Universal Health Coverage Day

Today is the International day for Universal Health Coverage, one of the areas WSM and its partners focus on for the right to social protection.

Universal Health Coverage Day on 12 December is the annual rallying point for the growing movement for health for all. It marks the anniversary of the United Nations’ historic and unanimous endorsement of universal health coverage in 2012.Last year, this Coalition launched a petition calling for recognition of 12 December as Universal Health Coverage Day – and a few minutes ago, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that finally makes it official.The UN’s vote today doesn’t change the fact that millions of people still go bankrupt when they get sick. We all know we still have a lot of work to do. But official recognition for UHC Day is a sure sign that this movement has the staying power to transform societies.

The WHO and World Bank just released the 2017 Global Monitoring Report on UHC, with new data on service coverage and health financing for 132 countries – a major update to the 37-country report from 2015.

Here are the headlines:

• Half the world’s people – more than 3.5 billion – don’t receive all the essential health services they need. This includes one billion people living with uncontrolled hypertension, 200 million women without access to family planning and 20 million infants unprotected by vaccines.
• 800 million people experience catastrophic out-of-pocket health costs each year. In other words, 1 in 9 people spend more than 10% of their household budgets paying for health.
• And 100 million people are still pushed into extreme poverty each year by these costs, with even more falling below the official $3.10-a-day poverty line.

Here are just a few of the ways people committed to take action at the UHC Forum’s closing event:
·       The Government of Japan pledged $2.9 billion in support to countries pursuing UHC.
·       The Ministry of Health of Nigeria committed to providing free primary health care to 8 million more Nigerians in the first quarter of 2018.
·       A delegation of parliamentarians from the African Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development committed to advocate for UHC based on the needs of the people.
·       The Gates Foundation announced plans to invest in better measurement of primary health care and to rally parliamentarians behind UHC.
·       IFMSA – representing 1.3 million medical students from 127 countries – committed to empowering youth to advocate for and implement UHC.
·       UHC2030 committed to implementing an Advocacy Strategy that will help partners identify effective actions for a community-driven social movement.
·       The Civil Society Engagement Mechanism for UHC2030 released a statement of principles, pledging to prioritize the most vulnerable and urge a minimum 5% GDP level of health spending by all governments.
·       The WHO High-level Commission on Non-Communicable Diseases committed to find common ground for the NCD and UHC agendas.
·       UHC Youth Japan pledged to push their own government and the world to leave no one behind.

These commitments are promising steps. As a movement, we need to hold leaders and ourselves accountable for action and results in every country. And we need to recognize advocates and change-makers of all kinds—particularly at the national and local level—for every hard-fought gain.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, that all UN Member States have agreed to, try to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030. This includes financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

ILO launches Global Report on Social Protection, WSM was there

The International Labor Organization (ILO) officially launched its Global Report on Social Protection 2017-2019 on 30 November. 71% of the world's population, according to the report, has still no access to proper social protection. Africa is lagging far behind, with more than 82% of the population having no form of social protection. WSM, together with the European Commission, employers and employees, shared its findings on the report and analysis on the world's social protection level during its official presentation in Brussels on 30 November 2017.

Three years after the first Global Report on Social Protection, the ILO draws up a second state of affairs on social protection in the world. Although several countries have taken important steps in the political field, by strengthening their social protection policy and by implementing ILO Recommendation 202 on Social Protection floors, progress is still slow. Since the first Report in 2014, the number of people without access to social protection has only dropped by 2%, from 73 to 71%. Hence, if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, which include social protection for everyone (SDG 1.3.), then we will have to take serious steps forward.

World AIDS Day and the Access to Health

We would like to share and celebrate another important milestone for the right to health: World AIDS Day. In many ways, the advocates who drove revolutionary progress against HIV/AIDS laid the groundwork for the #HealthForAll movement. They showed us that communities could be mobilized and sensitized; that new drugs and tools could be rolled out in all countries, not just rich ones; that a diagnosis need not mean a death sentence when the right services are in place; and above all, that smart, focused, dedicated advocacy can truly change the world.

At the start of this century, just under 700,000 people had access to life-saving treatment for HIV. Today, that number has risen to 21 million.

#myrighttohealth campaign: 
This year’s World AIDS Day campaign will focus on the right to health. In the lead-up to 1 December, the #myrighttohealth campaign will explore the challenges people around the world face in exercising their right to health.

This World AIDS Day, let’s celebrate the progress made against HIV/AIDS, take stock of the challenges ahead, and recommit to rise against the health inequities that hold people back. Progress is possible when citizens stand up for their rights and leaders act on their pledges.

Cambodia's new social protection policy framework reviewed

In 2017, the Royal Government of Cambodia published a new Social Protection Policy Framework (SPPF), providing an ambitious vision for a social protection system in which a comprehensive set of policies and institutions operate in sync with each other to sustainably reduce poverty and vulnerability.The Social Protection System Review of Cambodia prompts and answers a series of questions that are crucial for the implementation ofthe framework : How will emerging trends affect the needs for social protection, now and into the future? To what extent are Cambodia’s social protection instruments able – or likely – to address current and future livelihood challenges? How does fiscal policy affect social protection objectives?

This OECD review provides a contribution to the ongoing policy dialogue on social protection, sustainable growth and poverty reduction. It includes four chapters. Chapter 1 is a forward-looking assessment of Cambodia’s social protection needs. Chapter 2 maps the social protection sector and examines its adequacy. An investigation of the distributive impact of social protection and tax policy is undertaken in Chapter 3. The last chapter concludes with recommendations for policy strategies that could support the establishment of an inclusive social protection system in Cambodia, as envisaged by the SPPF.

Why the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Safety will be here until 2021

The following is an op-ed by the witness signatories to the Accord published in the Bangladeshi paper, the Daily Star. 

c Daily Star

In reaction to recent statements concerning the future of the Bangladesh Accord, the Witness Signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh—Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and the Worker Rights Consortium—wish to respond regarding the continuation of the Accord's inspection programme. Recent statements have led some to erroneously believe that the Accord is scheduled to end in 2018, and one should ask whether such an early departure is even desirable given the limited progress made in the development of a credible and functioning national safety regulatory body.

In the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse—the deadliest disaster in the history of the global garment industry, in which 1,134 workers were killed—three initiatives were launched with the purpose of averting further industry tragedies in Bangladesh: the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord), the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance), and the National Action Plan on Fire Safety and Structural Integrity (NAP).

The Accord is an agreement reached between over 200 apparel companies, eight Bangladeshi union federations, and two global unions. This unprecedented safety agreement is based on legally-binding commitments by apparel brands to ensure that hazards in their factories are identified and corrected. The Accord has overseen factory renovations—from installation of fire doors to strengthening of dangerously weak structural columns and beams—that have already improved safety for over two million garment workers. This success can be attributed to the Accord's distinct approach, which combines independent safety inspections with multi-brand leverage, financial support and legal accountability to ensure that problems are not only identified but are fixed.

In comparison, the Alliance and the NAP are smaller, less transparent, non-binding programmes that do not benefit from the same level of brands' commitment to change, especially when it comes to financial feasibility.

To ensure that the safety improvements achieved under the Accord are maintained and expanded, brand and union signatories of the Accord announced in June of 2017 that the Accord has been extended for three years, until May of 2021. To date, 48 companies, including H&M, Inditex (Zara), Primark, and PVH (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein), have signed the new Accord, with many more likely to follow in the months ahead. These signatories represent many of the largest brands and retailers in the world and most of the Bangladesh RMG sector's key customers. Their combined commitment means that the 2013 Accord successor agreement will cover at least 1,400 factories and a majority of all export garment production.

The purpose of the renewed Accord, which takes effect in May of 2018 when the current 2013 Accord expires, is to ensure that factories made safe under the Accord remain safe. At the same time, the new Accord will support improvements to Bangladesh's public regulatory regime, in order to strengthen and pass on this responsibility to the Bangladesh government at the end of those three years. As was agreed to in meetings on October 19 between brand and trade union signatories to the Accord, the BGMEA, and the Bangladesh Ministers of Commerce and Labour, the Accord will continue this work until the local regulatory bodies meet a set of rigorous readiness conditions.

It remains to be seen how long this transition will take; however, any objective assessment of the government's current state of readiness will conclude that there is a lot of work to do. In order for the Accord to conclude its operations, local mechanisms must be developed, put in place, and demonstrably running smoothly to ensure safe working conditions for the country's four million garment workers.

India: farmers make demands

The long preparation and efforts taken by Swaraj Abhiyan through various struggles and efforts to coordinate all the farmers movements and federations over two years has now come realise that a greater collective and coordinated move towards gaining their rights is necessary. Farmers from all over India have started their journey through various means to meet in Delhi on November 20th. It is expected that over 500.000 farmers from all over the country will join. The Tamil Nadu Land Rights Federation and RIEH Asia is part of this march.

They wrote this open letter to Modi, the Indian Prime Minister:

Dear Shri Narendra Modi,


We are farmers: women and men, landowner, sharecropper, tenant, forest gatherers and landless cultivators. We are primary producers: we grow crops, we collect forest produce, we rear animals and poultry and we fish. We use our labour to sustain life on this planet; yet we find it hard to sustain our own lives. We are told we are ‘annadatas’; yet we cannot feed our families. We are a majority in this democracy; yet our voice is not heard. More than half of us are women; yet we remain invisible. Our Constitution gives us Right to Life; yet we are forced to commit suicide.

Christy, farmers' rally preparation from Tamil Nadu to Delhi

Why? What is it that causes this tragedy?
It is not that we are lazy. We work very hard. We keep producing more and more. In the last ten years, we have raised the nation’s production of food one and half times. We have done our bit for the nation but why has the nation not done its bit for us?

It is not just the nature. Over the years, nature is more capricious. We suffer more droughts, more floods, more unpredictable climate than ever before. But why should we pay the price for changes in climate? Why don’t we get protection against natural calamities like farmers elsewhere do? And, why don’t we earn well even in a year when the nature is kind?

And it is not just the market. Everyone else seems to be doing well. Companies, businessmen, and salaried employees – everyone is earning better. Fertilizer, pesticide and seed companies are making big profits. Food industry and big retail are thriving. But a farmers’ family earns only Rs. 3,884 per month from farming, less than the minimum wages for unskilled workers! Why do we, who actually produce and feed others, lose out continuously?

After years and years of suffering, waiting and hoping, we realize that it’s about state policies, governmental action and political will. Governmental policies are driving the agrarian crisis and farmers’ suicides. Instead of helping us in this hour of need, we are still being made to subsidize other sectors of the economy. Successive central and state governments have withdrawn whatever little support we used to get and have left us at the mercy of market forces and vagaries of nature. What you call ‘development’ is nothing but our systematic loot.

Mr. Prime Minister, we trusted you in 2014. We believed your promises, but you reneged. We thought you would protect our land, but you tried to snatch it. We faced droughts, floods and other calamities, but adequate relief never arrived. We endured crash in crop price without the minimum support. This is when we needed your helping hand, but you cut down spending on agriculture. And we suffered demonetization without any gains. We feel abandoned and betrayed.

Hence this final appeal, this two-point Charter of Demands. We do not ask you for anything except that you make good your own promises. We do not claim more than what everyone else in this country can enjoy. We do not demand what we do not desperately need. And deserve. We, the annadatas, wish to start afresh on a clean slate. We wish to contribute to the making of future India.

We are,

Farmers of India

Find the Charter of Demands here.

A Trapeze Act: Women Balancing Paid Work and Unpaid Care Work in Nepal

Despite high rates of labour force participation by women in Nepal, there has been very little engagement by communities and the state on the issue of women’s ‘double burden’ of balancing unpaid care work with paid labour activities. The ‘Balancing paid work and unpaid care work – Nepal’ research study aims to create knowledge about how women’s economic empowerment (WEE) policy and programming can generate a ‘double boon’, i.e. paid work that empowers women and provides more support to their unpaid care work responsibilities. Research discussed in this report looks at two WEE programmes in Nepal: (1) a state programme, the Karnali Employment Programme; and (2) a non-state programme, Oxfam Nepal’s Enterprise Development Programme. One of the stark conclusions of the study is that women are currently unable to balance their paid and unpaid care work due to several factors: the lack of availability of decent employment opportunities in rural areas; a lack of quality public resources and services; migration of men; a lack of assets such as land; and prevailing gender norms, especially around women’s participation in unpaid care work and mobility. The report makes recommendations at state, non-state, market, community and family levels. Programmes aimed at women’s empowerment need to have a care perspective in their design and implementation, and grass-roots-level communication and advocacy needs to be encouraged and implemented, in order to reduce women’s ‘double burden’ and move towards a’ double boon’.

Download the study here.

Meer dan 25.000 voor #cleanekleren: Tussenstand na 7 maanden campagnevoeren

© Nelle Devisscher

Na de “shirtcontrole” op de Ronde van Vlaanderen voor amateurs op 1 april ontplofte de campagne #cleanekleren*. Boegbeeld Philippe Gilbert won de dag nadien op een magistrale manier de Ronde: een voorteken. Overal zag je daarna #cleanekleren teams opduiken: in bedrijven, op honderden sportactiviteiten en op grote wielerwedstrijden tot zelfs op de Ronde van Frankrijk. #cleanekleren kreeg veel media-aandacht:  met als topper een tv-spotcampagne, na het winnen van de Fair Time Award van Medialaan en een reportage op Kanaal Z. Er werd gelopen, gefietst, gevoetbald, gewandeld en massaal de petitie getekend. Ook door heel wat BV’s en topsporters- en clubs. Het resultaat: meer dan 25.000 mensen supporteren voor #cleanekleren.



Topsporters tekenen voor #cleanekleren
Heel wat topsporters volgen het voorbeeld van Philippe Gilbert en tekenen voor #cleanekleren. Zoals Fabian Cancellara, olympisch kampioen Tia Hellebaut, hordeloopster Eline Berings, de nationale volleybalploeg Yellow Tigers en handbalploeg Red Wolves, kapitein van KRC Genk Thomas Buffel, enz. Verschillende voetbalspelers en -clubs uit de eerste klasse volgen. Dit is meteen een goede opwarming voor 2018 wanneer #cleanekleren zich gaat focussen op voetbal met het oog op het WK-voetbal in Rusland. Goed gezien van ACV-Sporta, die vele topsporters de petitie #cleanekleren lieten tekenen.

© Dirk Pierloot

Politici bewegen
Ook een rits politici en overheden scharen zich achter #cleanekleren: minister van Werk en Consumentenzaken Kris Peeters, Groen-politici als Tine Heyse die meteen het stadbestuur van Gent mobiliseerde en minister van Ontwikkelingssamenwerking De Croo. De Croo heeft wel oog voor ‘kleding’: hij trapte de zestiende Week van de Fair Trade af met een bezoek aan JBC dat inzet op ethisch geproduceerde kleding. De campagne #cleanekleren ging met een aantal beleidsvoorstellen naar ministers De Croo en Peeters en hoopt na sympathie binnenkort beleidsdaden te zien. Want een wettelijk kader dat stimulansen geeft naar de sector is heel belangrijk.

En Belgische sportkledingbedrijven?

© Mine Dalemans

Het doel van de campagne #cleanekleren is Belgische sportkledingbedrijven overtuigen om stappen te zetten richting ‘schone kleren’. Zowel Bioracer als Vermarc, producenten van wielerkledij voor teams, kregen #cleanekleren op bezoek.  Bij Bioracer kregen we onlangs nog te horen dat zij vanuit hun klanten geen vraag krijgen naar ethisch geproduceerde kleding en ze er commercieel ook geen meerwaarde in zien. Daarom dat we onze campagne onverminderd en vastbesloten verderzetten. Verspreid mee de oproep om te tekenen op www.cleanekleren.be





“Buy the change you want to see in the world”

© Nelle Devisscher

 “De acties lopen inderdaad goed”, zegt Jessie Van Couwenberghe die het beleidswerk doet voor #cleanekleren. “Maar sportkledingbedrijven als Bioracer voelen onvoldoende de druk van de klant. Elke euro die je uitgeeft, ook als organisatie, is een stem. En je kiest aan welk soort bedrijf je die geeft: zij die het echt goed doen op milieu en sociaal vlak of laat je enkel de prijs meespelen? Dan weet je dat het milieu of de werknemers elders de prijs betalen. Wij gebruiken als organisatie veel te weinig onze koopkracht die een echt hefboom kan zijn voor verandering. Wij staan als campagnepartners voor waarden en die moeten we ook doortrekken in elke aankoop die we doen.”

Op zoek naar ‘schone’ promo- of sportkleding met bedrukking op maat van je organisatie of club? 
Contacteer:
o ACP, Fair Wear & Fair Trade ambassador, info@acpinfo.be, 03/889 02 16. 
o Amitex, info@amitex.be www.amitex.be, 050/70 71 42
o Andere schone (sport)kleren aankopen: neem een kijkje op www.fairwear.org

© Claudio Montesano Casillo

Elke dag een marathon
“Voor wie doen we dit eigenlijk?” Voor Tahra en miljoenen anderen. Tahra is één van de 650.000 Cambodjanen die sportkleding maakt voor de grote sportmerken als Nike en Adidas. Tahra is 34.  Op haar 17de ging ze aan de slag als naaister in een Cambodjaanse kledingfabriek. Tahra werkt 10 uur per dag, 6 dagen per week en verdient 0,88 euro per uur . Elke dag moet ze een target van 1300 stuks halen. Een undercover tv-ploeg volgde haar  op een normale werkdag, met fitness gadgets om haar prestaties te meten. Ze verbrandt 2.439 kcal voor jouw sportshirt… Alsof ze elke dag een marathon zou lopen. Het resultaat van de metingen werd vertaald in een tv-spot die meer dan 1,7 miljoen kijkers te zien kregen op VTM, Q2 en twee andere tv-zenders. Tahra is lid van de vakbond C.CAWDU, een partnerorganisatie van Wereldsolidariteit en ACV. Deze Cambodjaanse vakbond interpelleert al jarenlang de internationale merken bij schendingen van arbeidsrechten en voor het uitbetalen van een leefbaar loon.

Short video: why is India refusing to pay decent wages?

In the last three decades, the value added by a worker to the economy has grown by 210%. But the real wages paid to the worker has increased only by 14%. Is this what the workers deserve?
A wage that  keeps them hungry and half alive, that denies their children education, nutrition and decent future?

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.