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	In February the Play Fair campaign &ndash; a coalition of trade unions and NGOs including the ITGLWF and the International Trade Union Confederation - published a report highlighting code of conduct abuses in factories producing merchandise for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Play Fair researchers interviewed a range of workers from two factories in China &ndash; one producing pin badges and the second producing stuffed toys of the Olympic mascots.

	The organisers of the London Olympics &ndash; LOCOG &ndash; have a code of conduct which states that &ldquo;To every extent possible work performed must be on the basis of recognised employment relationship established through national law and practice&rdquo; and &ldquo;Obligations to employees under labour or social security laws and regulations arising from the regular employment relationship shall not be avoided through the use of labour-only contracting&hellip;&rdquo;.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 112px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Despite the strong language in the code, Play Fair&rsquo;s researchers found that workers in one of the factories had no idea of the terms of their contract, and had never been provided with a written contract of employment. Not a single worker interviewed for the research was employed on a permanent contract.

	At a second factory researchers found that core workers were employed on five-year fixed term contracts and that during periods of high orders the factory hired about 300 temporary workers, more than doubling the workforce. These temporary workers were employed on a daily wage and received only 40 CNY rather than the statutory minimum of 50 CNY per day. Temporary workers were not provided with social security payments.

	The full report is available <a href="http://www.play-fair.org/media/wp-content/uploads/play_fair_en_final.pdf">here</a>.

Toying with Workers’ Rights

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	The Global Unions Research Network (GURN) is collating information, links and publications on precarious work and making the information available through its <a href="http://www.gurn.info/en/topics/precarious-work">website</a>.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 362px;height: 103px" width="390" />

	The website has been developed as part of the follow-up to the International Workers&#039; Symposium on Policies and Regulations to Combat Precarious Employment which took place in Geneva from 4 &ndash; 7th October 2011, and will be regularly updated.

Global Unions Research Network web resource on Precarious Work

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	More than 200,000 workers dressed in yellow and red took to the streets in 32 city centres in South Africa in an extraordinary show of worker power against labour brokers.

	A general strike against e-tolling and labour brokers organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) on March 7, 2012 was a resounding success.

	Addressing tens of thousands of people that gathered in Johannesburg, COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the protest was not a march, but &quot;an occupation of the city of Johannesburg by the workers&quot;. South African unions are resolved to bring an end to the use of labour brokers. &quot;This is a class battle. This is a class war. Labour brokers do not create jobs - they destroy the agenda of decent work,&quot; said Vavi.

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	General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Irvin Jim addressed thousands of strikers in East London in the Eastern Cape. &quot;Decent work is a right. Labour brokering is just like slavery and is causing major problems for the working class,&quot; Jim said, &quot;They are taking up jobs from us and I am raising my finger at them. We must take a firm stand and see them banned for good.&quot;

	The strike was also organized to protest e-tolling, a toll road system that is being implemented in Gauteng province in April this year which Vavi called &quot;a new apartheid&quot; as the increased cost to travel would restrict people&#039;s movement, especially the poor working class.

	Vavi warned that labour was prepared to take action again on the issue. &quot;If they say they will go ahead with the tolling, we will take all the people here, and more, and put them on the highways of Joburg,&quot; he said. &quot;If they insist we pay for public roads then, just as we made the apartheid system unworkable, we will make this system unworkable.&quot;

	The protest against labour brokers and e-tolling had wide popular support and many civil society groups and ordinary South Africans spoke out in support of the strike. (Story provided by the IMF).

Strike Against Labour Brokers in South Africa

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	As the use of CAL continues to grow around the world more and more unions and their members are taking to the streets to protest against the degradation of employment relationships.

	An all-India general strike was held on 28th February which brought together workers from various sectors to oppose the neoliberal policies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh&#039;s government. One key demand of the action was to ensure that contract workers are award the same rights and protections as permanent workers.

	The Indian Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act stipulates that contract workers who perform the same or similar work as permanent workers will be entitled to the same wages and conditions. Under this Act, contract labour ought not to be permitted for permanent or core functions.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 245px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	However, as regularly reported by the ICEM, this Act is widely violated and contract workers in India habitually receive inferior terms and conditions of employment despite performing core tasks. On 12 January, the ICEM joined a complaint to the OECD submitted by its local affiliate Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS) regarding the illegal treatment of contract workers in India by the Swiss multinational cement company Holcim. Further information on the complaint is available <a href="/en/7-Asia-Pacific/4900-Holcim-s-Violations-in-India-Taken-to-OECD">here</a>.

Indian Workers Mobilise to Protest Against Neo-liberal Policies Including CAL

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	IndustriALL Global Union, which will be established in June 2012 and will bring together affiliates of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), will prioritise the fight against contract and agency labour, and other forms of precarious work.

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	IndustriALL will build on the work which has been done through the ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour campaign, the IMF&rsquo;s &lsquo;Precarious Work Affects Us All&rsquo; campaign and the ITGLWF&rsquo;s work on insecure employment in countries such as Peru, Cambodia, India and Turkey.

	The campaign against precarious work will be launched by IndustriALL at its founding congress in June, and the new Global Union will call on all affiliates to mobilise around this issue on the World Day for Decent Work on 7thOctober.

IndustriALL to Prioritise Fight Against Precarious Work

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	The ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) project publishes a quarterly newsletter intended to bring the latest news, developments, and trade union initiatives against the growing use of precarious work.

CAL Newsletter March 2012

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	The ICEM cries out in dismay that the 6 February murder of American Platinum (Amplats) employee Pinky Mosiane remains unsolved. She was raped and murdered inside a mine shaft of Amplats&rsquo; Khomanani Mine in Rustenburg, North West Province.

	The ICEM lauds affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) who insists that authorities get DNA samples from all staff working that fateful shift on 6 February.

	Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, three days after this despicable assault and murder, the ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan African Regional Organisation (SSARO) adopted a strong statement denouncing workplace violence against women, specifically in reference to the cold-blooded murder of Mosiane inside this Amplats mine. She was crushed in the face with a heavy rock after the sexual assault.

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	The SSARO statement follows:

	&ldquo;On the morning of 6 February, a 28- year-old female worker was violated and murdered underground at Khomanani Mine, which is owned by Amplats, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo American.

	&ldquo;This barbaric and neanderthal act against an innocent young worker is the most glaring case of gender-based discrimination against women and abuse of power. Sexual assault is cruel, inhuman, horrible. A mineworker underground on a daily basis has to deal with death or injury that can come from a rock fall or machines. Having to deal with death and violation against your person sexually and otherwise compounds the insecurity of a human being. A fellow worker who was supposed to act as a fellow human being acted as an animal.

	&ldquo;The National Union of Mineworkers has been fighting to enable women to work in mines. This and similar incidents should not be misconstrued to undo the progress that women have made to achieve equal employment rights.&rdquo;

	He who does not love a woman, who does not respect a woman, despises his own mother having come out of a kind womb of a woman.&nbsp;

	&ldquo;As the ICEM African Executive Committee and the ICEM African Women&#039;s Structure, we strongly condemn this atrocious act of barbarism.

	&ldquo;Mines and all workplaces must be safe environments for women and men. It is up to the employer to ensure that the workplace is safe for all. We will be holding the employer accountable for this tragedy.

	&ldquo;We call for a speedy and thorough investigation into these crimes. We are confident that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, whoever they are. We call on the police to do a thorough investigation as the mine has records of who works what shift. We call on them to use all the forensic technology at their disposal to find out who the perpetrator is. We will be following up on this case and checking that justice is done. We also call for a tough sentence for the perpetrator or perpetrators once found.

	&ldquo;This young woman was only 28 years old and had one child, and her future and dreams were destroyed by a barbaric act of violence by a male counterpart. This is the triple oppression that we need to continue to fight against to attain true liberation for African women.

	&ldquo;We call on comrades to rally around this slogan: Not Another Woman Must Be Raped, Not Another Woman Must Be Murdered.

	&ldquo;We call upon affiliates and sister organisations of ICEM to post this statement on their websites and to disseminate it widely to the press.&rdquo;

Ghastly South African Rape, Murder of Woman Miner at Amplats Unsolved

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	Swiss-based cement multinational giant Holcim continues to anger the ICEM with its illegal treatment of contract workers in India. Attempts by contract and agency workers employed at Holcim&rsquo;s subsidiaries, ACC Ltd. and Ambuja Cement Ltd., to organise and establish collective bargaining with management are being crushed with intimidation, coercion, and dismissal.

	On 12 January, the ICEM joined a complaint to the OECD submitted by the local union Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS).&nbsp; PCSS is a member of the ICEM global family and represents 1,500 contract workers in the state of Chhattisgarh.

	The complaint focuses on a number of breaches of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises at Holcim&rsquo;s cement companies. Other than the clear violation of the contract workers&rsquo; right to organise and bargain collectively, Holcim is also cited for refusing to engage in collective bargaining with PCSS, which is officially registered as the trade union representing workers at the cement installations.&nbsp; Further violations are outlined in the complaint with respect to the surrounding communities around the Holcim plants.&nbsp; The companies acquired land from local farmers and went on to destroy living conditions in local communities, namely shoddy water management and destruction of homes by blasting and mining. The subsidiaries also refuse to give permanent jobs to locals.

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	Today in New Delhi, ICEM participated in a press conference with the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI) and PCSS and their national federation, New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI).&nbsp; ICEM Asia-Pacific Representative Phee Jungsun said at the press conference, &ldquo;It is through such practices as these that clearly violate workers&rsquo; basic rights to representation of their choice, as guaranteed by the UN, OECD and ILO, as well as the Indian constitution. That Holcim has doubled its profit margins through Indian operations stand as further disrepute in terms of the rights&rsquo; abuses of contract and agency workers.&rdquo;

	Holcim celebrates its 100th anniversary this week and claims &ldquo;We have placed Sustainable Development at the heart of our business strategy for many years, because we believe it contributes in adding value and ensuring continued success.&rdquo;

	Holcim is in breach of Indian legislation, namely the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act that stipulates that contract workers may only be hired to perform non-core functions, and that those who perform the same or similar kinds of work as regular workers must receive equal treatment in terms of wages and conditions.

	However, contract workers in both plants are employed to carry out tasks which are fundamental to production, but receive only one third of permanent workers&rsquo; wages.&nbsp;

	Holcim-ACC last year refused to respect a Chhattisgarh State High Court ruling that it is using &ldquo;sham and bogus&rdquo; contracts, and should regularise 27 contract workers. It was proven that contract workers at the plant do not have basic personal protective equipment, such as gloves, boots and masks, and are denied access to medical facilities, including basic first aid, in the factory.

	Between September 2010 and March 2011, 80 members of PCSS were dismissed by Holcim-Ambuja. Management of the plant repeatedly refused to participate in conciliation efforts by the Regional Labour Commissioner in Raipur.

	The Chapters and Paragraphs of the OECD Guidelines in violation are: Chapter II ( General Policies) specifically paragraphs A (1), (4),(9); Chapter IV (Human rights) specifically paragraphs 1, 2; and Chapter V specifically paragraphs 1 (a), (b), (d), (e), 3, 5.

	See the full text of the PCSS OECD complaint <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/OECD%20Complaint%207%201%202012.pdf">here</a>.

	See more information on the BWI Company Monitor webpage <a href="http://blogs.bwint.org/mnc/category/mnc-info/holcim/">here</a>.

Holcim’s Violations in India Taken to OECD

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	Schlumberger, the world&rsquo;s largest oil services company, has been scrambling to defend actions of local management in Egypt who sacked the entire leadership of a nascent trade union.&nbsp; Pressure has been exerted by the ICEM and its affiliated Norwegian and Canadian unions, IndustriEnergi (IE) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP/SCEP), on senior management to intervene and remedy this unacceptable violation of rights in Egypt.

	Schlumberger employs around 2,500 workers in Egypt, 40% of whom are workers of subcontractors at 10 different worksites.&nbsp;

	In April 2011, the process to establish an independent company-level trade union at Schlumberger Egypt was begun, as part of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), the trade union centre established during the final days of the Mubarak regime. In May 2011, signatures and required documents were collected to complete the legal process of establishing the union.

	On 11 May, local management was informed of the new union structure, at which time management responded with threats leading to the dismissal of General Secretary Mohamed Abd Elrahman. On 3 July, the day of the union&rsquo;s general congress, local management dismissed the union&rsquo;s President, Brother Essam. On 5 July, local management summoned union members to the head office and threatened them with dismissal if they did not leave the union. And then on 7 July, local management followed through on an earlier threat and dismissed the union&rsquo;s Assistant General Secretary, Ayman Abd Elmonem.

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	ICEM&rsquo;s Jim Catterson with Sacked Union President, Brother Essam, at left

	No reason or dismissal letter was given to Abd Elmonem, he was simply blocked from entering the workplace. On 12 July, another union member was dismissed in similar circumstances, Mr. Hossam Al-deed Mostafa, again no written dismissal notice was produced.

	Under Egyptian law, workers can only be dismissed from their employment following a due legal process and a court ruling. The court procedure cannot even be initiated without justifiably serious reasons. Arbitrary unilateral decisions such as these cannot stand. Four sacked workers have been without income for several months now.

	&ldquo;I write seeking your immediate intervention to remedy shocking violations of labour rights at Schlumberger operations in Egypt. In a vicious attack on workers&rsquo; rights to organise and bargain collectively, Schlumberger employees&rsquo; nascent trade union has been illegally dismantled through the sacking of its leaders,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda in a letter to Schlumberger.

	Register your protest to Schlumberger Chairman Andrew Gould, CEO Paal Kibsgaard, and Egypt Area Manager Amr Essawy by clicking <a href="mailto:gould1@exchange.slb.com; pkibsgaard@exchange.slb.com; AEssawi2@exchange.slb.com">here</a>.

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	The company has responded to ICEM and IE calls with an investigation into the sackings.&nbsp; ICEM will continue to monitor the situation closely and will mobilise the next phase of the campaign with Schlumberger&rsquo;s clients, the oil and gas multinationals that use Schlumberger&rsquo;s services, if positive action by the company is not taken soon.

	IE of Norway organises Schlumberger employees, and those workers registered their protest with Norwegian national management and local managers over the last ten days. Local Schlumberger union reps in Norway are meeting today with the ICEM.

	Egyptian activists in Paris on 18 February conducted a picket at Schlumberger headquarters and met with the manager of Schlumberger France, who has also now been mobilised to intervene into the case.

Oil Services Giant Schlumberger Pressured over Egyptian Union Busting

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ICEM&rsquo;s Swiss affiliate UNIA is celebrating a great success in its campaign to save the 320 jobs at the pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The decision to reverse a plant closure at the Prangin production site near Nyon was announced on 17 January, following an extremely strong campaign effort that dated to last November. 
 
The 17 January announcement included a pledge to protect jobs at the site in the long term. Job cuts at Novartis in neighbouring Nyon have also been reversed. 
 
The ICEM salutes a spirited campaign of strikes, mass mobilisations and mass support from the local public and area politicians in Canton Vaud, which culminated in bad press and huge pressure on Novartis management to reverse its decision. The planned closures were undeniably based on corporate greed as profits were huge, and the facilities were widely regarded as top quality. 
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ICEM marched with UNIA colleagues on several demonstrations, with the Nyon-based UNI Global Union. 
 
Staff at the Prangins facility took the concession of increasing weekly work hours from 37.5 to 40 in negotiations. 
 
Management&rsquo;s shock decision to close &ndash; announced at a 25 October press conference &ndash; significant sections of the Nyon and Basle plants came only weeks after Novartis showed third quarter net sales up 18% to US$14.84 billion from US$12.58 billion in the same period in 2010. Net income increased 7% to US$2.49 billion, third quarter 2011, from US$2.32 billion in the quarter, 2010. 
 
Novartis had planned to cut 2,000 jobs internationally, with 760 at its Basle headquarters and 320 in Nyon. Job cuts were greatly reduced at Basle as well, with only a third of the initially planned job cuts in Basle to now occur. 
 
It was predicted 2,000 related jobs in Nyon would go if the company closed the plant, ending over 90 years of drug production in Nyon. 
 
UNIA&rsquo;s role in mobilising the support of local and federal politicians in the process was important, especially since a major factor in the decision to cut Swiss jobs was a retort at Swiss authorities&rsquo; price-cutting of pharmaceutical drugs. 
 
Novartis Chief Executive Daniel Vasella is the highest paid person in Switzerland, with an annual salary of CHF 40 million.

UNIA Jobs Saved at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland

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