Philippines: Department of labour urges partners to support Convention for domestic workers

Philippines Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz urged labor, management, and other stakeholders to support the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in crafting comments and responses to the proposed International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention and Recommendations on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

Migrants in Macau: a ban may be discriminatory

By Alexandra Lages

A senior specialist for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said that the six month ban established by Macau’s new imported labour law could be “a case of discrimination” for migrant workers. In an interview with Macau Daily Times, Tim De Meyer, senior specialist in international labour standards and labour law of the Subregional Office for East Asia, pointed out that there is no black and white approach for the Macau migrant workers’ complaints and advised them to pay attention to the results of the new law in practice.

Decent work for domestic workers: A way out of sustainable poverty

By Niña Corpuz

Thirteen-year-old Lica de Guzman sang at the makeshift stage at the Place des Nations, during a gathering to commemorate Domestic Workers’ Rights. De Guzman had a very impressive voice. In fact, she had just signed a contract with Universal Records in London, and her first album will be released later this year. De Guzman’s Filipino parents, Joy and Nicanor, have been working as domestic helpers in Geneva for the past 20 years.

China, labour unrest and role of unions

An interesting analysis of these days’ wave of labour unrest in China and of the potential role of freedom of association and collective bargaining.

By Anita Chan*

Workers of several factories in Guangdong province have been drawing global attention over the past couple of weeks. First, there were reports of workers jumping to their deaths in a factory of Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer. Around the same time, some 2,000 workers went on a two-week strike at a Honda component manufacturing factory, halting production in four Honda assembly plants.

New Zealand failure to ratify ILO domestic workers convention “shameful”

A leading academic has condemned New Zealand’s failure to ratify a proposed International Labour Organisation Convention protecting the rights of domestic workers. Professor Marilyn Waring from the Institute of Public Policy at New Zealand’s Auckland University of Technology apologised to a meeting of Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Minister for the decision. Here’s the interview on Radio Australia (Windows media).

The need to adopt a “rights-based approach” for the world’s 105 million migrant workers

Amid growing challenges due to the global economic crisis, a new ILO study highlights the need to adopt a “rights-based approach” to provide a “fair deal” for the world’s 105 million migrant workers. The new study, entitled “International Labour Migration: A rights-based approach”, examines trends in international labour migration, its impacts on origin and destination countries, and conditions of work experienced by migrant workers. The study also explores how standards can be used in the formulation and implementation of migration policies and practices.

Migrant domestic workers’ rights next on ILO’s agenda

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

Po Po has been enduring long hours of hard work, poor pay and abuse within the confines of her employer’s home for the past seven years. Poverty forced her to leave her family in eastern Burma and abandon a university education to work as a domestic helper in Thailand. “There is constant uncertainty about a domestic work,” said the 25-year-old in an interview with IPS. “In my last job, I worked for 11 hours a day, but I had to be available for 24 hours if my employer needed me.” Po Po is one of scores of domestic helpers in Thailand who stand to gain from the combined efforts of migrant rights advocates and the International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations tripartite body, to raise the profile of domestic workers this year.

Tears of African migrants

For 37 days, the Nigerian journalist Emmanuel Mayah travelled a total of 4,318 kilometres across seven countries and the Sahara desert in the company of illegal African migrants on their way to Europe. From Nigeria to Benin Republic, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and finally Libya, he survived to tell the story of human traffickers, sex slavery in transit camps, starvation, desert bandits, arduous toil in a salt mine, cruel thirst and deaths in the hot desert. The writer was a participant of the ITC-ILO Communicating labour rights’ course 2009.

Asia, Human rights for migrant domestic workers

As the world marks International Human Rights Day on the 10th of December, CARAM Asia launches an online petition campaign seeking crucial support and commitment from every employer of households to grant a weekly paid day off to their migrant domestic worker (MDW). On this occasion, CARAM Asia, a regional network of 34 NGOs and trade unions across 17 countries in Asia, makes the call to governments across the globe to respect the rights and dignity of migrant workers especially domestic workers.

EU GSP+ not benefit workers in Sri Lanka

By Dilshani Samaraweera

Worker’s rights groups in Sri Lanka are asking for mechanisms to be introduced into the EU’s GSP+ trade scheme, to allow trade benefits to reach workers. ALaRM, a grouping of trade unions and non-governmental organisations, today (November 12, 2009), at a press conference, pointed out that the EU’s GSP+ preferential trade scheme has no inbuilt provision to ensure distribution of trade benefits to workers.