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.

Media for Labour Rights Prize 2010 to Nina Corpuz

Kasambahay means “part of the household” in Filipino and this is what domestic workers are called. They have few rights either in their home country or abroad, and many fall victim to abuse by their employers and the agencies that illegaly recruit them. Nina Corpuz investigated the conditions of domestic workers, the phenomenon of human trafficking in the Philippines and the measures taken by the government to prevent it.

Kenya, child labour and the economic crisis

Kenyan children are out of school due to the economic crisis. But the situation is further compounded by food crisis, drought, high cost of food commodities and high fuel prices. And yet, no new measures have been announced by the government on direct intervention on child labour. An interview with Bernard Kiura, ILO National Coordinator in Kenya.

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.

Old age catching up in Sri Lanka

By Dilshani Samaraweera

After 30 years spent on war, now old age is catching up with Sri Lanka. Economists and ILO analysts are ringing warning bells that Sri Lanka’s post-war economic growth may decelerate because of aging population.

Nigeria, discrimination against workers with HIV

By Chukwuma Muanya and Collins Olayinka

AS the country joins the rest of the world to mark the 2009 World AIDS Day today, the country has recorded a 46.7 per cent drop in Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) infection in seven years.

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.

A complete vindication, in the land of Karoshi

By Misako Hida *

“I’m so touched by this overall victory. This is what I’ve waited such a long time for. My son’s face in death has always haunted me. I have spent barely a day without recalling that face since he took his own life a decade ago. Even a single day…”