This website focuses on issues regarding social protection in Asia and the activities done by the Network on Social Protection Rights (INSP!R) and its members. It is under the editorial oversight from the Asia Steering Committee, composed out of members from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia and Philippines. It is meant to foster dialogue and share experiences.
The articles describe challenges and achievements to improve the right to social protection to workers in the region, with a specific focus to gender, youth and informal workers.
The Indian National Platform for Domestic Workers (NPDW), a networking body with NDWM and NDWF as members, organised a public event on 2 August in Delhi to demand the Government of India to enact a National Legislation for domestic workers and to withdraw the Labour Codes which are not labour friendly. This event consisted of a rally and public programme in which six Members of Parliament addressed the participants.
To create awareness about the Labour Code and to seek public support, NDWM and NDWF launched a signature campaign on 1st of May and managed to collect 150,000 signatures from 16 States, also with the help of the other WSM India partners. These signatures were submitted to the Prime Minister and the Labour department on 2nd of August.
To raise awareness and public support, posters were displayed in slums and public places. NDWM organised press conferences in 14 States, leading to wide media coverage. The NDWM advocacy team met around 20 members of Parliament to invite them for the rally (30th of July till 1st of August), some of whom endorsed the petition of the NPDW, as well as prominent leaders like Shri. Sitaram Yechuri and Shri. Rahul Gandhi.
A delegation of the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) visited Cambodia from 5 to 11 July 2018 to evaluate the situation on the ground following recent worrying human rights and labour rights developments in the country.
The European Union will now analyse as a matter of priority the information gathered during the mission to consider further steps. This analysis will also take into account further written submissions from the Cambodian authorities, reports of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and other bodies responsible for monitoring the implementation by Cambodia of the international conventions relevant to the EU duty-free trade scheme Everything But Arms (EBA). The EBA trade scheme allows Cambodia to export all products (except arms and ammunition) into the EU, free of quotas and tariffs.
Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said: "The EU is proud to provide the most economically vulnerable countries of the world with free access to our market. The Everything But Arms initiative has had a significant impact on development and poverty eradication in Cambodia. Nevertheless, the recent worrying developments in the country have called for a closer assessment of whether Cambodia is fulfilling its commitments. The discussions and information gathering during our EU mission have focused on the serious decline in the area of political and electoral rights, as well as a curbing of civil society activities. There are also deficiencies when it comes to land dispute resolution mechanisms, and serious threats to freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. In the trade policy of the European Union, social justice is a vital aspect, including the respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and labour standards. Following the fact-finding mission, we will now analyse the facts in detail, and consider further steps. Removing Cambodia from the trade scheme is a measure of last resort, if all our other efforts have failed to address these concerns."
The EU delegation met with several members of the Cambodian government, as well as trade unions, civil society, businesses, and the United Nations (UN) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) representatives in the country.
Over 15 representatives of Asian trade unions (of which GEFONT, NTUC, CLC and KSBSI) as well as solidarity support organisations (SSOs), of which WSM and IIWE, met in Bangkok, Thailand on 19-20 June 2018 to review, strengthen and coordinate international cooperation initiatives.
Trade unions across the world are involved in international cooperation initiatives. The TUDCN Partnerships work provides a platform for them to share best practice, coordinate their work and construct common tools to strengthen the effectiveness of this work. The TUDCN is undertaking a series of regional meetings to increase the inter-regional coordination of this work.
While GK, one of WSM's partner in Bangladesh, focuses on a pilot project which is providing overall health insurance for over 35.000 garment workers, in the period since the Rana Plaza and Tazreen claims were paid, the ILO has spearheaded a project, funded by the German government, to develop concrete proposals for a national Employment Injury Insurance (EII) scheme that have been shared and discussed with all relevant stakeholders. According to a paper published the Clean Clothes Campaign, the proposals as drafted also met with broad acceptance among the key parties, including the national trade union centres; most of the outstanding questions are centred on how the scheme will be financed. Yet, over the last two years this work appears to have stalled and momentum towards meeting the 2020 deadline is being lost.
The establishment of a national employment injury insurance (EII) scheme in Bangladesh is the only way to ensure that the rights of those injured at work are protected and that their families receive the loss of income payments and medical care they are entitled to. Any such scheme must be permanent and be set up to provide loss of income payments and medical care to any worker injured or killed at work, regardless of fault. The scheme needs to provide life time pensions, rather than lump sums and to put in place a permanent system for claiming and receiving such payments that is easy to access, difficult to corrupt and paid in a form that is most appropriate for low wage workers.
A meaningful EII scheme needs to be mandatory, state run and universal. Employer insurance schemes - where individual employers take out insurance to cover their own workers - are not in line with international standards and are particularly inappropriate in a context where the enforcement of basic employer obligations is weak and the employment relationships are often informal. Attempts to privatise the obligation to provide employment insurance is likely to leave the majority of workers – particularly those employed in smaller or subcontracted factories – without any protection and will do little to improve the measures already in place.
Bangladesh is no longer a country defined by its poverty and there is no excuse for the lack of social security provisions, which leaves workers permanently vulnerable to disaster or accidents. The garment industry has played a vital role in bringing foreign investment into the country and its workers have the right to expect that some of these profits are invested into systems that will reduce this vulnerability and provide livelihood security.
With upcoming June meeting in Brussels on the Sustainability Compact between the EU and Bangladesh, this item should definitely be on the agenda.
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Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) has published an Executive Summary that condenses the Key Findings and Risk Factors related to gender-based violence in garment global supply chains of H&M, GAP and Walmart, easier to quickly reference and share (here) which you can also find it at their webpage.
AFWA is proud of these research reports that have served to fuel, strengthen and support the tripartite dialogue at the ILO in favour of labour - as trade unions and governments have struggled for the last ten days with the obstructionist tactics of employers lobby dominated by multinationals at the ILC in Geneva. The findings from the reports have been startling and provided most current evidence.
On June 5th, the Guardian covered Asia Floor Wage Alliance’s research on gender-based violence in H&M and GAP supply chains. The newspaper reported that, “Gap and H&M both would investigate the allegations [of gender based violence in their supply chains] and that they welcomed initiatives to tackle violence, including an ILO convention.”
The world of work is rapidly changing following demographic evolution, globalization of production, digital economy and automation, urbanization, workers mobility and increase of non-standard employment (precarious contracts, on call work, etc) . Young ‘millenialmillennial’ generations will comprise 50% of the workforce in 2020 with a new behavior and mindset to adapt the changing nature of work. More women are entering the workplace and more people are working from home. New types of job which never existed before will be created, such as green jobs. The role of the government in providing social services to the people has been reduced in many countries and it is being replaced by private actors who commercially provide all kinds of services ranging from health insurance to pension funds for those who can afford them. Poverty and migration have provided an army of people who are willing to work any type of jobs at any wage, which undermines the existing social protection, and weakens the workers’ bargaining position.
According to the ILO World Social Protection Report 2017-2019, only 45% of the global population (38,9% in the Asia–Pacific region) is covered by at least one social protection benefit. The right to health is not yet a reality in many countries, especially in rural areas. Large coverage gaps remain for child and family benefits, maternity and unemployment protection and disability allowances. Lack of social protection leaves people vulnerable to poverty, inequality and social exclusion across the life cycle. Coverage gaps are associated with significant underinvestment in social protection. In the Asia-Pacific region, government expenditure for social protection to GDP is only 4.6%, compared to Western Europe’s 18.1%. Asia is young but is expected to age considerably in the next 15 years. While poverty is declining across Asia, a majority of workers are still working in the informal economy, with long working hours, low income and without social protection. Extending social protection and its benefits, and improving workers’ job quality will be among Asia’s major challenges in the future.
In a context of persisting dependency on the informal economy for large numbers of people, worsening loss of livelihood because of limited access to the resources (land grabbing, pollution…) and growing precariousness in the formal economy because of increasing non-standard forms of work (short term contracts, on call work, zero-hour contracts, platform etc.), one could be tempted to forget about the level of income or wages. After all, ‘any job is better than no job at all’. And yet, it is precisely in this context we have to guard and guarantee the right of every person to have the necessary resources and income to lead a life in dignity.
We are aware of the important links between the remuneration of ones work, social protection allowances, access to quality social services like health. Low income, bad housing or limited healthy food leads to illness and health expenses and the incapacity to work and to earn an income and vice-versa. In this position paper we will however focus on the revenue one earns for work. The right to a Minimum Living Wage has been recognized in several international conventions and declarations, like the Constitution of the ILO (1919), the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR 1948), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC 1966) and ILO convention 131 (1970).
As members of the ANRSP, we adhere to these international conventions and declarations and we consider a Minimum Living Wage to be a legally binding concept. It is a right that has to be respected whatever the situation, the form or statute of labor, without any discrimination. However, we have to acknowledge the international texts remain broad and are in need of specification. So far there is no globally accepted definition and methodology to calculate living wages. Enterprises often use this as justification for not paying a living wage and refer only to minimum wages set by national laws as legally binding concepts.
In reality, the current minimum wages are not sufficient to guarantee the needs for workers and their families and don’t allow to lead a life in dignity. They are also greatly insufficient to stop the current race to the bottom, fueled by global competition and businesses desire to maximize profits. The ILO constitution and the UDHR not only mention a ‘minimum living wage’, but also a just share of the fruits of progress to all and a ’just remuneration’. In addition to this, sustainable Development Goal 10 focuses entirely on the reduction of inequality. Apart from just taxation and redistributive social protection, a sufficiently high share of labor in the overall wealth is a key to achieving this objective.
An international norm about (sexual) violence on and around the work? Everyone at the International Labor Conference in Geneva wants it. Governments, employers and employees: #Iwant! But why don't those negotiations go as smoothly as hoped for?
"Violence behind closed doors"
It is clear to everyone that we are negotiating a new international labor standard. Examples of violence and bullying in the workplace were suddenly discussed in living rooms worldwide last year. #metoo! has awakened the world. Previously unspoken and tolerated abuses have been highlighted in the media.
You also notice this at the Labor Conference. The hashtag is frequently used from the crowded benches of representatives from government, employers and employees. For the more than 200 women and the (unfortunately) few rare men who defend the interests of the employees here, the hashtag gives them a louder voice. And the perseverance to go for a powerful, binding instrument. The many women know very well why they are here. Tells Sr Christy Mary of the National Domestic Workers Movement in India, founded by Belgian sister Jeanne Devos. "In India, violence against women has increased in recent years. That is no different in the workplace, and certainly not for domestic workers who work behind closed doors, "Christy testifies. "Today, India has no law that protects women from violence in the workplace. A binding international standard would help us to put the government under pressure to comply with it."
Intimidation or a compliment?
Everyone had expected that it would be difficult. After all, the employers are not jumping for additional regulation. And certainly not if they would be held responsible for violence and intimidation that is not strictly on the work floor, but also in work-related activities outside. The relocation to and from work, company parties, or intimidation by customers and others. And then the debate about what violence and intimidation should encompass. The search for a definition - the first article of a possible new labor standard - has occupied the conference for the initial full four days (and late evening!).
Do we really want to punish everyone who gives a colleague a compliment about a nice dress, is what we hear from the employers' side. Do we really want to punish everyone who gives a colleague a compliment about a nice dress? Those who are without sin, cast the first stone ... #Ihave!
Whatever will be the result, it is important for the workers' group that it concerns physical as well as psychological and sexual forms of violence and intimidation, as well as violence or bullying of a sexist nature aimed at women, gays, transgenders or anyone else. Yet no one expected that it would be this difficult. After a week of negotiation - there is a draft text with 37 articles - we are still talking about the first three articles: the definitions of violence and intimidation in the working environment and the scope of a possible new labor standard. The employers' group plays it extremely smart. They leave no opportunity to emphasize how important they think this is, but don't hesitate to continue to raise issues so cloud the debate. Enough to ensure that all 187 authorities present are thoroughly reviewing their own national laws or practices and start rounds of debates and discussions until late in the evening. For the workers' group, there is nothing else to do but to dig in.
As it looks currently, it will inevitably turn out to a vote on one of those late nights. Do we want a binding regulation or just a more voluntary recommendation? For the trade unions and the many NGOs that are present here, including World Solidarity with its various partners, lobbying has been done to get as many governments as possible on our side. Belgium at least, represented by Labour Minister Kris Peeters, emphasized yesterday in the plenary session of the Conference that it is in favor of a binding instrument, and does everything it can to tackle gender-based violence in its own country.
Sr Christy – NDWM India: The ILO Convention is very
important for us in India because in India, violence in the workplace is
increasing. Also for the National Domestic Workers Movement it is very
significant because domestic workers are vulnerable to abuse and harassment.
Since they are working behind closed doors, the crimes against domestic workers
are often not reported. After this Convention, since the government of India is
in favour of a Convention, it will help us to lobby with the government to pass
legislation.
Koumoura (CNTG, Guinée): There are many types of violence: sexual
violence, physical violence, moral violence, psychological abuse and also
commercial violence. We, as a union, what do we do? We are already confronted
to several types of violence. Women come to us, to tell us that they suffer at
the workplace, that they are harassed. What do we do? We try to provide them
with support, we tell them that we must break the silence. As soon as you are
harassed by your superior, because you have to recognize it, we have serious problems.
Harassment is a serious form of violence that humiliates women. But this is a
big taboo for woman in our countries. We cannot say what happens, if not the
woman, she loses her honor, whereas it is not about that. We must break the
silence to really fight violence. So we tell them: break the silence. That is
why it is our joy that this convention is made, that it is drafted to punish
the perpetrators of violence and harassment.
Garciela Lopez, World March for Women, Latin America: Women
around the world need a legal instrument to combat gender-based violence and
harassment. We need a binding convention that obliges states to work toward
this. We need a legal instrument that obliges employers and employees alike to
respect and obtain a life free from violence and gender-based harassment in the
workplace. Work must be understood as meaning the formal and informal economy,
as well as other forms of work, in the community and also in our homes. We are
one-third of the working population that suffers daily from harassment and
gender-based violence.
RIPESS, a member of the Latin American network on the right to social protection invites the Asian partners to their fifth webinar, focusing on Women & SSE on Tuesday June 12th at 13h UTC/GMT (15h Europe/18h30 Delhi/20h Bangkok).
This panel of experiences will explore to which extent SSE represents a means to provide social protection for women? We will explore the subject, identify successful practices, confirm structuring strategies that can engage the movement, networks and SSE organizations, working together to improve the women’s lives. With activists and experts in the field, we'll lift the veil on this current reflection to move forward together: a guest from the Women Promotion Centre Gregoria Apaza from the network from Bolivia, Elise Pierrette Memong Meno from the network from Cameroun (RESCAM), and Santiago Fisher from World Solidarity from Belgium. The session will be animated by Ethel Coté (Women entrepreneurs network - Women of the world, Canada).
As a reminder, with these webinars, RIPESS is inviting participants to an annual virtual meeting cycle (2017/2018), in which we want to leave enough time to listen to experts' testimonials on different topics of interest identified by our group, and create an international space for exchanges. Please note that our meetings take place in the three RIPESS' languages (French, English, Spanish). See the summary of the last Webinar#4 (Governance&SSE).
Please subscribe at info@ripess.org or the Facebook page, and we will explain you how to join the webinar.
Every year since the Rana Plaza disaster, workers have insisted that the ILO’s Committee on the Application of Standards hear and discuss how the government is failing its workers on the right to freedom of association. And, every year, the ILO Committee of Experts and the Committee on the Application of Standards have issued clear, direct recommendations to the government in order to comply with the Convention. Unfortunately, the government has wasted every opportunity it has been given to improve the situation for workers. The Bangladesh Labour Act, the country’s primary labour law, and its regulations contain numerous obstacles to the exercise of this fundamental right. Workers in Export Processing Zones are prohibited from forming a union. The government still arbitrarily denies the registration of over half the unions that apply. And workers face dismissal or worse, including severe beatings, for attempting to form unions – while those responsible face no consequences whatsoever. The ITUC’s 2018 review of the Committee of Experts’ report makes this abundantly clear.
Bangladesh will not appear on the short list of cases of the Committee on the Application of Standards this year – not because there is improvement but rather because there is none. It makes no sense to provide the government yet another opportunity to make the same old excuses and the same old empty promises. Further, the ILO supervisory system has repeated too many times what the government must do to protect the right to freedom of association. Instead, we are putting the government of Bangladesh on notice. It has one final year to put its house in order. If it does not, the Workers’ Group will file for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry at the 2019 International Labour Conference.
This also serves as a notice to global brands. If you are truly serious about your commitments to respect labour rights in global supply chains, the case of Bangladesh provides no better opportunity. In the run-up to the centennial of the ILO next year, let’s see whether together we can make real progress. If not, then we know what to expect next year.
One of the main objectives of the OHS Initiative for Workers and Community Project is to develop a pool of 75 Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Trainers who will carry out a series of training by themselves to the rank and –file workers in different industrial sectors, with a target of reaching 6000 workers over a three year period. OHS Initiative recruited 29 Trainers from its five partners organization and provided in 2017 a 20 days long training on occupational health and safety, gender equality, leadership and workers rights, including basic ToT.
Over the last 6 months, the respective trainers (1st batch) of OHS Initiative project have been conducting their own training at the factory level and home based workers on safety issues. Based on their field level training experiences and challenges, OHS Initiative designed and organized a 5 days long Refresher ToT course to re-energize the trainer’s knowledge, skills and confidence for the effective implementation of workers training at factory level.
It was a refresher course aimed at mentoring the Trainers and increasing their knowledge on how they can best improve their training program in the workers community. The Refresher Training of Trainers course was five days with in total 26 participants. During the course, they viewed basic occupational health and safety, workplace risk assessment, ergonomics, safety committee and leadership. In addition, a new topic has been included in the course content on collective bargaining and conflict management as per participants demand. Participants also developed a short module on basic OHS and practiced it.
It feels strange to be in Dhaka on the 24th of April. This day is Bangladeshi’s 9/11, a day of commemoration where all newspapers headlines refer to the Rana Plaza tragedy that happened five years ago and which claimed the lives of 1138 garment workers and left more than 2.400 injured. The front page headlines aggressively remind us that "promises made mostly not implemented". There are over twenty five events commemorating the human made catastrophe, like rallies, human chains and others, some gathering survivors and family members. The events are filled with frustration and anger and demands.
Invited by WSM's partner, the garment trade union NGWF, I went to a lighting of candles by children orphaned by Rana Plaza. It was a sad affair, with around
twenty kids, most under ten years old, who were babies or toddlers when Rana
Plaza collapsed, stealing their mother or father away.
A woman still cries recounting
what happened, others blink tears away. They share their stories in front of
cameras and mikes, highlighting their misery and sadness. And there is a lot of
suffering to be shown, there are a lot of cameras and mikes to record.
Bangladesh is in no way over what happened, though it sometimes seems the rest
of the world has mostly forgotten and needs to be reminded of one of the worst
industrial tragedy. It alerted people buying a T-shirt in the West to the world
of sweat and exploitation that had gone into bringing a cheap T-shirt to their closets.
How to compensate
People here, gathered by trade unions and civil society are
still demanding for better compensation for the victims, because the
compensation paid to 5.000 workers had to use as reference their age and salary.
While the formula is sound, with a legal minimum wage of currently 53€, this
doesn’t amount to much. If a worker dies in a work related accident, family still
gets a measly 1.000€, which even after Rana Plaza hasn’t been increased. NGWF
demands that the amount would be calculated according to ILO Convention 121,
adding compensation for pain and suffering.
What improved and what hasn't
What has improved are the security standards, with inspections
and renovations done in almost 4.000 of the 5.000 factories in Bangladesh. This
is done by multi-stakeholder initiatives gathering brands, factory owners,
civil society and presided over by the ILO. This is an important achievement
which was recently reconfirmed, with the Bangladeshi Accord on Fire and Safety
renewed, despite resistance from government and employers. Still, it is a slow
process and daunting task to improve safety. Since Rana Plaza, almost 100 factory
accidents have happened, injuring 450 people and killing 80. But what hasn’t
improved are the working conditions and wages. Trade unions like WSMs partner
NGWF are an increase from the current legal minimum wage of 53€ to a living
wage of at least 160€ per month. Organizing garment workers remains
problematic, with half of trade unions which are applying for registration rejected
and hampering the freedom of association.
Unlike 9/11, the Bangladeshi government doesn’t like that attention
still goes to this tragedy, to the lack of adequate compensation and the ongoing
problems in the garment sector. There is no monument at the site of the
collapse, demands that the 24th of April would become a national holiday to
observe workers safety day were not followed. Authorities are reluctant that
events during the commemoration are organized at the site, not even a medical
camp WSM’s partner GK wanted to organize for the injured. They are wary of journalists,
often imposing they agree to be accompanied. The government is worried negative
press will deter brands from ordering from Bangladesh, while the garment sector
is very important for the economy.
Beacons of hope
At the event I attended, the orphans on the front row looked
a bit bewildered at the eye of the camera. Most had no idea of what was
happening, and why they had to be put on display. Rana Plaza caused extreme
suffering and many want to remind the world of it, rub our noses in it, not
make us forget. The children lit candles, which are supposed to symbolise hope.
Many of the candles were blown out by the wind and had to be relight.
Rana Plaza site on the 24th of April in the afternoon,
with only few people and the flowers of the morning ceremony at the monument.
At the Rana Plaza site, people and organisations queued for hours in the morning to deposit flowers at the small monument with a hammer and sickle, made by some communist organisation, since the government hasn't put anything there.
Where the ruins used to be is now a field, where relatives wander, the only way to visit the grave of their loved ones, as several bodies were never recovered. By the afternoon, most have left, the site feels lost again. Just some people mingle about, watching the occasional journalist come to take footage. The only sign of the government is three police trucks full of watchful men. No declarations were made by the government, not even an attempt at defending their actions or show some progress was made.
A woman I recognize from a physiotherapy session at GK comes to sit at the monument,
still wearing orthopedic braces on her back and arm.
She is obviously trying to send a message, but I am not sure many are there to listen.
From 7 to 14 February 2018, GK and OKRA organized an exchange in Manila on the challenges of the elderly in Bangladesh and Belgium, which was facilitated by WSM. During this visit, through the assistance of COSE, both groups were also able to visit and exchange with elderly Philippinos, a very rewarding experience.
On the 11th of February, both organisations organized a successful mainstreaming workshop where GK and OKRA presented challenges of the elderly in Asia, Europe and the world, and where testimonies from elderly gathered by partners in different countries were read out. In a final panel discussion, the delegates of GK and OKRA not only presented their experiences in being a movement for, by and with the elderly but also the value added and the perspectives of their mutual partnership.
Yesterday, on 17th April, the results and conclusions of this exchange were presented to the daily board of OKRA in Brussels, who welcomed the outcome of the visit and confirmed their commitment to continue the partnership on the basis of the action plan that was drafted in Manila. A similar meeting will take place in the coming days in GK in Bangladesh. A video was also made of this visit which you can view here.
WSM would like to thank all those involved in making this exchange and partnership a success, in particular Dr. Kadir, coordinator of GK; Mieke Peeters, president of OKRA; Mark De Soete, General Director of OKRA; the daily boards of OKRA and GK, as well as the delegates of both organizations who were with us in Manila: Kamrun (Onu), Isahaque, Dulal, Maddie, Bart, Ingrid, Niek, Jo. And with a special thanks to Jef Van Hecken for facilitating the preparations of the visit!
The Indian National Platform for Domestic Workers (NPDW), a networking body with NDWM and NDWF as members, organised a public event on 2 August in Delhi to demand the Government of India to enact a National Legislation for domestic workers and to withdraw the Labour Codes which are not labour friendly. This event consisted of a rally and public programme in which six Members of Parliament addressed the participants.
