark who have completed their higher education in their home country work in unskilled jobs in Denmark.

“This means that a lot of foreigners don’t make use of their homeland education when they come to Denmark. It’s a big economic loss for the Danish society … we don’t make full use of the qualifications that foreigners have.”

According to the analysis, in Denmark there are 22,000 people working in a job with a high-level qualification earned abroad, amounting to approximately 3% of all people registered at the highest level of education.

Among those working in unskilled jobs and having a higher education, approximately half were in possession of a higher education degree earned abroad.

This corresponds to one third of people with a higher education from abroad working in unskilled jobs.

The analysis, published in the newsletter Fagbladet.3F on 7 July, reveals that, among the 270 members with a PhD, nearly nine in every 10 (89%) acquired their degree outside Denmark. Almost half of these come from Eastern-Europe, 80% are men and 70% are aged between 30 and 49 years.

“It is surprising that so many [who have held higher education qualifications for a while] are ending up in 3F-jobs. But even both unskilled and skilled jobs in Denmark can be attractive for foreigners,” Grunnet-Lauridsen, said.

Varying perceived value

He suggested that the value of degrees obtained abroad is viewed differently depending on the country in which they were earned.

“Higher education from other countries is not ranked as high as Danish education. It is also demonstrated by the numbers that higher education from Sweden, the US and the UK is worth more in Denmark compared to higher education from, for instance, Poland or Ukraine,” Grunnet-Lauritsen said.

Half of the population bringing a higher education qualification to Denmark from Germany, India, the UK, Sweden and the US are working in a high-level occupation while the corresponding figure is below 15% for those coming from Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and Nepal. In particular, a large proportion of people with higher education from Poland and Nepal who come to Denmark work at a lower occupation level.

The analysis is based on figures from the Denmark Statistics Research Service and takes into account the highest level of completed education in the population in 2019 and the salary data for employed people in Denmark (Lønmodtagerbeskæftigelsen-BFL).

The information on education gained abroad before coming to Denmark is derived from the register of highest completed education levels. The data on qualifications is based on the DISCO-code. Smaller companies within the private sector do not have a DISCO-code and are hence underrepresented in the study.

Sri Lanka: Protect Garment Workers’ Rights During Pandemic

Compromised Safety, Pay Cuts, Representatives Threatened


Sri Lankan health officials collect swab samples from people to test for the coronavirus in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 10, 2021. © 2021 AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena

(New York) – The Sri Lankan government, factory owners, and the international clothes brands sourcing from Sri Lanka should protect the safety and employment rights of garment workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Sri Lankan government has used a strict lockdown, first imposed on May 21, 2021, and other measures, including travel bans and bans on public gatherings, to contain a fresh wave of Covid-19 cases. However, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered garment factories to remain open. Trade unions and public health inspectors have reported numerous virus outbreaks in factories, as well as in the congested boarding houses where many workers live, and alleged that employers were under-testing and under-reporting cases to maintain production levels.

“Sri Lanka’s garment workers are entitled to work in safety and be properly paid even when they fall sick or need to quarantine,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government and employers should fully implement existing agreements and guidelines, be transparent about Covid-19 infections in factories, and provide for workers’ welfare instead of intimidating and silencing them.”

One in seven Sri Lankan women work in the garment sector, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). There have been repeated outbreaks in garment factories since April. Yet, five labor rights activists from four organizations told Human Rights Watch they have received complaints from workers that factory managers pressured workers to work without adequate occupational health and safety measures.

All five said that numerous workers from different factories complained to them that they lost pay when they fell sick or needed to quarantine. The activists said that the police or military personnel had intimidated them to stop them from speaking out.

Following an October 2020 Covid-19 outbreak in a factory owned by Brandix Lanka Limited, the government made it mandatory for all factories to have a Covid-19 health committee, including management and workers’ representatives. As of early July, people interviewed said, most factories had not established the committees.

On October 25, the Sri Lankan government issued guidelines requiring garment factories to take occupational health and safety measures for ventilation, screening, testing, and isolating infected workers. Labor rights activists have consistently raised concerns in written statements that employers were flouting guidelines, despite government claims that health measures are enforced. “Labor rights are reserved to a piece of paper,” one activist said, adding that workers, “are scared of losing their jobs, so even when they have symptoms they continue to go to work.”

Another labor activist said, “If factories are aware of a positive test, they don’t do anything about it or share the information” with health authorities. An activist who had assisted workers who were sick with the virus said, “The employers are busy with their orders and workers are not given PCR [Covid-19] tests, because if they are positive, they will not be able to employ them in production.”

Many, though not all, garment factories in Sri Lanka are located within industrial areas called Free Trade Zones (FTZs). Systematic data on Covid-19 cases in the garment sector, which contributes 6 percent of Sri Lanka’s GDP and 44 percent of exports, is not available.

On May 20, a court in Galle detained a manager from the Koggala FTZ on charges under the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Act, after the manager allegedly concealed information and failed to follow instructions from public health officials following an outbreak in the factory. Although this prosecution was unusual, activists told Human Rights Watch they believed factory violations of quarantine rules are widespread.

In April, police dispersed a workers’ protest outside a factory in Bingiriya, where the management was alleged to have kept staff working despite an outbreak. On July 8, trade unionists were detained at a labor rights protest in Colombo and forcibly taken to a Covid-19 quarantine facility, two days after the government banned public protests on purported public health grounds.

Quarantine facilities are run by the Sri Lankan military, which the government has placed in control of its response to the pandemic. When employees are sent to quarantine facilities, their absence is typically deducted from their annual allowance of 14 days unpaid leave.

Following the major outbreak at a Brandix factory in October, trade unions filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka alleging that soldiers “rounded up” 98 workers in the middle of the night and arbitrarily detained them in an unsanitary quarantine facility. In response, the army accused the complainants of pursuing “hidden plans,” and said the military should not be “insulted or downgraded.” Human Rights Watch wrote to Brandix seeking information about the October outbreak but received no response.

Many factories have hired former army officers in management roles, and their tendency to enforce military-style discipline has “instilled fear” in workers, activists said. One activist said that she was threatened earlier this year by a garment factory manager, a retired army officer, who called her and told her he had “dealt with terrorists” and warned against “raising issues.”

The labor rights activists also reported increased surveillance and intimidation by government security agencies. One woman said military intelligence asked her organization why it had spoken to the international media. Another activist said that members of the police Criminal Investigation Department visited her office in April.

“It’s very risky for anyone to talk about these things,” one activist said. “People are very afraid to speak out,” said another.

The government has also taken formal steps to prevent the sharing of information related to the pandemic. In May, the health secretary, Maj. Gen. Dr. S H Munasing, issued a circular banning health officials from speaking to the media, because they were allegedly sharing “incorrect” information and “criticizing health policies.”

In June, the police issued a statement entitled “circulation of fake news, photographs, videos causing disunity, hate and obstructing the Covid-19 programme.” The Bar Association of Sri Lanka said the powers cited “could be misused by police officers in order to stifle the freedom of speech and expression.”

Security force intimidation of workers is particularly acute in the Tamil-majority north of Sri Lanka, which has remained heavily militarized since the end of the civil war in 2009. In Maruthankerny, security officials reportedly told workers they would lose pay and benefits if they did not report for work, despite safety fears related to the spread of Covid-19.

Most garment workers in FTZs live in crowded boarding houses operated by private landlords. Workers’ representatives said that because people with suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 are frequently not placed in isolation but instead sent back to their boarding house, there is a risk of transmitting the virus among workers of different factories who live in the same building.

Many garment workers come from parts of the country different from where their factory is located, so they do not qualify for the Rupees 5000 (US$25) relief packages distributed by local governments to low-income workers whose incomes have been affected by the pandemic.

The government and factory owners should take effective steps to isolate workers who test positive, and ensure that those receiving treatment or in isolation or quarantine receive full pay, Human Rights Watch said. Relief packages should be distributed to workers irrespective of which part of the country they come from, and safety measures and guidelines previously agreed upon with worker representatives should be followed.

Attempts to intimidate or coerce workers and their representatives, attacks on freedom of association, including the right to join a trade union, and attempts to stifle freedom of expression, should be immediately withdrawn. Foreign companies that buy clothes from Sri Lanka, and trading partners, including the European Union, whose GSP+ trading arrangement includes commitments to uphold labor rights, should press Sri Lanka to adhere to its commitments.

International and local labor rights groups from numerous countries have started a campaign for brands to help support workers and shore up social protection systems by joining a Wage Assurance Fund and Severance Guarantee Fund. Brands should support such initiatives, Human Rights Watch said.

Sri Lankan garment manufactures have applied for loans from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank Group. The IFC should rigorously ensure that companies receiving loans adhere to its performance standards on labor and working conditions, and uphold fundamental labor rights enshrined in ILO conventions, including freedom of association and collective bargaining.

“Sri Lankan garment workers don’t just provide for their families, they help to keep the entire economy afloat during these very difficult times,” Ganguly said. “Their safety needs to be protected and their rights respected by the global garment industry that relies on their labor.

#ILO AT #BRICS CONFERENCE

Concrete, targeted policies and actions needed to address impact of pandemic on informal workers, women

Enhancing transition from informality to formality as a means towards improving living and working conditions, productivity, and job growth will need access to quality employment, social protection

OPINION
Dr Gyan Pathak

Published: 16 Jul 2021, 

“Ministers, in your meetings in 2019 and 2020, you expressed support for the principle of a human-centred approach to development. Now is the time to convert these aspirations … into concrete action,” the head of ILO said while addressing the BRICS Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting under India’s Presidency. It was just an indirect way of saying that the governments of BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – did voice their aspirations year after year, but failed to take concrete actions

The BRICS 7th Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting held on July 15, 2021 just reiterated these aspirations, and it cannot be taken at its face value because of the prior experience of the performance of the governments in past several years.

The adoption of a declaration is, however, significant because it recognized exacerbation of already prevailing largescale unemployment, decent work deficits and inequality during the COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19 has turned our world, and the world of work upside down, and has derailed progress in reducing poverty around the world, and made achieving decent work for all even more of a challenge.

The member countries did express their ‘strong determination’ to recover with stronger markets and social protection systems for the workforce, but not on recovery plans which need to be human-centred, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable, as the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, emphasized.

Repairing the damage caused accordingly will require great efforts and considerable resources. However, the ‘strong determination’ of the governments implies things other than what they have been talking about in words. The declaration adopted do addresses critically important challenges – informality, gender equality, social protection, and the growth of the digital economy – but the real challenge of unemployment and unemployability looms large.

The severe impact of the crisis on informal workers highlighted the need to accelerate progress on the shift from the informality to formality, because hundreds of millions of people earn their living in the informal economy – six out of every ten workers in the world.

Then there is gender disparity. Women lost more jobs than men, and more of them, comparatively, withdrawn for the labour market. Gender inequality got worse in the care work dominated by women.

If we are to address these issues effectively, we need concrete, targeted policies and actions, not merely ‘strong commitments’ in words.

We have been witnessing such ‘strong commitments’ without proper actions in India, as the Union government has been trying to push the controversial ‘labour reform’, which central trade unions, bank employees unions, insurance employees unions, and many more call anti-labour and pro-corporate.

However, Union Minister of Labour has talked about the controversial ‘labour reforms’ boastfully, and called them ‘path breaking reforms’ brought by the government through amalgamation, simplification and codification of its labour laws into four labour codes, namely “the Code of Wages 2019, the Code on Social Security 2020, the Industrial Relations Code 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020.”

India’s stance in the BRICS meeting clearly shows that the government is bent upon implementing the proposed ‘reforms’ in the near future despite still opposition of the labour unions of the country.

The Union Minister of Labour said that the new labour codes provide integrated pathways towards robust formalization of the labour market, increasing participation of women in labour force and enhancing the role of gig and platform workers in the labour market. In the backdrop of the dismal performance of the Modi government in all the areas of aspirations expressed, the stress on enhancing intra-BRICS solidarity and promoting sustained, inclusive, full and productive employment and decent work for all, is nothing but hoodwinking of workers in India, and trying to get international support for its controversial ‘labour reforms’.

The need of signing of social security agreements among BRICS nation was emphasized, but it was for international migrant workers, not for domestic workers within the country.

“Formalisation of Labour Markets” is has now been seen as an important tool for eradication of miseries of informal workforce in every country. Enhancing the transition from informality to formality as a means towards improving living and working conditions, productivity, and job growth will need access to quality employment and social protection. It has been reiterated for quite some time but near to nothing has been done. It was yet again reiterated and the ministers expressed their commitment to it.

Promoting sustained participation of women in the labour market, in remunerative, productive and decent work was agreed upon by all as top priorities in the national policy agenda. Enhancing the role of gig and platform workers in labour market was also agreed upon. But an expressed commitment has no value if not followed by appropriate actions.

Apart from the ‘labour and market reforms’, emphasis was also given on development of the digital economy, including digital delivery of services, which is of course technology-centred, not human-centred as the ILO wants it should be, to overcome the workers tribulations. Though digital technologies can boost labour productivity, increase flexibility, encourage greater inclusion, and create new jobs for higher skilled workers, it can undermine fundamental principles and right at work, if not properly regulated.

We need a legal framework for protecting the gig and platform works, ensure decent work for all, and bring strong and inclusive social protection systems.

(IPA Service)

Views are personal

 International Journal of Labour Research

Trade Unions matter in a human-centred recovery from COVID-19

The new edition of the International Journal of Labour Research explores strategies to help workers and their organizations shape COVID-19 response policies and advocate for social justice and workers’ rights.

GENEVA (ILO News) - Trade unions matter and play an important role in combating the pandemic and ensuring a human-centred recovery, according to the new edition of the International Journal of Labour Research, launched by the ILO’s Bureau for the Workers’ Activities.

“COVID-19 and Recovery: The Role of Trade Unions in Building Forward Better ,” says that trade unions have stood their ground and helped to better protect workers and their jobs around the world. This is despite the devastating impact of the crisis on workers and their families, the surge in violations of trade union rights, the loss of members, and a hostile environment towards trade unions in some countries.

The journal outlines the urgent need for unions to develop new strategies to address the challenges of achieving a job-rich recovery, strengthening occupational safety and health systems, and reaching universal social protection for all, gender equality, digitalization and a just transition to environmentally sustainable economies. In tackling these issues, the COVID-19 pandemic could be an opportunity for trade union revitalization.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown in a dramatic fashion that the challenges which were highlighted two years ago in the ILO Centenary Declaration, are still so relevant throughout the current crisis. There can be no social justice and decent work for all without a human-centred roadmap and the strengthening of institutions in the world of work, in particular workers’ organizations. As such, the adoption of a Global Call to Action for a Human-Centred COVID-19 Recovery  by the 109th Session of the International Labour Conference  this year, confirms this vision of the Centenary Declaration  and the urgency of its implementation,” said Maria Helena Andre, Director of ILO ACTRAV.

This year’s International Journal of Labour Research highlights the importance of social dialogue as a vehicle to increase union membership and contribute to the effective design and implementation of a robust and inclusive recovery strategy.

Data in the journal show that social dialogue, used to achieve consensus between workers and employers, contributed to a 26 per cent increase in trade union membership overall. Globally, 83 per cent of unions have adopted social dialogue in response to the pandemic, with about 89 per cent engaging in tripartite consultations. Workers’ organizations must engage further with governments and employers’ organizations at every stage in the formulation and implementation of policy responses to COVID-19, the journal says.

The journal calls for global solidarity within and across borders and urgent action to accelerate the process of a fully inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery from the crisis.

 

Called a crucial figure in the growth of the United Farm Workers, Ben Maddock dies at 87 | News

bakersfield2 days ago

He joined the US Marine Corps in 1956 and the trade union in 1969. According to legend and friends, he lived in a barn for part of his childhood and grew up on a family’s small citrus ranch in the countryside of Woodlake, Tulare County. Agriculture was in his blood and the octopus was in his hands, but Ben Maddock continued to fight for the rights of the weakest individuals in California’s rich agricultural industry.

Maddock, in collaboration with trade union leader Cesar Chavez, has organized large-scale vineyard strikes and international boycotts to gain historic legal protection for farm workers, unprecedented. Helped negotiate and manage union contracts.

Maddock, who became Chavez’s trusted best friend and a key figure in the union, died at his home in Wasco on July 9. He was 87 years old.

“Ben was an important person, one of the people who literally helped build UFW in the late 1960s and late 1980s,” UFW long-time spokesman Mark Grossman said in an email.

Grossman recalled that Maddock was closely associated with the organization, negotiations, contract management and strikes of agricultural workers in the Delano region.

“Ben from Anglo in Tulare County was part of the rainbow of farm workers who once existed in the valley,” Grossman said.

Maddock was born in Turea on June 27, 1934 and graduated from Woodlake High School in 1953. After working in the Marine Corps, Maddock began working as a tilesetter.

Guided by a desire for fairness and workers’ rights, Maddock led a strike by his fellow tile workers. Although the labor behavior turned out to be successful, Maddock was blackballed by his employer, Grossman wrote in honor of Maddock.

In the end, interested in making things better for the workers, he took up-and-coming labor activists to UFW’s office on “40 acres” on the outskirts of Delano.

According to Grossman, he promised to volunteer for the union for several months. Instead, he stayed for 22 years.

Maddock oversaw the distribution of the union newspaper, El Marquerado. Maddock, who refused to go to Keen’s Lapas when Chavez moved UFW’s headquarters there in 1971, became the union organizer of Delano.

Grossman said there was skepticism because Maddock did not speak Spanish. But he proved that he could.

Former UFW President Arturo Rodríguez praised him at a funeral mass in Wasco on Thursday. He was flying to service from San Antonio, Texas.

Paul Chavez, son of Chavez and chairman of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, was also present, as was farm workers and union officials holding the UFW flag. Grossman was also there, and he provided a copy of Eulogy to the Californians.

Rodriguez began by talking to Ben Maddock’s widow, Maria Maddock.

“Ben was a friend, mentor, teacher, and trusted adviser to Cesar Chavez and many of us in the trade union for 22 years,” Rodriguez said. “Your loss is also our loss.”

As the mourners listened, Rodriguez told stories one after another.

“I first met Ben in Detroit when I was organizing a second boycott of grapes in 1973. Ben came from a 73-year bitter and bloody grape strike in the Delano region, and with Maria. Born from a boycott.

“I was a young, environmentally friendly and idealistic organizer who recently graduated from college,” Rodriguez recalls.

The former union president said he was fortunate to learn from Maddock about organizing, strategy and building campaigns.

“These lessons never left me,” he said.

“For months we were picketing in front of A & P supermarkets throughout the Detroit Metro area, hoping they would be the first major supermarket chain to remove table grapes from the shelves.

“As we continued picketing in their parking lot, A & P management threatened to arrest us,” he recalled. “One Saturday, Ben helped us all make a plan. In the event of an arrest, we had to be ready to take action immediately.”

When the first picketters were arrested, they were found to be George and Sylvia Delgado, and two daughters Teresa and Christina, four and two years old, respectively.

They were also the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez.

“The next morning, on Sunday, the cover of the Detroit Free Press had a photo of her parents holding her while Teresa and Christina were all arrested,” Rodriguez said. “The sight has brought a lot of public contempt for the management of A & P.”

It was also a turning point for boycotts, and Maddock’s organization helped make that happen.

Maddock returned to Delano in 1975 and headed a 40-acre field office, Rodriguez said. His work will be crucial to the success of the procession, boycott, and enactment of what has become an agricultural and labor-related law.

According to an obituary about Maddock’s family, Maddock left UFW 22 years later. He was hired as a field representative for the California School Employees Association, where he worked until he retired.

Ben and Maria moved to Wasco to be surrounded by their families. In later quiet years, Maddock loved Christmas lights and was known for playing board and card games with his niece and nephew, and watching birdwatching, gardening, and the Dodgers.

But his years at UFW helped define his values ​​and life.

Among the funeral mourners were dozens of current and former UFW colleagues who worked with Maddock, Grossman said.

“They came from all over California and from outside the state,” he said. “Many people were hoisting the black eagle flag of a small union in churches and graveyards.”

A large UFW flag covered the casket and was presented to Maddock’s widow after the graveyard worship was carefully folded into a triangle.

Years after his busy days, the 40-acre land is now recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

“There was a giant who walked those 40 acres,” Rodriguez told the rally on Thursday. “Names like Kennedy, Chavez and Reuters.

“There are countless other giants who have walked on those premises,” he said. “Many of them have been lost in history. One of them is Ben Maddock. Let’s never forget his name.”

Reporter Stephen Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter: @semayerTBC.

Called a crucial figure in the growth of the United Farm Workers, Ben Maddock dies at 87 | News Source link Called a crucial figure in the growth of the United Farm Workers, Ben Maddock dies at 87 | News

‘I was desperate’: the fight to get Australia’s fruit pickers a fair wage

Backpackers tell of hours hunting for fruit that’s almost as meagre as their pay, as Fair Work Commission case begins

File photo of Cherry pickers in Young, NSW. Unions are trying to change the Horticulture Award, which allows paying by piece and does not specify a minimum hourly wage. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

Ben Butler
Sat 17 Jul 2021

Niko Karhu laughed when he got his paycheque for $31.24 after spending five hours picking tomatoes on a Bundaberg farm last May.

The Finnish backpacker says he spent five hours hunting for fruit that was almost as meagre as his pay.

“It was more like, like just walking, wondering where they are and picking a tomato every, you know, two or three metres,” he says.

At the end of the day, Karhu, who is now training to be a diving instructor, was paid based on the – small – amount of fruit he had been able to pick.

Paying by piece is allowed by the Horticulture Award, which governs fruit and vegetable picking.

Unlike most awards, it does not specify a minimum hourly wage that workers must receive – something unions are trying to change.


Seasonal work on Australia’s farms: ‘No one wants to do this sort of work’

Last week, the Fair Work Commission heard arguments in a case brought by the Australian Workers Union, and supported by the United Workers Union, to change the award so that pickers have to receive at least the Australian minimum wage, $20.33 an hour, for what is hard, physical work that often takes place under beating sun or pouring rain.

Launching the case in December, the AWU national secretary, Dan Walton, told Guardian Australia that the industry had “become the centrepiece for exploitation in this country”, with employers paying as little as $3 an hour for labour.

But employers oppose the increase – one group, the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance, has told the commission that a lack of minimum rates “means that novice employees are incentivised to learn the job and achieve competence as quickly as reasonably possible and more experienced employees are incentivised to maximise their productivity”.

This was not Karhu’s experience. At the end of the day when he was presented with his pay he “absolutely burst into laughter”, he says.

“I knew that going to Bundaberg was a risk,” he says. “I’ve never heard anything good about that town work-wise. But I was desperate.”

Karhu, who is a UWU member, needed to work 88 days on a farm in order to stay in Australia on a working holiday visa.


A few days later, he again worked for piece rates, this time at a chilli farm. This time, the problem was not lack of fruit – it was the low piece rates. Experienced pickers did not fare any better, he says.

“I remember that we were moving at pretty much the same pace, all of us,” he says.

“Obviously it was my first – and last – day but a few of the people there, they’d been there before, and I wasn’t that far behind.”

His pay that day was $32.40.