Workers Voices: Documentary on Bangladeshi Garment workers speaking up and organizing

Sramik Awaaz: Worker Voices is the first film to fully explore the lives, work, and organizing efforts of Bangladesh’s garment workers. Through interviews carried out in 2014 and 2015, and filming through 2016, the film chronicles the barriers faced by the mostly female workers at home, at work, and in life. These interviews reflect some clear policy prescriptives for improving the rights of workers not only in Bangladesh, but the issues raised echoes in workforces around the world even among low wage workers in US and Europe. The film was crowdfunded and produced by Chaumtoli Huq and directed by Mohammed Romel.


See the full movie (in Bangladeshi) here.

Breakthrough to end kafala after new commitments from Qatar on workers’ rights

Qatar's system for migrant workers which meant they were practically the property of the employer (the so-called "Kafala" system) has been dismantled, improving rights for over two million migrant workers, many from India, Nepal but also Africa which are, among other tasks, building the football stadia for the 2022 World Cup. This came after after many years of pressure and organizing, by the WSM partners in India and Nepal (see here, also with support from ACV BIE), gathering testimonies (see publication here), by the International Trade Union Confederation ITUC (here) and from the ILO, where a complaint procedure had been initiated and a high level mission conducted, comprising Luc Cortebeek on behalf of the employees.

The new guidance and commitments made by the Government dismantle the system of kafala, which has trapped millions of migrant workers in Qatar. The six steps include:

1. Employment contracts will be lodged with a government authority to prevent contract substitution, ending the practice of workers arriving in the country only to have their contract torn up and replaced with a different job, often on a lower wage.
2. Employers will no longer be able to stop their employees from leaving the country.
3. A minimum wage will be prescribed as a base rate covering all workers, ending the race-based system of wages.
4. Identification papers will be issued directly by the State of Qatar, and workers will no longer rely on their employer to provide their ID card without which workers can be denied medical treatment.
5. Workers’ committees will be established in each workplace, with workers electing their own representatives.
6. A special disputes resolution committee with a time frame for dealing with grievances will be a centerpiece for ensuring rapid remedy of complaints.

"Our efforts are now also starting to bear fruit" says Andre Kiekens, General Secretary of World Solidarity. "We are particularly pleased that the ILO and the Qatari government have now signed a cooperation agreement for the period 2018-2020. This cooperation will ensure that the new legislation does not remain only on paper. Within this framework, an ILO office will be set up in Qatar that will specifically monitor the implementation of all these legislative changes and assist the government in strengthening their labor inspectorate on the construction sites" he adds. The International Trade Union Confederation also welcomed the breakthrough from the Government of Qatar to end the kafala system of modern slavery. “These initiatives have the support of the ITUC, and we hope that implementation will be also supported by the ILO with its technical expertise. Much remains to be done, but these steps open the way for workers to be treated with dignity and for their lives and livelihoods to be protected,” Sharan Burrow commented here.

Following this,  the ILO Governing Body decided to close the official complaint that was launched against the Government of Qatar, considering the various policy measures that were taken by the Government in the last few years (decision here).  The ILO and the Qatari Government have concluded a cooperation agreement, which gives a mandate to the ILO to monitor the Government’s efforts in the country to comply with the measures it has adopted. Let us hope that this will indeed prove meaningful for the nearly 2 million migrant workers in the country.

The leading global professional health and safety body today calls on employers to “step up to the mark” and commit to new standards on workplace mental health

A new report into workplace mental health clearly demonstrates the need for increased support for long-term sufferers, according to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Each year, 300,000 people in the UK with a long-term mental health problem lose their jobs, according to the report, called Thriving at Work. The cost to the UK economy of poor mental health is estimated to be up to £99 billion. The independent review, conducted by Paul Farmer and Dennis Stevenson, makes 40 recommendations and urges employers, no matter what their size or industry, to commit to six core standards on mental health. IOSH says employers and relevant bodies need to take heed. Earlier this month, it published new research which found that employers need to do more to help employees return to work following absence because of common mental disorders.

Richard Jones, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at IOSH, said: “Employers have a vital role in providing supportive workplaces. It is time for them to step up to the mark on mental health.  All work needs to be ‘good work’ and effective management benefits individuals, businesses and the economy. Everyone can contribute to improving mental health at work and supporting people with problems. Health and safety professionals and professional bodies like IOSH are very keen to help organisations to get it right. IOSH provides lots of free guidance and tools on this. Action doesn’t need to be costly. Where there is cost, the report found that average returns far outweigh it, with around £4.20 for every £1 spent.”

Amussol: informal workers have access to social security in the Dominican Republic!

Let's share an update on some of the recent achievements in other regions where WSM supports networks on the right to social protection. 

The Dominican trade union ‘CASC’ is a long-standing partner of World Solidarity (WSM), the ACV-CSC trade union and the Christian Mutuality, three organisations from the Christian labour movement in Belgium.

In this thematic brochure, we took an interest in AMUSSOL, a mutual association set up in 2005 by CASC. It allows men and women workers in the informal economy to access social protection, a right that is not guaranteed by the Dominican state for this part of the population.

The mutual association serves as a ‘virtual employer’ for these men and women workers in the informal economy. Affiliates pay their monthly fee to AMUSSOL, which channels it to the national Social Security Treasury.
Therefore, more than 60,000 men and women workers of the country are entitled to a family health coverage, workplace accident allowances and a pension.

The initiative is a great example of the transformative power of a social movement that uses its expertise to change the existing system. By enabling men and women informal workers to access the social security scheme, AMUSSOL has developed good practices in the field of the extension of social protection, bringing greater fairness in the Dominican society. At the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the initiative has inspired the development of the standard-setting system concerning social protection floors (with the adoption in 2012 of Recommendation 202) and the transition from the informal to the formal economy (with the adoption in 2015 of Recommendation 204). AMUSSOL and CASC have played a major role in the negotiations that led to the adoption of both standards.

And what about the future? Ideally, the Dominican Government should eventually settle this question of access to social security for all, pushed in the back a.o. by CASC and AMUSSOL, which are asking for the compliance with international labour standards such as ILO Recommendations 202 and 204. AMUSSOL could thus keep on serving as a transmission belt between the organisations of workers in the informal economy and the official social security system. It would allow to keep an effective control, the ownership by all beneficiaries and, consequently, a broad support for the system.

We hope you enjoy reading it here when we put the spotlight on an initiative that has already allowed around 60,000 people to gain access to social protection.

Indonesia’s reviewed law on labour migration

On Thursday October 12, ANRSP members KSBSI and SBMI jointly organized a workshop on Indonesia’s reviewed law on labour migration. The current legislation, Bill nr 39/2004, has been in effect for 13 years and its revision is in the last stages. Without obstacles it will be approved in parliament on October 28 this year. Generally speaking, both KSBSI and SBMI think some amendments to the decree are positive, others require a critical look and still other elements are not sufficiently taken up in the reviewed of the bill.

The new amended Bill will focuses on the protection of migrant workers. For example, Indonesia will no  longer send migrant workers to countries oversees who didn’t sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indonesian Government. Also the sanctions by law for offenders will be strengthened. The possibility to combine jail-time and financial sanctions will make the sanctions more applicable in practice.

The reviewed bill also shifts the migrant workers’ social protection. Instead of a separate social security mechanism (private, for profit), migrant workers now have to join the universal, non-profit, State owned social protection body called BPJS. According to KSBSI and SBMI, as such this is a positive evolution. However, the new social protection body cannot cover all risks the former system covered (for example repatriation, sexual harassment, etc). Furthermore not all possible social protection schemes are being made compulsory for migrant workers.  KSBSI and SBMI state that all social protection schemes should be made compulsory for migrant workers. This means the government should not see migrant workers as informal workers. To cover the other risks, it might be more feasible to solve this problem in the short term by bringing the responsibility for very specific migration related risks (like repatriation) to the ministry of foreign affairs. Widening the possible schemes within the BPJS, might prove to be a much more challenging approach in the short term.

Unfortunately many questions remain on the actual implementation.  The role of government institutions increases, but who is going to monitor what will happen in the bureaucracy?  For example: how will it be guaranteed that migrant workers don’t have to pay for their recruitment themselves? So there should be an independent monitoring body that can not only mediate, but that can also sanction effectively.  KSBSI and SBMI also know that offences are happening right at the recruitment phase, even before migrant workers leave the country. So legal aid should be provided by the government even in the pre-process stage.

Another gap is the important phase of the recruitment and the placing of Migrant workers.  Unfortunately the bill doesn’t tackle this issue well. Another derivative regulations on placing will be needed.

Indonesia synergy focuses on young workers and political action

The WSM partners in Indonesia KSBSI and SBMI working on labour migration choose young workers and political action as the areas they wanted to improve in.

For political action, they dream their synergy is able to influence the government in making labour migration policy and socialize it towards members and officials, especially at local level. In short term, they expect to see:

• Socialisation in four regions for 100 members of KSBSI and SBMI
• In three regions, meeting with local level authorities to explain legislation and adapt similar regulation at local level.
• Synergy drafts a proposal of local level regulations and ministerial decree at national level

On mid-term, they would like to see:

• Local level regulations are adopted and implemented in four provinces.
• Ministerial decree is adopted with operational details about recruitment agencies (criteria, responsibilities, fees)
• Synergy to influence the government during MoU for bilateral agreements regarding protection of migrant labourers

And in long term, the participants would love to see:

• Bilateral agreements between Indonesia and receiving countries hold provisions for migrant labourers passport held by labourers, legal assistance from embassies, freedom of association is respected, one day holiday/week, able to communicate with family.
• Government regulates and manages the placing of migrant labourers

Regarding the young workers, they hope the synergy contributes to young workers to be professional, responsible and independent. They expect to see in the short term:

• 100 young workers members are made aware of labour migration regulation
• Maintain or increase the involvement of young workers in synergy through leadership training, targetting them specifically in invitations for meetings or training, use of social media.
• Targetting students at universities and colleges before departure or employment to join trade union.

They would like to see the SBMI-KSBSI membership of young workers increases by 300 through the synergy activities. On long term, participants would love to see that through the synergy, 80% of these new members are aware of their rights and able to defend themselves.

As this was their first time using the WSM approach to capacity strengthening, participants greatly appreciated the session and the way it helped them evaluate their work and plan for the future.

2014-2016 impact: Access to health

IMPACT
Achieved at 88%. Through GK in Bangladesh and AREDS in India, 351.466 people benefitted from health care and insurance. Health care expenditure of 12.380 workers was reduced by 6 to 7%. Also note that in the areas GK works, Crude Birth Rate and Maternal Mortality Ratio went down by respectively 14 and 12% for 275.000 beneficiaries.

OUTPUT

	Number of people	To which extend achieved planned
Awareness raising	14.763	196%
Access to health care	351.292	134%
Self-organized health insurance	231.461	176%

GK paramedics doing community visits and post-natal care.

“I was born outside of Dhaka, near the border with India. My marriage was arranged when I was 12, thirteen years ago. While in the beginning, I was a housewife, I started working as garment worker two years ago. My husband was already working at the same garment company, so I wanted to add to the family income. We have two children, 7 and 3 years old, all living in one room. From my monthly salary of 8.000BDT, I pay 2.000BDT for rent. I opened a bank account, on which I deposits half, the other half I give to my husband. I come to GK service center because after my appendix was taken out at the GK reference hospital, it is still painful so I wanted some medication or painkillers. I have been covered by the GK insurance scheme for the past fifteen months. The operation was done for free, while in private clinic it would cost at least 30.000BDT. I would be very willing to pay 10BDT per month to continue this coverage, because if I have to pay for services, this would have probably amounted for the past year to around 5.000BDT.”

2014-2016 impact: Illustration Social Security: India: NDWM's strategy to distribute pending social pensions

Kerala: campaign organized at Secretariat in the capital has resulted in the decision of Govt. to distribute the pending social pensions to the Domestic Workers. The campaign was a result of joint discussions of the domestic workers in the regional level meeting. The group has identified that the campaign as a strategy to fight for their rights.

Jharkhand: We have been working on the themes of Labour Rights and Social Protection in the past years through the WSM program. Both these themes are very relevant to our situation in India as a whole. During the last WSM program (pre-2014) we in Jharkhand first worked on the theme of labour rights and through different means and strategies got the Department of Labour to fix the wages for domestic workers. This was a success. Then we took up the issue of social protection. For almost two years along with our leaders we met the concerned Ministers and Government officials a number of times and requested them to implement the Social Security Act, but all in vain. Then in the end of 2012 we filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court of Jharkhand requesting the Court to intervene in this matter.

The year 2014 is special for us as the High Court gave a positive verdict on our behalf and gave clear directions to the Government to take steps implement the Act. This implies that the Government has no choice but to implement the Act in its true sense. For NDWM it is an achievement, because, the State was very cool about the social protection issues and now is forced to act, otherwise the petitioner, that is, NDWM can file a contempt of Court petition in the same court.
This implies that more than 90% of the total workforce in Jharkhand State including domestic workers will now not be turned down but be enrolled into welfare Boards and be able to avail the existing schemes on social protection. We will be closely monitoring the activities of the Government in this regard so that we can bring to the notice of the court if any negligence is shown by the Government.

Thus the target before us for 2015 and the years to come is to ensure that social protection becomes a reality, that aged workers can live in dignity, health is ensured, education of the children is guaranteed, dignified housing and other benefits are made available to the informal workers.

2014-2016 impact: Social security

IMPACT
Achieved at 185%: 42.440 informed workers got coverage of social security schemes (retirement, maternity leave, health insurance…) through support from NDWM and CWM in India.

OUTPUT

	Number of people	To which extend achieved planned
Awareness raising	190.698	273%
Basic training	8.882	93%

Cambodia: More than 700.000 workers from 1.029 companies have now access to the social security, of which at least 20.600 are new members of CLC. In May 2016 the health insurance system started up, although only workers in Phnom Penh, Kandal and Kampong Speu provinces are being covered. Both worker and employer contribute 1,3% of the salary each. The workers receive a free pre check-up and the treatment is also for free (except the serious treatments, like teeth operations and facial surgery). During the treatment a worker who is on sick leave receives 70% of its wage (for 6 months). The same goes for pregnant women: for the 9 months maternity leave, they receive 70% of their monthly wage from the social security and 50% from the employer, which means a monthly income of 120% of their regular salary. Health insurance for the public sector has also started in 2016 and discussions for pension schemes are ongoing.

2014-2016 impact: Social economy

IMPACT
Achieved at 120%. 13 new cooperatives are providing 350 families with a stable extra income.
Achieved at 311%. 1.832 vulnerable workers started their own Income Generating Activities through AREDS in India.

	Number of people	To which extend achieved planned
Basic training on income generating activities	2.638	149%
Organizing into cooperatives	799	89%

2014-2016 impact: Illustration Vocational: What drives Bangladeshi women?

In Bangladesh, GK is one of the main health providers. It started by training women paramedics and also taught them to ride bicycles, which was not evident in Bangladesh, and against fundamentalism, promoting equal opportunities. Since 1980s, GK also recruited marginalized women from the rural areas to learn how to drive cars, and then facilitated driving licences from the government. This met with much success, and a formal school for women drivers was inaugurated mid-1990s in the south, Cox Bazars. Since that time, around 100 women were trained and GK currently employs 12 female drivers, which draw a lot of attention when driving across the cities and countryside. In 2014, BRAC also took over this training for women. Since it became such a flagship programme, in 2016, GK gathered 38 of the trained women drivers and they were all working, mostly in NGO, UN agencies, hotels, less for families or private cars. Currently, since GK is also heavily involved in humanitarian support for the Roshingya refugees, they are also looking to employ Roshingya female drivers, but it won’t be easy to obtain driving permits for them.

2014-2016 impact: vocational skill training

IMPACT
Achieved at 88%: 175 workers from Bangladesh found permanent jobs through GK.
Achieved at 233%. 279 female workers started their own business.
Achieved at 87%. 26 children and adolescents found permanent jobs or were granted access to higher education.

OUTPUT

	Number of people	To which extend achieved planned
Basic training	599 427	132% 114%
Career counselling	53 children	63%

2014-2016 impact: Illustration labour rights: migration

Labour migration largely occurs under temporary migration regimes and for less skilled work. Migrants often fill jobs unattractive to nationals, the infamous three Ds: Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning. Examples of this are the Nepali and Indian migrants travelling to Gulf countries like Qatar to work as domestic or construction workers. Migrant workers make an enormous development contribution to the region’s economies – through skills, labour, services and competitiveness in countries of destination; and financial remittances, skills and knowledge upon return to their countries of origin. In destination countries many migrant workers fill labour market niches by doing jobs that nationals do not want or cannot fill. Yet many migrant workers in the region are subject to labour exploitation and abuse during recruitment and employment. Several of the WSM partners focus on organizing and defending labour migrants rights.

2014-2016 impact: Illustration labour rights: Indonesia

Faisal, one of 1.300 workers at a company called PT Indonesia Wacoal, where GARTEKS obtained better rights, such as social security coverage: accident, death and old age insurance. Faisal: "Moreover, since 2015, management also agreed to provide pension funds to all workers. Paid holidays have been obtained. Short term contracts can become permanent by union recommendation or selection from management. A wage scale according to duration of employment is being practiced. Freedom of Association is formally recognized and respected by the owner." All these advantages led to 916 workers out of total workforce of 1.300 becoming members of GARTEKS.

KSBSI: Mesdi from PT Benua Perkasatama: "My company produces various crude palm oil based products and owns the world’s palm oil refinery in the world and is among the biggest players in the vegetable oil refining and soap manufacturing industries in Indonesia. I am the chair of the negotiation team which concludes collective bargaining agreements for the plant level union affiliated to KSBSI. KSBSI helped me a lot to conclude better CBAs through training and exchanges with other unions. Visits of from the national level leadership also showed our management the support we could count on. Even other trade unions came which gave more visibility to our demands and they could provide us with advice and assistance to find solutions to our problems. After the CBA negotiation, our members reap the benefits: improved working conditions, better social security coverage, minimum wage is respected, workers receive meals and transport allowances and occupational health and safety equipment are being provided at the factory."