WSM and partners lobby at the ILO Asia Pacific Regional meeting (ILO AP RM)

The 16th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting reviewed progress made towards building a future with Decent Work since the 15th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting (held in Japan in 2011). From 6 till 9th of December 2016, ILO brought together 351 delegates from Asia and Pacific governments, employers' and workers' groups. Delegates discuss the future of work and emerging challenges and consider policies that can strengthen sustainable development, job creation and social justice in their region.Out of 50 member states invited, 37 members and one Territory attended. A total of 351 participants attended, the highest level of the last four regional meetings. The meeting was composed of 72 government delegates, 34 Employers' advisers delegates and 34 Workers' Delegates. Women represent 28% of the total delegates.

This is an increase compared to the last ILO AP RM in 2011, when it was 20,4% but still below the benchmark set of 30% and beyond, for real gender parity, as called for by the Director-General. The meeting finished by adopting the Bali Declaration.

WSM and IYCW also attended and supported some participants and interventions, in line with the political agendas established by the Asia Network on the Right to Social Protection. The goal was that members of the Steering Committee understand the functioning of the ILO and its Asia Pacific Regional Meeting and lobbies successfully for the inclusion of certain issues in the final conclusions.

The Members of the Steering Committee attending were Father Chetan (India), Leizyl (YCW ASPAC), Sister Sulistri (Indonesia), Ath Thorn (Cambodia), Ganesh Niroula (Nepal) and Ramesh Badal (Nepal). Andy from the International YCW also attended. For WSM, Jeroen, Bart, Francina, Bruno and Bismo attended. In the following posts on this blog, we publish some of the interventions, as well as some interviews made to evaluate their participation.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Sullistri, KSBSI, Indonesia

In this meeting, I can bring forward certain positions and influence the policies on Asia and Pacific level. We promote also the women participation and attention to gender. We can also create links with the National Decent Work programmes in Indonesia.

In my intervention, I focused on the environment and the palm oil sector, which is a big issue in Indonesia. We need a just transition, so that workers do no suffer. Climate change is also mentioned in the SDG, and so we plead for involvement of social dialogue, and include indigenous people and environmental NGOs. The Free Trade Agreements are also part of my intervention, which should include social elements and workers’ rights.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Francina, WSM South Coordinator

I wanted to come to learn more about the trade union dynamics and the process of the ILO. As WSM closely works with labour standards, it is important for me to know what is being debated on regional and global level. In the context of WSM’s work on Social protection, our partners contribute to job creation by offering vocational skills to members.

During this ILO meeting, the aspect of skills was put in a larger context, linking it to multinationals, the importance of new technologies and young workers. Also the social dialogue was very relevant, because workers facing problems on the work floor have to first turn to the first step of social dialogue, the bipartite plant level, before the government is brought in. Also that many states have not yet ratified some of the core conventions was revealing, like India hasn’t ratified freedom of association (ILC87) or collective bargaining (ILC98).

Attending the ILO AP RM: Ganesh Niroula, NTUC, Nepal

Very interesting to witness the tripartite dialogue, hearing what is being raised by all three parties per country. We can learn from good practices and lapses, so situations can improve for workers and productivity as well. We also learn about the situation of decent work and issues in Asia and the Pacific.

Many issues are raised, like the strike in South Korea and the brutal repression by government, or the unfriendly trade union reforms in India or Indonesia and diluting union policies. Certain governments aren’t providing space to organize or to do collective bargaining. For instance, in Nepal, legal strikes aren’t banned, but the Industrial Act passed in this year, specifies certain sectors that prohibit strikes completely. This legislation is stricter, because it prohibits strikes in a larger way than the essential services act, which wasn’t applied too strictly. The Nepali trade unions have filed a case before ILO regarding this legislation.

Through the two interventions from the Nepali workers’ joint representative, Ramesh, which were agreed upon beforehand between trade unions in the JTUCC, we were able to share what is the situation in Nepal regarding labour migration and skills. The employment agenda is discussed here and linked to productivity. Nepal has high unemployment and low productivity. By discussing here with policy makers and employers and learning on these topics, we hope to improve these two aspects.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Leizyl, YCW ASPAC

The meeting was different from what I expected, like the original way to organize the participation, through the panel discussions, which bring together different views from various countries and is more dynamic. However, I feel it really lacks interventions from the grass-root level. For the YCW and myself, this helps to understand the issues that the ILO tackles, like Global Supply Chain, labour migration and decent work, from the perspective of young workers. Every year, we also attend the ILC in Geneva, so this is very relevant. For us, this is not only a moment to lobby for our demands, but also the networking aspect is important. For instance, during this meeting we met a representative from the Singapore trade union, and since we would like to also extend our work there, they offered their assistance to facilitate the start up. Labour migration is an issue that stood out, because after our YCW International council, the YCW provides specific input, but our analysis is still not very clear. In Europe, the focus is currently more on refugees, but here in Asia, the context is different and labour migration is more important for young workers.  The Global Supply Chain is in our opinion is part of the major causes of precarious work, like flexibility and outsourcing. The intervention from the government delegate from the Philippines indicated to me that they want to end contractualization, which is an important demand for us. If I could have made an intervention, it would have been on social protection for young and migrant workers, because this is a right that is currently not respected in most of the Asia Pacific countries.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Father Chetan, NDWF, India

For me, it was the first time to attend, so it was a learning process, which helps us understand the issues better. We also witness the continental dynamics and issues that are being debatted, like labour migration, where they go deeper into recruitment issues, social protection in hosting and sending countries etc. Even though no binding instrument comes out of it, I do feel some government delegates will take certain issues back to their national level and initiate some efforts. India in my perspective will not be among these, as their delegation seemed to simply pretend all is going well, the government is doing so much and there are no major problems. This is regrettable. I also appreciated better the importance of the issue of Freedom of Association, which I understand now is a vital prerequisite for social dialogue and collective bargaining.

Attending ILO AP RM: Ath Thorn, CLC - Cambodia

It is interesting for us to attend, to know more about the priorities of the Asia Pacific Labour movement. We learn about the situation of decent work in each country. We see how sometimes the employers’ or government group try to limit our efforts, even though we are supposed to all work together for decent work. Their delegates often pretend everything is fine, while there are many labour issues and violations. Only 14 states among 47 Asia Pacific have ratified the 8 ILO core conventions.

Can Cambodian partners file complaints at the ILO?

Life and work has been complicated in Cambodia in the past years, both for workers and for trade unions (see post here and here on Cambodia minimum wage struggle). ACV-CSC, ACV-CSC METEA and WSM have been supporting since many years the Cambodian Labour Federation (CLC) and the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), the largest independent federation in the textile sector in Cambodia affiliated to CLC. In the last years, CLC and C.CAWDU have demonstrated their strength and capacity to organise and mobilise workers, to negotiate agreements with individual companies and to launch (inter)national campaigns when needed. They are strongly valued by all key international stakeholders (ITUC, IndustriAll, UNI, CCC and several other labour rights organisations) for their independence.



However, many challenges remain for CLC-C.CAWDU. They requested from ACV-CSC and WSM to complement their (reactive) urgent appeal work with a more proactive strategy. Understanding the ILO’s work with regards to developing and supervising the effective implementation of international labour standards (ILS), is one of the key areas in which CLC-C.CAWDU wanted capacity strengthening.

Thirty five members of CLC, C.CAWDU and other affiliates delegated their leadership and the staff of the legal department took part in this training and looked at the ILO supervisory system, gathered data by interviews of garment workers and field visits and practiced by drafting complaints and campaigns for the Clean Clothes Campaign. It met with a 84% satisfaction rate and participants felt their expectations were largely met, promising to apply this knowledge and to share it with other members.

1 Million kilometers for Clean Sports Clothes, handed to Bioracer

© Mine Dalemans

A team of valiant KWB and World Solidarity cyclers hands over 1 million bike kilometers to Limburg cycling gear company Bioracer, together with a request to make Clean Cycling Clothes  a reality. ‘Clean’ stands for respect for the human and labor rights of the workers making cycling gear. The CEO of the company receives the activists and listens to their questions. Read the account below.

Experience of National Domestic Workers Movement in India promoting Labour Rights and Social Protection for Vulnerable Workers

The National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) in India is rights based movement of domestic workers across 17 states in the country. Since 2011, NDWM has been facilitating the establishment of trade unions of domestic workers in several States. Fifteen domestic workers trade unions together form the “National Domestic Workers Federation (NDWF)”.  Each members pays Rs 60 to 120 (1 to 2 US dollar) as membership fees per annum, of which 10 % is shared with the NDWF.

At the moment, The Jharkhand Gharelu Kaamgar Union, the domestic workers union affiliate of NDWF in Jharkhand State is developing a domestic workers cooperative, with the support of ILO (pilot project). The objective of such a the cooperative is 3-fold:

• Promote decent work for domestic workers through collective bargaining and thus to facilitate the transition of the sector from the informal to the formal economy;
• Break the unequal employment relationship between domestic workers and employers;
• Enhance the skills of domestic workers and facilitate quality both for the domestic workers and the employers.
• Facilitate economic empowerment of domestic workers through savings and credit from Cooperative.

For those domestic workers, who are already members of the union and  wish to become a member of the Cooperative has to pay a onetime membership fee of Rs.50 and buy minimum one share of Rs.100 (1,5 USD). A member can buy maximum of 20 shares. In return, the cooperative provides the following services to its members :

• Training on the functioning of cooperatives, leadership etc.
• 60 hours of skills training to each member in collaboration with well-known Hospitality industry.
• A savings and credit scheme (members can take loans on a minimum  interest  2% per annum)
• Facilitate employment in Hospitality sector and real estate (Apartments) with a written tripartite contract (Cooperative, Employer and Worker) with a code of conduct and terms and conditions of work.
• The Cooperative extends a social security cover (health insurance, maternity, unemployment benefit and pension) to its members. The premium is paid from the contribution of worker (5% of total salary per month) and the employer (5% of total salary per month) deducted from the worker. The employer pays the salary to the cooperative and in turn the cooperative pays to its members.

For the time being, one cooperative has been established in Jharkhand State with 102 domestic workers as “member-shareholders”. In comparison, the domestic workers union in Jharkhand State has currently over 3.000 members, so there is more awareness raising to be done to convince more union members to join the cooperative. CBA negotiation has started mainly with corporate houses and real estates (apartment buildings). The advantages for the “employers” are the following:

• Acquisition of the specific services required by them.
• Skilled domestic workers.
• In case of complaints or grievances, they can turn to the cooperative as an intermediary.
• They don’t have to deal with the wage and social security administration.
• The union backs the work of the cooperative by providing to the cooperative:
• Training and capacity building on labor rights,
• Legal services (legal support),

Uzziel TWAGILIMANA, WSM Africa
Bart VERSTRAETEN, WSM Belgium
Chandran CHETAN, NDWM, India

Solidarity across borders: trade unions from Nepal to Belgium

To look into adapting trade unions to a federal state, social elections and social security, the leadership of the three main Nepali trade unions came to Belgium end of October 2016 with the support of World Solidarity (WSM) and the largest Belgian trade union, ACV-CSC. 

International Day of Older Persons 2016: Elderly Worldwide: not a problem but a challenge for all of us

• 1st of October is the International Day of Older Persons 

The International Day of Older Persons is an opportunity to highlight the important contributions that older people make to society and raise awareness of the issues and challenges of ageing in today’s world.

The theme for 2016, Take a Stand Against Ageism, challenges everyone to consider ageism – the negative attitudes and discrimination based on age - and the detrimental impact it has on older people.

• Also WSM, OKRA and GK are involved

For the 1st of October,  OKRA and WSM organized a flash mob of 500 elderly from all over Flanders at the Central Station in Antwerp, to draw attention to these challenges (pictures copyright Frank Bahnmüller).

GK organized sports activities with the elderly, a rally at the National Monument in the capital Dhaka, a statement addressed to the Bangladeshi government, mass medical consultations of elderly and other activities.

Andre Kiekens, director of World Solidarity (WSM) "Our partner organisation GK, a pioneer in the field of affordable health care for all, now wants to put the elderly on the agenda. By giving a voice to elderly in its own structures. Inspired by an exchange, GK -like OKRA - wants a movement with, for and by the elderly. It wants to greatly promote the independence of older people in the community they live in, because this is good for the health and quality of life." Or how working with, for and by elderly across borders can reinforce each other. Both OKRA and GK from Bangladesh released a statement.

What response given to Bangladesh factory fire killing 34 workers?

At least 34 people have been killed in a blaze in Bangladesh after a boiler malfunctioning at a factory that packages for Nestle and other companies. 10 workers are missing and hundreds are injured. "Waving their hands through the windows of the factory, the workers were crying for help but those who were outside could not go near the building due to huge flames," said Gul Chan, a housewife of a nearby tin-shed house. Rescuing people and extinguishing the fire took over 48 hours and 22 teams of firefighters and army. The fire happened in Tongi, just 12 miles north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, and is the country’s worst industrial accident since the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse that killed 1,135 garment workers. Tampaco Foils, which owns the five-storey factory, reportedly packages various items for several international brands, including Nestle and British American Tobacco.

Worker Rights Consortium, the International Labor Rights Forum, Clean Clothes Campaign, and the Maquila Solidarity Network responded to the explosion in a statement saying "it is vital for the public to understand that boiler safety is also a key issue in Bangladesh's massive garment sector. There have been numerous boiler explosions at garment factories in recent years (...) 
There has been major progress in improving fire and building safety in garment factories in Bangladesh, especially at the 1,600 factories covered by the binding safety agreement between unions and global apparel brands known as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. However, none of the safety initiatives in the garment sector, including the Accord, cover the issue of boiler safety. Accord standards concerning fire safety address the spread of a fire caused by a boiler explosion, but they do not address the prevention of such explosions - and, in an explosion the size of the one we have just witnessed at Tampaco Foils, limiting the spread of fire will not be enough to protect life and limb. This is a major issue that the Accord, all other building safety initiatives in Bangladesh, and the Bangladesh government must address."

WSM partners also intervened. Hearing of the fire, GK doctors and paramedics went there with an ambulance and medical supplies, as well as a team from the Government. GK medical team stayed there for three days and treated over a hundred workers and also members of the rescue teams. Most of the treated injuries were burns and were later referred to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital burn unit. On 18th of September, NGWF jointly with other trade unions held a a black-flag mourning-rally and also released a statement with their demands, including compensation to the injured and families of deceased according to ILO standards.

ILO 2016 Global Media Competition on “Breaking Stereotypes on Labour Migration”

ILO launches a global media competition to recognize exemplary media coverage on labour migration. The objective of the competition is to recognize exemplary media coverage on labour migration by encouraging professional journalists to produce written articles or videos/multimedia that while not overlooking the negative aspects (e.g. often a hard reality of exploitation and violation of human and labour rights), also show the positive results of good labour migration governance, and highlight the positive contribution of migrant workers to countries of origin, transit and destination.

© See-ming Lee 2016

This second global media competition “Breaking Stereotypes on Labour Migration” is organized by the International Labour Organization in collaboration with the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Organization of Employers, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Federation of Journalists, Equal Times, Solidarity Center, Human Rights Watch, and Migrant Forum in Asia.

The competition starts on 14 September 2016 and closes on 31 October 2016. Professional journalists are invited to submit one piece of their work to one of the two following categories:

•     written articles (online or print articles)
•     videos/multimedia

The submitted entries should cover labour migration-related issues. Refugees and displaced persons, where they are employed as workers outside their own countries, are considered migrant workers. As such, submissions covering international migrant workers and refugees (participating in labour markets outside their own countries) will be accepted.

For more details, see here.