For stranded migrants, a jail stint is the first step towards freedom

An immigrant’s travails highlight the challenges that workers stranded overseas face while trying to return home

Hyderabad: Durgam Dastagiri spent nearly five months trying to get thrown into a Saudi jail. It was the only way he could go home.

A slight, bird-like man with a neatly groomed moustache, Dastagiri is one of approximately 4.5 million Indian workers who have moved to countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), to take up semi-skilled jobs to support families in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Sometimes, the job is all that is promised. More often, it isn’t. And, because of the unique, almost repressive laws governing immigrant workers in most West Asian countries, many find themselves stranded.

“We’ve had cases of people who have been stuck not just for four and five years, but 18, 20 years. We ask them why they stayed so long and they say they didn’t know what else to do,” says Mehru Vesuvala, who works at Migrant Workers Protection Society in Bahrain. “They tried to leave and found that they could not.” Read More

Source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/05/19000236/For-stranded-migrants-a-jail.html?h=B

Child labour - India's 'cheap commodity

Farm workers toil long hours in the fields in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu for little reward in the intense heat.
But it is often their only means of survival.
Cheap labour is one commodity India has in abundance.
Hidden from public view though, is another workforce.
In an isolated spot, miles from the nearest town, is a thriving matchstick industry.
Here inside makeshift straw huts - and in the small dwellings that neighbour them - we found some of India's youngest workers.
Rows of exhausted young girls - up to 20 and as young as five are working alongside their mothers.
For 16 hours a day their tiny blistered fingers skilfully turn out matches for export.
Ordered to leave
The toxic smell of sulphur is overwhelming in the windowless room.

CHILD LABOUR 2006 218m aged 5-17 in work 126m in hazardous work Almost 50m work in Africa 122m work in Asia 70% of workers in agriculture Estimated cost of ending child labour: $760m over 20 years Source: International Labour Organisation

Twelve-year-old Sindhu dips the tips of the sticks into hot sulphur.
"I start work early but don't finish until late into the night. I get paid less than two dollars a week."

Our presence was clearly not welcome. As we were speaking to the girls the owner came in and ordered us to leave.
Within walking distance are other factories. But again, when we arrived, the youngest workers were quickly led away.
While the factory owner denied he was employing underage workers, almost every single household in this part of Tamil Nadu has one or more children working long hours in appalling conditions.
Campaigners say over 11 million children are forced to work in India.
Lighting a fire for a rare family meal, Sarojama gathers her five grandchildren around her.
Exploited
She has barely been able to feed them, so she was forced to borrow money from a local factory owner.

Unable to pay back the loan she sent her young grand-daughter to work. Parimeeta was taken out of school and has been working 12 hour days for two years.
The debt is less than $20.

Campaigners fear that as India's economy continues to boom, children are increasingly being exploited to meet the country's hunger for global success.
In a recent raid in the capital Delhi, police rescued a large number of boys from local sweatshops.
Agents had lured them from India's poorest regions, promising the children that they would be taken care of and paid well.
They were found hidden on the top floors of garment factories - held captive in filthy cramped rooms under lock and key.
They painstakingly spent hours applying crystals to garments. Many of the clothes end up being sold in shops in the UK.
Ineffective
These are places the authorities say are difficult to close down.
But Swami Agnivesh of the Bonded Liberation Front says that hundreds of children are kept hidden from public view in the buildings of crammed alleyways.

"They are kept in the most appalling conditions and not enough is being done to help them," he said.
India has laws in place to protect children and bans the use of young workers, but they remain pretty ineffective.
The United Nations Children's' Fund says that the sheer volume of children engaged in work is living proof of the world's failure to protect them.
That is the reason why the agency's work is focused on building a protective environment which safeguards children from exploitation and abuse.
In Tamil Nadu local charities have helped pay off families' debts so that at least some children can be released from the matchstick factories.
Finally freed from the shackles of work, they now have some hope of reliving their childhood.
Bu it is often a dream that is short-lived.
Charity workers admit most of the children are likely to find themselves forced back into a life of bondage. Read the full ILO report 
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5059106.stm

Fair labour standards for domestic work

A major problem in forcing a recognition — officially and in popular perception — of domestic workers as workers, stems from the nature of their work. Spanning cooking and housework on the one end and caring responsibilities on the other, housework and caring has been described as ‘reproductive labour’ — the unpaid and uncompensated burden women in patriarchal households have shouldered often in addition to paid employment. We have historically seen campaigns at the international level that have demanded wages for housework, in an attempt to combat the devaluation of housework and thereby women’s contribution to the economy. The devaluation of the work performed by domestic workers and the refusal by most states and private actors to recognise this category as workers stems from the ideological classification of this work as non-productive/reproductive labour.

Statistical sources on the size of the domestic workforce in India vary in their estimates, ranging from 4.75 million (NSS 2005) to over 90 million. For several years now, the National Domestic Workers’ Movement in India, the largest membership-based organisation that works with different categories of domestic workers across 24 states in the country, has been campaigning for protection from abuse, wage regulation, fair and decent conditions of work and social security for domestic workers — migrant, live-in and other categories of this extremely vast, unregulated and unprotected workforce.

Networks like the National Domestic Workers Movement challenge the basis of the organisation of work and assumptions of productive and reproductive labour. There is a resistance from the state and from employers. Interestingly, established trade unions are not particularly interested in fighting for protection for domestic workers either, not only because they are an unorganised workforce, but also because in the hierarchy of work, domestic work is devalued by trade unions that are concentrated in the organised sector.

The Domestic Workers (Regulation of Employment, Conditions of Work, Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2010, has been a subject of internal debate between the government and social movements working in this sector especially after the circulation by the ILO of the Brown Report on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, after the 99th session of the International Labour Conference, 2010, calling for state parties to hold consultations with stakeholders and provide comments on a proposed convention that will set fair labour standards for domestic work. The year 2011, it is expected, will see both international and domestic law on this important subject in place. It is therefore apt to outline the key concerns raised in the Brown report and anticipate some queries that might arise in the course of our domestic deliberations on this issue, in the hope that a national debate will strengthen the work of the domestic workers’ movement in India to secure full and comprehensive protection.

The fact that the work site for domestic work is often the home of the employer, not a public place, the concern for not derogating the right to privacy of employers is often posited as contradictory to the right of the worker to regulated employment. The employment of a domestic worker involves an opening of the private space of the home to a paid worker who is not part of the household. The Home Work Recommendation, 1996 (No. 184) builds on this by providing that “(i)n so far as it is compatible with national law and practice concerning respect for privacy… officials entrusted with enforcing provisions applicable to home work should be allowed to enter the parts of the home or other private premises in which the work is carried out.”

While the Brown report recognises the possibility of children under the age of 18 but above the minimum age of employment engaging in domestic work, this stands already regulated by law in India with the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which makes it mandatory for all children between the ages of six and 14 to be at school. There is without doubt a large gap between the legal position and practice, but unarguably protection needs to be put in place for children between the ages of 14 and 18 who are in domestic work.

The rapid rise in crossborder trafficking calls for special protection for migrant domestic workers, often people at risk because they have crossed international borders without requisite documentation. The provision on migrant domestic workers however needs to address the important issue of reintegration and/or return after completion or termination of contract — a time when they are particularly at risk.

The draft bill attempts to mandate a registration of workers both in source and work areas, and complete documentation on employers and placement agencies; and limiting the work day to eight hours for part time and nine hours for live-in workers with adequate rest; overtime at twice the wages, but limited to an overall 10 hour work day with a provision for annual wage increases and most importantly specification on conditions of work — which include living facilities and food. While the will of the enforcing authority is critical to the guarantee of protection for domestic workers, the disciplining of employers and regulators alike can happen effectively only through the exercise of the right to freedom of association and the strengthening of collective bargaining by domestic workers through membership based associations and unions. Since this is a predominantly female workforce, unionisation will have a positive impact on the profile workers’ associations in the country and hopefully also the methods.

Finally, advocacy and rights groups have found that domestic workers are especially vulnerable to sexual harassment and sexual assault, and often find it impossible to access the criminal justice system. There must be an interlinking clause in both legislations that offer protection to domestic workers against sexual harassment.
Source:http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/fair-labour-standards-for-domestic-work/244537.html

Prime Minister wants labour law reforms, focused investment

Says the country needs to attract more workers to the organized sector, which employs less than 10% of workforce

Faced with rising unemployment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday called for labour law reforms and more investment in labour-intensive industries.
“We need to consider the possible role of some of our labour laws contributing to rigidities in the labour market, which hurt the growth of employment on a large scale,” he said at the 43rd Indian Labour Conference (ILC) in New Delhi. “Is it possible that our best intentions for labour are not actually met by laws that sound progressive on paper but end up hurting the very workers they are meant to protect?”
India has a 460 million-strong labour force. The government pegged unemployment at 9.4% earlier this month, a 1.2% rise from 2004-05, when the last comprehensive employment survey was carried out.
Singh said the country needs to attract more workers to the organized sector, which currently employs less than 10% of the workforce.
The ILC, the Prime Minister added, should also look at ways to improve the living standards of workers in micro- and small-scale sectors.
“Our regulatory framework in the labour sector should encourage investment in labour-intensive industries,” Singh said.
The cabinet will soon consider a new employment policy focused on promoting labour-intensive industries, Mint reported on 19 October.
The policy proposes to make it mandatory for state-owned companies to measure the benefits of proposed investments in terms of how many jobs they will create directly or indirectly.
“We are soon going to circulate a cabinet note on the new employment policy,” labour secretary Prabhat Chaturvedi said on the sideline of the ILC.
The two-day conference is focusing on three issues: the economic downturn and its impact on jobs; contract labour; and employment generation and skill development.
Labour and employment minister Mallikarjun Kharge said there is need for “bringing labour into the centre stage in economic and social policymaking”.
His ministry, he said, is working on schemes for developing demand-driven short-term training courses to impart skills that will help workers get jobs. It also plans to set up 1,500 Industrial Training Institutes and 5,000 Skill Development Centres with private participation.
E. Balaji, director and president of human resource and employment tracking firm Ma Foi Randstad, said labour laws are not in tune with reality.
“Contract labour law needs to change to help the industry face less trouble from the bureaucracy. In the age of globalization, the government needs to redefine what is (a) core and (a) non-core job to help mobility of workforce,” he said.
Balaji said the government should focus on labour-intensive manufacturing to create jobs.
Reacting to concerns raised by Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh president Girish Awasthi on rising prices of essential commodities, the Prime Minister said the government is trying to reduce the inflation rate. “We have difficulties but we shall overcome (them),” he said.
India’s food inflation was 10.3% for the week ended 6 November.
source: http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/23222711/Prime-Minister-wants-labour-la.html?atype=tp

‘Tamil Nadu pioneers in implementing welfare schemes for labourers'

Tamil Nadu has taken the lead in implementing welfare schemes for labourers in unorganised sector, said T. M. Anbarasan, Minister for Labour Welfare and Employment, here on Tuesday.

He distributed benefits worth Rs. 43.33 lakh to 1,817 labourers belonging to welfare boards from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts. He also gave away equipment to barbers, washermen and goldsmiths.

The Minister said there were 33 welfare boards for labourers belonging to unorganised sector of which 14 are attached to labour department. Nearly 46 lakh workers have registered with these boards. In the last four and a half years, the government has allotted Rs. 1,000 crore for the welfare of these labourers. In the last one year, benefits worth Rs. 174 crore have been disbursed.

The Minister said labourers in unorganised sector account for 92 per cent in Tamil Nadu while the rest are in organised sector. Data entry has been made in computers for the 46 lakh members of these boards.

There are no registration and renewal fees for them. They would be registered within thirty days of their submission of applications and within sixty days, they would be eligible for monetary benefits. Most of the labourers in the unorganised sector are beneficiaries under the Kalaignar's insurance scheme for life saving treatment, the Minister said.

U. Mathivanan, Dairy Development Minister, said services of barbers, washermen and tailors are necessary for a civilised life. They have been uplifted and the welfare boards were instrumental in their development.

M. Chandraseakaran, Collector, P. Karupusamy, Additional Labour Commissioner, Poondi Kalaivanan, Member of Cotton Advisory Board and R. Shankar, Vice Chairman, Tiruvarur Municipality, spoke.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article924045.ece

Agency workers get poorer pay, employment conditions -survey

Workers under agency contractors in Australia receive significantly poorer pay and employment conditions than those under direct-hire arrangements, according to a new study.

A research by Dr Underhill from the Deakin University Business School shows that host employers assume limited responsibility for the conditions of workers they employ through agency employers, including whether their conditions satisfy minimum labour rights or occupational health and safety (OHS) standards.

While the same rights and protection should apply to temporary agency workers and direct-hire employees, Dr Underhill argues that in practice "the triangular nature of agency employment creates barriers to its successful application", with agency workers being employed by one party, the agency, while their pay and conditions are substantially influenced by another, the host employer. 

At a time when temporary agency work is expanding, Dr Underhill proposes that there is a need to reconsider the legal responsibilities for agency worker protection so that host employers have the same responsibilities for applying employment standards as they do for their own staff.

According to her, ss the ILO and EU found, compromises and tradeoffs are required in the conflicted area of minimum standards for agency workers because the standards are hotly contested in a context where "the agency business model rests upon the supply of labour at a cost lower than that which the host can achieve."

Dr Underhill said, under the Fair Work Act 2009 the responsibilities imposed on the common law employer - the agency - have only limited practical application to the host.

Agency employees face job loss for raising a grievance, are required to accept any job placement to maintain an income, are geographically dispersed with transitory job locations, and have little power to enforce their few employment entitlements. 

The study is based on Australian data from relevant industrial tribunals, court cases, a survey of 147 agency workers and five focus groups of agency workers and representative union officials.

It also relies on a sample of workers' compensation claim files of injured agency and comparable direct-hire workers (198 of each) that have been investigated by insurance claim agents. 

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/87285/20101201/agency-workers-get-poorer-pay-employment-conditions-survey.htm

Unorganised sector a major challenge: Kharge

Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge said the major challenge facing India today was that of the unorganised sector.

He was speaking at the second World Social Security Summit organised by the International Social Security Association in Capetown, South Africa, on Friday. Mr. Kharge is heading a six-member high-level delegation from India, which held discussions with several Labour Ministers of the nearly 120 countries participating in the meet.

Mr. Kharge said India was committed to social security programmes and had introduced several forward-looking legislation such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, housing programmes for those below the poverty line, old age pension, the RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthaya Bima Yojna), the Right to Education, the mid-day meal scheme, etc. He emphasised that the social security schemes in India had the full support of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Ministry of Finance.

CRUCIAL TO GROWTH

Mr. Kharge said: “Our major challenge remains the unorganised sector where around 430 million workers are employed in a total workforce of around 450 million. By their sheer numbers, this segment is crucial to India's continuing growth in the post crisis recovering period. While it is a fact that India's economy was less impacted upon by the financial crisis, we have not remained insulated to its consequences. We have started a slew of programmes to address the social security issues in the unorganised sector.”

The employees in the unorganised sector, despite comprising a majority of the working class in the country, mostly remain in low-paid insecure jobs, have little access to institutionalised social security and are the most vulnerable to the negative impact of economic slowdowns in terms of job loss and wage cuts. The government has since introduced health insurance, general insurance and a pension scheme for those serving in the unorganised sector.

INCLUSIVE GROWTH

“The process of economic liberalisation undertaken in India since 1991 has resulted in rapid economic growth but we are still addressing the challenge of making this growth story an inclusive one. Only when that is achieved, we will allow ourselves the luxury of calling it a complete success story,” Mr. Kharge said.

During the interaction with the audience, which included delegations from 120 countries, he highlighted India's commitment to the social security programmes and the positive impact of the RSBY and the MGNREGA schemes. “India's social security programmes enjoy a strong political will and the total support of the government machinery.”

BUDGETARY SUPPORT

He noted that all governments must support social security measures by providing necessary budgetary support. In the light of suggestions by some panellists for contributory mechanisms to make the schemes viable and self-sustaining, he said the government's primary support was necessary to ensure that the social security benefits reached the poorest of the poor.

On the sidelines of the world meet, Mr. Kharge met his counterparts from South Africa, Zambia, Yemen, Swaziland, Samoa and Guernsey and exchanged views on issues pertaining to social security policies and their medium and long-term impact on the financial health of the countries.

source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article929913.ece

Labour laws hurting employment growth, need to be revisited: PM

Acknowledging that some labour laws had not yielded the desired results, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said there was a need to revisit some of them which had hurt the growth of employment.

“We have enacted several progressive labour laws since independence and some even before that. But it appears that not all these laws have had the intended good effects that we would like to see on the ground,” he said inaugurating the 43rd session of the Indian Labour Conference.

Singh said there was a need to consider the possible role of some of the labour laws in “contributing to rigidities in the labour market which hurt the growth of employment”.

“Is it possible that our best intentions for labour are not actually met by laws that sound progressive on paper but end up hurting the very workers they are meant to protect,” he said in his address to the delegates who included representatives from trade union, employees and employers.

The prime minister also said the government was making serious efforts to moderate the inflation rate. “We have difficulties but we shall overcome,” he said referring to the prices of essential commodities.

Noting that the government was keen on not only making growth faster but also more inclusive, he said: “There have been many successes in our initiatives for social and economic inclusion. But we need to do much more”.

Asserting that the government was committed to economic reforms with a “human face”, Singh said its ability to devote more resources for social welfare activities depended crucially on the ability to accelerate the pace of economic growth to 9 to 10 per cent a year.

Emphasising the need for the industry and labour to work together to remove the barriers for faster economic growth and employment, he said the regulatory framework in the labour sector should encourage investment in labour-intensive industries and also ensure welfare of workers.

“We should constantly introspect whether our policies are serving our goals. We should reflect upon possible flaws in our policies as well as ways to strengthen policy to withstand adverse circumstances,” he said.

Singh also advocated strengthening the micro and small enterprises sector, which had the second-largest share of employment after agriculture. He said it encompassed a wide range of economic activities and also helped check rural to urban migration by gainfully employing people in villages.

Singh also asked the private sector to participate actively for the success of skill development programmes initiated by the government.

The prime minister added the government had upgraded the ITIs into centres of excellence to provide multi-skill courses.

source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/labour-laws-hurting-employment-growth-need-to-be-revisited-pm/415988/

Govt seeks to amend contract labour law

NEW DELHI: It is a new idea to achieve the UPA’s elusive goal of inclusive growth while giving industry the hiring flexibility it needs. But the government’s own narrow interests are holding it up. 

With a vast part of the workforce now employed on contract basis without any job security, the Centre wants to amend the Contract Labour Act of 1971 to ensure a fair deal for such workers. 

The proposed amendment mandates that contract workers get the same wages, facilities and benefits as regular employees. So even if contract workers have no security of tenure, they would get better salaries with health cover and social security benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation and Employees’ Provident Fund, respectively. 

The labour ministry believes this would be a very effective instrument to transfer wealth and achieve the UPA’s inclusive growth agenda. 

“By one amendment, wages would increase,” labour secretary Prabhat Chaturvedi told ET. “The trade unions’ resistance to hiring contract workers will reduce and industry would get the flexibility it keeps asking for in hiring practices,” he said. 

Though there is no official fix on how many of India’s 450 million-odd workers are employed on contract, such workers’ exploitation is being seen as one of the reasons for rising industrial unrest in recent times. 
“Most contract workers are paid just 40% of regular wages with no social protection. To earn profit by exploiting labour isn’t desirable in a democratic country and welfare state,” Mr Chaturvedi said. 

The worst manifestation of such unrest was seen when Graziano Transmission CEO LK Chaudury was murdered by a mob of workers two years ago, after he laid off a few contract labourers. A Cabinet note moved by the labour ministry to amend the 1971 law has called for urgent action to prevent such instances from spiralling into a national labour crisis. 

Maruti Suzuki managing executive officer SY Siddiqui agrees that industry must provide social security benefits to contract workers as it will also entail some flexibility in hiring. 

“More flexibility in hiring would certainly help industries where there are demand surges and labour needs to vary through a year,” he told ET. 

But equity in compensation, Mr Siddiqui stressed, must depend on workers’ skills. “If two sets of workers are doing the same job, there must be fairness in pay. But someone who unloads goods into my factory can’t be paid the same as a shop-floor worker who ensures the quality of the final product,” he explained. Mr Siddiqui is a member of the industrial relations council at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). 

“The law provides for paying at least the minimum wages to contract workers,” said another CII official. “Industry strives to pay a little more, where possible, but to pay the same wages as regular workers would be difficult,” he said. 

While industry is sceptical about how these changes will be implemented, the government is in a tizzsy over the implications. Several ministries have called for a rethink as they rely heavily on contract workers. In many public sector firms, contract workers make up for over 70% of their staff. The government is one of the biggest users of contract labour, they have pointed out. 

Noting such concerns, cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekhar has asked the labour ministry to evaluate the financial impact of the proposed changes on the Centre’s finances as well as the economy at large. 

The VV Giri National Labour Institute is now grappling with the question and is expected to submit its report this month. Mr Chaturvedi categorically dismisses the prospect of exceptions being made for PSUs or government departments under the new law. But the final shape of the law could alter on the basis of the impact assessment underway. 
Ironically, rules to give contract workers fair wages and benefits already exist under the 1971 law, but they aren’t implemented in letter or spirit. 

It has been proposed that these norms be explicitly stated up front in the Act, instead of the rules. Principal employers and contractors would have to furnish challans to show every month’s wage bill and social security benefit payments for contract workers. 

While industry appreciates the intent of protecting contract labour from the prevalent exploitation, it has operational concerns. 

“In many industries, permanent employees are no longer hired for some roles, such as security guards,” said Deepak Gupta, executive director (tax and regulatory services) at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “So how do you determine the fair wages for them?” he asked. 

Operational details could be ironed out. But as and when the proposed changes become law, it would constitute a significant reform in India’s archaic labour legislations that are out of sync with post-liberalisation industrial realities. 

Firstly, it would take cognisance of the fact that contract labour is here to stay—something that trade unions have been refusing to accept for two decades. More importantly, the changes could set the stage for Indian industry to hire workers with more freedom and give Indian youth a chance to realise the country’s much-vaunted demographic dividend.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/Govt-seeks-to-amend-contract-labour-law/articleshow/6640126.cms