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In August 2007, 13 ICEM affiliates created an ICEM Turkish Coordination Committee. At that time, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) was defined as one of the priorities on which joint activities would occur. 
 
In cooperation with Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a Turkish national conference of those affiliates was held on 31 January &ndash; 1 February, 2008, in İstanbul on CAL. Some 80 trade unionists, journalists, and university professors attended. 
The conference opened with a speech by Mustafa Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Turkish Electricity, Water, and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, Tes-Iş. He is also the current president of the country&rsquo;s biggest national labour centre, T&uuml;rk-Iş. The meeting also saw the active participation of ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and FES&rsquo;s İstanbul representative, Bettina Luise R&uuml;rup. 
<img height="212" alt="" src="" width="350" />
ICEM's Kemal &Ouml;zkan and Manfred Warda, EMCEF's Reinhard Reibsch
After presentations by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan on the the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s CAL Project, by the ILO&rsquo;s Slava Egorov on ILO actions on contract labour, the employment relationship, and agency work, and by EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch on the European situation, the conference heard national experiences from Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands. 
 
In Germany, IGBCE&rsquo;s Michael Wolters reported there are now 630,000 agency workers employed by 19,000 labour agencies in the country. This constitutes 10-15 % of the total workers in industries in which the German union operates. Agency workers earn 30 % less than permanent workers. 
 
According to Hans Palmqvist of Swedish IF Metall, there is an Authorisation Board in Sweden that controls 450 private agencies, employing 43,000 workers. A Swedish trade union has managed to reach a collective agreement with one such agency, C&amp;L. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The agency labour issue is also a burning issue inside The Netherlands. Celil Coban and Osman Elmaci from FNV Bondgenoten, both Turkish-originated trade union officials for the union, reported that only 1,200 agencies out of 12,000 are operating with official certification. Even when FNV Bondgenoten negotiates with employment agencies for collective agreements, wages remain low and working conditions are sub-standard for agency workers. 
 
The three examples from Germany, Sweden, and Holland clearly shows that the unionisation rates for agency workers are far less than those for permanent workers. 
 
The conference also heard detailed reports and analyses on Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey. During the conference, a major explosion at an unregistered factory operating in the black economy resulted in 23 deaths. 
 
According to statistics, the number of workers employed in the informal economy in Turkey is 4.7 million, according to Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin of ICEM affiliate Petrol-Iş. Dating to the 1980s, the problem in Turkey is that new owners in privatised sectors have used subcontracting in order to eliminate union representation. 
 
Metin Bozkurt, Organising Secretary of Cement Workers Union, &Ccedil;imse-Iş, reported that multinational companies in the cement industry use subcontractors in all facets of production. Privatisation has also caused problems in energy, reported Murat Aytemiz, Vice-President of Tes-Iş. According to Aytemiz, some 50% of the workforce in the energy sector is employed by subcontracting firms. 
 
The situation in the mining sector was defined as thus by Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department of Mine Workers Union, Maden-Iş: &ldquo;Our mining areas have become mole holes after privatisation and subcontracting.&rdquo; He reported that contract labour in pits is overwhelming, for example, in a main coal mining area, 2,750 out of 10,500 miners are subcontractors.&nbsp;
<img height="285" src="" width="380" alt="" />
In public services as well, subcontracting and agency labour is a major factor in lowering salaries and weakening the working environment. Ismail Hakki Kurt of Belediye-Iş pointed out that &ldquo;trade unions have real difficulties in bargaining because permanent workers are the minority, while agency workers are not unionised.&rdquo; 
In the glass industry, according to Can Safak, Director of the Collective Bargaining Department at Kristal-Iş, subcontracting first appeared in nonqualified and side jobs. Kristal-Iş tried to tackle the problem through reclassification of positions. The union also managed to get language in the sectoral level collective glass agreement, stating that no subcontractor can be employed at the production level. 
 
At the end of the discussions, it was agreed that a series of joint activities on organising, in general, would be undertaken. And then, specifically, the issue of Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey will now come under the ICEM&rsquo;s global project. 
 
<a href="/index.php?id=73&amp;doc=2593&amp;la=EN">To access presentations at the Conference, click here</a>.

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

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As reported by the ICEM in its newsletter on 28 January 2008 (<a href="/en/?id=78&amp;doc=2564&amp;la=EN">click here</a>), private-sector strikes slated for 6 February across Slovenia were cancelled when agreement over wages was initialled between employers and the nation&rsquo;s largest labour federation, Zveza Svobodnih Sindikatoc Slovenije (ZSSS), on 25 January. 
 
The ICEM has been informed by its affiliate, KNG Chemical, Non-Metallic, Rubber Union, a ZSSS affiliate, that when it came time to sign the social agreement on 1 February, Slovenia&rsquo;s Chamber of Commerce and industry associations backed away from the pact that called for across-the-board increases of 5.6%, nearly equalling the inflation rate of the Central European country.
In calling for European Union and global trade union support toward renewal of a general strike, ZSSS President Du&scaron;an Semolič stated: &ldquo;Although the social dialogue has reached a dead end, the employers&rsquo; associations continue with manipulation in companies and are trying to enforce the agreements on pay adjustments in which a very low percentage of adjustment is offered to workers.&rdquo; Employers are also implementing no-strike agreements within these individual companies. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" border="1" />
The 6 February statement by ZSSS can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0802Slovenia.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Since mid-2007, trade unions and employers&rsquo; groups have been working on an agreement to raise base wages in order to counter Slovenia&rsquo;s spiralling inflation rate, as well as agreement on holiday bonuses and other remuneration issues. That agreement was nearly reached on 25 January, averting a mass strike that likely would have eclipsed the one on 17 November 2007, in which 70,000 workers marched through the streets of Ljubljana. 
 
But that agreement was broken by employers in a serious social breach. The ICEM stands supportively behind Slovenia&rsquo;s workers in all sectors at a time when their pay has not kept pace with rising prices brought on by the nation&rsquo;s entry into the European Union. 
 
Also in Slovenia, the ICEM, together with a dozen Central European affiliates, took action to support KNG-affiliated workers at glass plants, brave workers of the company Steklarna Hrastnik.

Strike Threat Renewed in Slovenia as Employers Renege on Deal

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Opposition coalition parliamentarians last week threatened to derail the elimination of Australian Work Agreements (AWAs), a cornerstone to former Prime Minister John Howard&rsquo;s draconian WorkChoices laws, adopted in 2005. Members of Parliament from the Liberal and National Parties caucused on 7 February and decided on a strategy to separate individual work contracts signed with employers from repeal of WorkChoices. 
 
The Labour Party government of Kevin Rudd is expected to present&nbsp;a sweeping industrial relations rollback bill to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 13 February. That bill would repeal WorkChoices and also replace AWAs with interim arrangements for new individual employment contracts until a fairer industrial relations system is operational in 2010.
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="180" />
The transition bill to be introduced this week would outlaw&nbsp;creation of new AWAs, and replace the fairness test of individual agreements contained in WorkChoices with a more suitable&nbsp;no-disadvantage test. 
The effort to preserve AWAs is led by Julie Bishop, the Liberal Party&rsquo;s deputy leader and industrial relations spokesperson. Bishop comes from Western Australia, a state in which major mining houses have used AWAs to circumvent collective bargaining agreements. 
 
The separation of AWAs from Labour&rsquo;s rollback bill could delay progressive reform of the country&rsquo;s industrial relations statutes. Australia&rsquo;s Senate is still controlled by opposition parliamentarians until 30 June 2008. Delays to the Labour Party agenda could mean thousands more workers will be subjected to AWAs in 2008. 
 
Australian trade unions have demanded that all Members of Parliament adhere to voters wishes made in November 2007, when the Howard government was crushed in national elections. Howard&rsquo;s enactment of WorkChoices was the number one issue by voters in forcing his ouster. 
<img height="51" src="" width="137" alt="" />
&ldquo;The Liberal Party&rsquo;s decision to support AWAs is an insult to the Australian people who voted overwhelmingly to reject WorkChoices at last year&rsquo;s election,&rdquo; said Sharon Burrow, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). &ldquo;AWAs were the centrepiece and cruel heart of the Howard government&rsquo;s unfair WorkChoices laws. 
 
&ldquo;With the Liberals planning to oppose the Labour government&rsquo;s clear mandate to scrap WorkChoices,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;many more Australian families risk being hurt by AWA individual contracts.&rdquo; 
 
Research presented recently in Australia reveals that employers with fewer workers tend to use AWAs to cut labour costs, while larger employers use them to reduce the influence of trade unions. The research paper, commissioned by Industrial Relations Victoria and presented at an early February conference hosted by LaTrobe University, found that the average wage of a worker on an AWA is 7.3% less than a worker covered by a collective agreement.

Australia’s Opposition Plots to Preserve Individual Work Agreements

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This week, a deadline will expire for multinational oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria&rsquo;s downstream sector. By Thursday, 14 February, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. and a handful of other companies must cease and desist on a range of anti-union activities, or face industrial action from senior staff. 
 
PENGASSAN, ICEM&rsquo;s white-collar oil and gas affiliate in Nigeria, issued the ultimatum at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting late in January in Kaduna. It singled out Mobil Oil Nigeria, Oando, Chevron, and African Petroleum Plc. as targets. The union&rsquo;s communiqu&eacute; stated it would &ldquo;vehemently oppose the attempt to extinguish unions in these companies.&rdquo;
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
At Mobil Oil Nigeria, wholly owned by the world&rsquo;s largest oil company, US-based ExxonMobil, the union-busting may be the most blatant. Despite bargaining with PENGASSAN through much of 2007 over retrenchments and reaching some agreements with the union, Mobil Oil Nigeria has reneged on those agreements. It has changed terms of lump-sum payments contained in a separation plan with PENGASSAN, and it is denying state-mandated pension benefits to less senior workers who are getting the sack. 
 
And so far this year, in a data systems restructuring, which PENGASSAN and the company agreed would cost 42 jobs, ExxonMobil has unilaterally raised the count to 50 to include trade union activists. 
 
PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile said the company serves as the leader in the Niger Delta in undermining social standards, in violating the rule of law, and &ldquo;with indiscriminate firings ostensibly to weaken or destroy the labour union.&rdquo; He added the company has also failed to adhere to Nigeria&rsquo;s Pension Reform Act, which mandates a level of benefits to staff made redundant who have less than ten years service and are under age 45. 
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="220" />
&ldquo;Mobil management is essentially holding the union ransom,&rdquo; Olowoshile said, referring to a company strategy to drain the union financially. &ldquo;They prefer matters go to the industrial court rather than find a mutually acceptable win-win resolution in the interest of industrial peace.&rdquo;
In July 2007, Mobil Oil Nigeria violated best practice social code by contacting and coercing PENGASSAN members individually over separation terms. At the same time, the company was in social talks with PENGASSAN over redundancies. The voluntary termination letters that were offered to individual workers was a ploy to reduce the statutory amount of separation benefits. 
 
PENGASSAN has also warned to Royal Dutch Shell, which currently has a plan to reduce its Nigerian workforce by combining business functions of three subsidiaries operating in the country. The union said industrial action could occur against Shell&rsquo;s upstream companies if the company does not adequately complete talks. 
 
In other action taken at PENGASSAN&rsquo;s NEC meeting in January, the union condemned the non-existent security practices at Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.&rsquo;s (NNPC) Okrika Jetty in Rivers State. On 19 December at the NNPC loading bay near its Port Harcourt refinery, dynamite used by people disguised as militants killed eight persons, including a policeman and a PENGASSAN member. The criminals were bunkering oil. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="113" />
&nbsp;PENGASSAN President Peter Esele 

PENGASSAN said &ldquo;porous surveillance&rdquo; and lack of any &ldquo;security network and intelligence operations at the loading and discharging facility leaves much to be desired. We are seriously grieved that a criminally minded group could gain easy access without proper challenge,&rdquo; said the union. 
Meanwhile, PENGASSAN President Peter Esele has called on the Nigerian National Assembly to pass tougher laws against unfair labour practices committed by oil and gas companies. In an interview with a Nigerian newspaper, Esele said punitive measures must be imposed on companies engaged in contract staffing, casualisation, and violation of expatriate quotas.
&ldquo;We are sounding a note of warning for companies to desist from it, or risk being sanctioned by a committee that would be empowered by appropriate laws to checkmate violators,&rdquo; he told This Day publication. Esele last month was named by President Umaru Musa Yar&rsquo;Adua to sit on the seven-member government board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a panel mandated through a 2007 law.

ExxonMobil Pack Leader in Breeching Social Code in Nigeria’s Oil Patch

Mr. Miguel Pestana 
VP Global Affairs, Unilverer Plc
By Fax: 44-20-78.22.59.51 
By e-mail: <a href="mailto:miguel.pestana@unilever.com">miguel.pestana@unilever.com</a>
 
Dear Mr. Pestana,
The (name of union), representing Unilever employees in (places/countries), wishes to convey our concern over ongoing violations of international labour standards and trade union rights by Unilever in Asia. 
 
We have followed the progress of the IUF's submission to the UK National Contact Point of the OECD concerning the closure of the company's Sewri factory in Mumbai, India and the attempts to achieve a negotiated solution with the trade union representing the 700 dismissed employees. 
Following the intervention of the NCP, the company had committed to finding a negotiated solution, yet has repeatedly postponed meetings with the union. Two months have passed since the last meeting (November 27) and the company has yet to propose a date for the next meeting. Since the Mumbai workers have received no compensation to date following their many years of service, we find this footdragging intolerable and unconscionable - and an offense against Unilever employees everywhere. 
 
In Assam, India, the company locked out the entire workforce at its Doom Dooma plant last year, and as a condition of resuming employment forced the workers to sign statements renouncing their union membership and seeking membership in the company-sponsored union. 
While Assam Unilever management has denied this in response to the IUF's OECD submission, local management continues to use these unlawful documents in support of its claims to the authorities that the &quot;union&quot; it sponsors represents a majority, It is also using these documents obtained under coercion in support of its deductions of membership fees in the organization it sponsors. 
We find this particularly cynical in view of the fact that management in our country would presumably not engage in such practices. Does Unilever have varying approaches to complying with international labour standards, depending on the country it is operating in? Our members are increasingly asking this question. 
 
We are also shocked to learn that brutal anti-union practices continue at the Unilever factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, which are also the subject of an IUF submission to the UK National Contact Point for the OECD. 
The union at the plant sought to open its membership to temporary workers and support their efforts to be reclassified as permanent employees after nine months of continuous service, in accordance with the law. Management's response was to fire all temporary workers at the plant and replace them immediately with agency workers, who have no legal possibility to ever qualify for permanent status. 
Following these mass firings, management continues to harass union members and officers. Union officers, shop stewards and activist members have been frequently transferred from one post to another and management is now threatening them with replacement by agency workers. 
The union president is being denied access to his members, and union members received lower salary adjustments at the beginning of 2008. Again, we note that such practices would presumably not be tolerated by Unilever in our country - why then are they being pursued in India and Pakistan? Is it because the law is weaker? Because they take place away from the spotlight of those scrutinizing the company's corporate social responsibility practices? 
We are watching, and call upon you to act to ensure that these practices are halted. In all three cases, Unilever management should enter into good faith negotiations with the unions representing employees in order to achieve negotiated solutions to all outstanding problems. We will, for our part, continue to closely follow these developments and keep our own members informed. 
Yours sincerely,

Model support letter Unilever Pakistan

The ICEM today said Stora Enso must do more to meet its social responsibilities regarding layoffs at two pulp and paper mills in Finland, as well for white-collar workers in the Nordic nation that are also getting the sack. The ICEM supports this week&rsquo;s strike by workers at Stora Enso in Finland. 
 
The Global Union Federation, representing 20 million workers in several industrial sectors, predicted in November that further strikes in the Finnish pulp and paper sector would occur if Stora Enso did not present alternatives to its latest restructuring plan. (That release can be found <a href="/en/?id=19&amp;doc=2442&amp;la=EN">here</a>.)
<img height="143" alt="" src="" width="140" />
On 25 October, the Finnish-Swedish company announced that 1,400 jobs would be cut in Finland, Sweden, and other European nations.&nbsp;Some 1,100 of those jobs were to be lost in Finland. Yesterday&rsquo;s announcement by Stora Enso that mill closures and job cuts totalling 985 is unacceptable, and the ICEM joins with Finnish trade union affiliate Paperiliitto by calling on the company to develop new technologies and new products that will retain workers. 
 
&ldquo;The strikes in Finland are a clear indication that workers themselves are not satisfied with the company&rsquo;s approach,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;As a sizeable minority shareholder in Stora Enso, the Finnish government has an obligation to do more to preserve these jobs.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM reiterates its solidarity to the workers at the Kemij&auml;rvi and Summa Mills in Finland, as well as the Norrsundet paperworkers in Sweden, and white-collar workers in the two countries and in other administrative offices in Europe. &ldquo;They have displayed great strength through their respective trade unions, and the ICEM will ensure that this strength becomes a chain of strength for paperworkers throughout the world,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;We call on Stora Enso to implement strategies that grow jobs, not destroy them.&rdquo;

Stora Enso Must Do More to Fulfill Social Responsibilities

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The on-and-off recognition by US-based Ross International of joint representation by ICEM affiliate Sintravidricol at three of its Colombian metal moulding plants is on again after a 23-day strike by union members. With intervention from Colombia&rsquo;s Ministry of Social Protection, Ross agreed to recognise the union at three of five plants at a common bargaining table. 
 
The company agreed to that once before, in October 2007, but changed course the very next month by walking away from talks. Local management cited US owner Larry Ross&rsquo;s unwillingness to sign any union agreement. That caused the strike, which began late in November at the three worksites, Moldes Medellin Ltda., Andes International Tooling, and Andes Cast Foundry Metals.
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Ross opened the latter two plants in 2004, along with two other enterprises, and staffed the operations with contract workers. That was the direct result of staff at Moldes Medillin organising with Sintravidricol, the leading glass workers&rsquo; union of Colombia. With support and assistance from the ICEM and the United Steelworkers and its Flint/Glass Division in the US, Sintravidricol successfully brought the union message to the contract workers in the new plants. 
 
Following last month&rsquo;s company acquiescence to a four-year labour agreement at the three plants, all workers previously on fixed-term contracts became full-time staff. And that included a majority of the 240 workers at the three plants. Additionally, equal rights and conditions will exist between all workers. Union rights were won, with strict provisions outlining union representation and union activities. 
<img height="188" alt="" src="" width="250" />
Talks froze at Ross in November 2007
The company also agreed to withdraw all court actions against the union and workers. Sintravidricol called the December 2007 agreement an achievement of the basic objectives that launched the international campaign some three years ago. &ldquo;This is due not only to the unity and capacity for struggle of the union, but also the enormous international support, which resulted in this conflict becoming a problem for the central government, with international repercussions,&rdquo; said Sintravidricol in a statement. 
 
The ICEM heralds the persistence of our Colombian affiliate, as well as workers and leaders in Sintravidricol&rsquo;s Sabaneta and LaEstrella regional structures. The on-again, off-again bargaining table developments at Ross in Colombia in late 2007 can be found <a href="/en/?id=78&amp;doc=2450&amp;la=EN">here</a> and <a href="/en/?id=78&amp;doc=2496&amp;la=EN">here</a>.

Persistence Pays Off for Ross Glass Workers’ in Colombia

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
A lockout by Canadian petroleum company Petro-Canada will hit the two-month mark on 17 January, with no talks occurring between the company and the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union since the start of the lockout. The lockout of 267 union members at an oil refinery in Montr&eacute;al, Qu&eacute;bec, is an attempt to reverse Petro-Canada&rsquo;s own pattern-setting energy bargaining established at a company refinery in Edmonton, Alberta, on 13 May 2007. 
 
The ICEM-affiliated CEP and Petro-Canada there agreed to a three-year contract for 300 workers. Since May 2007, the CEP has signed labour accords with other companies set by the Petro-Canada/Edmonton agreement, including Petro-Canada operations in Ontario province. The CEP established Petro-Canada as the lead company in its National Energy and Chemical Bargaining Programme for 2007-2008, nearly one year ago. 
<img height="225" alt="" src="" width="380" />
Managers at the Point-aux-Trembles refinery in the east end of Montr&eacute;al are insisting on a six-year labour agreement, and they seek contract revisions that will reduce health and safety personnel. The company also seeks to erode workers&rsquo; rights concerning scheduling and assignments, and wants an accelerated training and progression system in which job safety will be jeopardised. Petro-Canada is attempting to operate the refinery during the lockout with 130 managers and scabs, contrary to Quebec&rsquo;s labour law. 
 
In 2007, under CEP staffing, the refinery experienced an average production increase to 130,000 barrels-per-day, from 105,000 b/d in 2006. In a statement immediately following the 17 November lockout, Petro-Canada said the lockout was necessary because the refinery was in a &ldquo;constant state of standby&rdquo; from the labour talks. The company later admitted it had been training managers since September 2007 to run the facility, apparently anticipating the lockout. 
<img height="266" src="" width="200" alt="" />
Local 175 rally, 9 January
&ldquo;Running an oil refinery requires highly specialised skills and dedicated safety training,&rdquo; said CEP President Dave Coles, who joined workers on picket lines and in a mass meeting on 9 January. CEP Local 175 &ldquo;members are on the front lines of the fight to protect pattern bargaining, which is at the very foundation of our union,&rdquo; added Coles. 
 
In a protest in front of the refinery on 21 December, the CEP issued a warning to the Montr&eacute;al community that 130 managers cannot adequately replace 260 skilled workers in a safe and hazard-free manner. The ICEM has joined the CEP in calling for support to the locked-out workers of Local 175, and on calling on Canada&rsquo;s third largest oil company to adhere to terms it had initially negotiated in the current pattern settlement.

Canadian Petrol Refinery Lockout Nears 2-Month Mark

Contract and Agency Labour, a global phenomenon &hellip; 
 
Throughout the entire one-day global ICEM conference on contract and agency labour, which took place just prior to the start of the three-day-long 4th ICEM World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, speaker after speaker confirmed that the phenomenon of contract and agency labour (CAL) - and of many other forms of precarious employment - is vastly, and rapidly, increasing throughout the whole world. Particularly often mentioned was the continuing trend of using non-permanent, and non-protected, labour in developing countries. 
 
Welcomed by ICEM General Secretary, Manfred Warda, as well as by Vesna Rodic, FES Resident Director, and chaired by Brother Sjaiful from FSP KEP Indonesia, the almost 300 participants at the third global ICEM conference on contract and agency labour heard contributions and presentations by trade unionists from all corners of the world. With little to no exceptions, they all, albeit to varying degrees, mentioned their own problems with contract labour, agency labour and, on a wider level, the wide-ranging difficulties associated with the lack of a (good) employment relationship. 
 
CAL itself is known under a wide range of different names, including temporary work, self employed work, informal work or outsourced work, casual or contingent work, all terms that are used, in one way or another, to describe a fundamental change in the relationship between the workers and employers. 
<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="121" />
What has been changing primarily are the previous &ldquo;normal&rdquo; relationships between employers and workers. For a large segment of the world&rsquo;s workforce, this relationship has become one of a &lsquo;much lesser&rsquo; quality. For many others, such the increasing contingent of &ldquo;self-employed&rdquo; workers, it has changed from an employment relationship to a commercial relationship, with the worker taking all the risks. As a result, many of the protections that workers have fought for, often over a very long time, such as social protection or anti-discrimination rules, are simply lost. 
 
This point was emphasised by, among others, Jim Baker, coordinator of the Global Union Council, who referred to the Philadelphia declaration of 1944 which says that labour is not a commodity. Labour can therefore not be sold as any other market product. He also described the situation of fear that many CAL workers are living in. Where workers do not have any rights, they are afraid. Protesting can have serious consequences under those circumstances. 
 
Individual contracts were also mentioned by Jim Baker, a practice widespread in Australia, among other countries. Another point made was on the value of industry and national bargaining, certainly where guarantees for contract and agency labour workers are needed. 
 
Equally mentioned was the need for unions to emphasise the positive aspects of having a good and satisfied &ndash; which, in most cases, means a unionised, but also permanent &ndash; workforce. It is possibly one of the best arguments against CAL labour, and certainly one that unions should make. 
<img height="71" alt="" src="" width="50" />
Christine Nathan, representing the ILO, talked about how, particularly in Asia, governments are willing to discuss the issue of CAL. However, they only want to do this when the end result is likely to be a set of voluntary guidelines, which they then can ignore. 
 
She further mentioned the fact that, in many countries, the labour situation has become so extremely complicated, with sub-sub-sub contractors and other complicated forms of work relationships, that, even where law makers want to legislate, they find it very difficult to do so. 
 
Nathan was just one of the speakers who picked up on the &ldquo;seven-headed monster&rdquo; image. Through that comparison, spokespersons indicated that it appears to be so that whatever we do, whatever solution we find for whatever problem, another problem seems to resurge, with employers being very creative in finding new ways to avoid responsibilities. 
&hellip;.throughout all regions and continents&hellip; 
 
In Asia, contract and agency work was reported to have been increasing in virtually all sectors and all countries. One particular example given was the Indian mining and diamond sector, where almost all workers work on CAL contracts. Thailand and Korea were cited as examples of other Asian countries where CAL work is omnipresent. 
 
Africa was described as the globalisation&rsquo;s playing ground, with increasing investment, for example in the mining sector, bringing - besides possibilities for organising - mainly across-the-board problems caused by investors who seem to think anything is possible on the continent. The example was given by a representative from Tanzania, where gold company Barrick dismissed close to 1.800 contract and agency miners after failed negotiations on the respect of ILO core labour standards. Standards which are clearly included in Tanzanian labour law. 
 
In almost all countries, women were said to disproportionately suffer from the CAL phenomenon, a point raised by many that spoke, including Evgenia Esenina, chair of the ICEM women&rsquo;s committee. She also spoke of the fact that women, as they are more often unemployed, are more often forced to accept lower quality jobs. 
 
Poverty, a situation which, in many countries, appears to be the direct result of precarious work, was also said to affect women more than men. 
<img height="71" alt="" src="" width="50" />
Migrants were frequently mentioned as another category of workers confronted with the worst excesses of CAL. In numerous countries, migrants have to combine two &ndash; or even three &ndash; precarious jobs, just in order to survive. Many have a sad story to tell and it is no secret that they are often discriminated. As CAL workers, they are, in addition, frequently fired for belonging to a union, they often face an almost total lack of health and safety protections, and/or have little to no social benefits. 
 
The above-mentioned CAL related problems all come on top of another main reason why employers claim they want to need contract and agency labour: it is easy to terminate the workforce. 
 
CAL difficulties are by no means limited to the non-OECD countries. Problems in North America and Europe were also talked about. Contract and agency labour is heavily used in those regions as well, albeit not always at the same level. 
 
In the context of North America, the problem of &lsquo;permatemps&rsquo; was mentioned - a problem by no means limited to this region. 
<img height="71" alt="" src="" width="50" />
US unions, in spite of the fact that they do not exactly work under the easiest of circumstances, also made some progress, including limited progress on the rights to information for contract workers. 
 
In Japan, since the 1990&rsquo;s, limitations on the use of agency labour have been removed. One third of the total workforce in Japan is said to be working in precarious work situations. One typical result has been an increase in average working hours. Another one has been the polarisation of the labour force. Through their national trade union centre, Japanese unions are currently campaigning on CAL issues as one of their key priorities. One successfully used tactic is to establish union subdivisions that concentrate on CAL workers. 
 
In Europe, an estimated average of 4 to 5 percent is working as a contract or agency worker, varying from rather low percentages in the Nordic countries to 33% in Spain. A call was therefore made on the European trade union federations to get involved more in the discussions on this issue. 
 
Agency workers were said to be also increasingly used outside of the &ldquo;more traditionally outsourced&rdquo; sectors, such as cleaning, catering, security, agriculture or construction. In many of the ICEM sectors, for example the energy or the chemical sector, CAL work in core workplaces is ubiquitous. 
&hellip; not all is bad, however &hellip;. 
 
The conference also heard from various participants about cases where unions and trade unionists have been able to fight back. 
 
Until 4 years ago in Brazil, there were three CAL workers for each Petrobras permanent worker. At the time, there was an average of three lethal accidents per month. Today, after years of negotiations &ndash; where it helped that the Lula government was supportive &ndash; the Petrobras CAL ratio is 1 permanent Petrobras worker for every 1.5 CAL worker. 
 
In Chile, a new law, &rdquo;Ley 20123&rdquo;, was passed recently. On the one hand, the law makes it easier now for companies in Chile to outsource work. On the other hand, however, it also gives CAL workers a much better protection than before, including in the area of pension rights and health and safety security, areas where the company where the work is actually done is now clearly responsible. An agency is also being set up, with wide ranging powers, to make sure that the rules and regulations for all CAL workers are applied. 
 
Contract work in Chile can only be used in certain cases, such as to replace workers on holiday, or workers on sick leave. The law forbids using contract labour in case of a strike. Unfortunately, bringing the law into practice has not always been easy so far. 
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Similar limitations on the use of contract and agency labour exist in many countries, all around the world. The same can be said, unfortunately, for the non-respect of many of these rules. 
 
In Uruguay &ndash; another example of a country with a new government &ndash; a bill for a law on outsourcing, drafted by the trade unions, was recently adopted by the government. 
 
In Africa, for example in South Africa, several unions have been able to organise CAL workers. In this region, as well as in many others, there is a clear and direct link between union successes and union strength. 
 
Equally in Africa, Mauritius was presented as a country where the law covers CAL workers and where all workers are, in addition, covered by national collective bargaining. However, recent political powers want to change all that, and deregulate. 
 
In Europe, progress has been made through pressure on governments and companies. Agreements on CAL have been entered into collective bargaining agreements as well, including, for example, in the UK and in Denmark. 
<img height="71" alt="" src="" width="50" />
From Finland came the example of how a campaign on a Taiwanese company failed as the union didn&rsquo;t take the 40% CAL workers into account, and, as a result, didn&rsquo;t get sufficient support for its actions. The union learned from it, and managed to get CAL workers involved in its disputes and collective bargaining after that. 
 
The EU Directive on fixed-time work already says that fixed-term workers have the same right as regular workers. On agency work, there is still no directive on agency labour, in spite of years of trying. 
 
In Central Europe, for example in Croatia and Macedonia, laws do exist to make sure that contract or agency workers are not used to the detriment of the permanent workforce. However, collective bargaining agreements and laws are all too often violated in the region. 
 
In Macedonia, following an SIER campaign, workers now have the right to be informed on what is going to happen at their workplace in relation to contract labour. This includes the right to be informed about any upcoming outsourcing plans. 
<img height="71" alt="" src="" width="50" />
New forms of employment, including contract and agency labour, are also making headway in Eastern Europe. One consistent problem quoted there is that regulation in this area simply does not exist. Russia, Ukraine and Moldova were said to be among the countries were CAL work is being used the most. 
 
In Russia, for example, private employment agencies noted an increase in demand of around 10 percent a year recently. The latest development is that it is the Russian-owned companies that are now calling on agency labour, where it was mainly foreign companies that made use of CAL labour before. 
 
Hassan J&rsquo;Aama, President of new ICEM affiliate IFOU (Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions) spoke on the difficult situation for workers in Iraq. He mentioned not only the overall security situation, but also the distressing fact that several former anti-union laws in Iraq have not been changed since the fall of the previous regime. Both the occupation forces and the Iraqi government were particularly blamed for not abolishing Decree 150, which bans unions in public enterprises, including in the oil sector. 
 
As a result of this continuing anti-union legislation, many Iraqi unions find it very difficult to organise, something which helps explaining why employers in Iraq are using contract labour almost everywhere. Iraqi contract workers, as they do in many other places, often work for a minimum wage, or less, without much protection of any labour code or any real pension rights. 
&hellip; some conclusions &hellip; 
 
One overall conclusion is the clear need for the ICEM to continue and intensify its campaign. Various campaign strategies were emphasised, including on one of the primary goals of the campaign, i.e. to make sure that employers do not sign any contracts with a third party that could affect the employment status of their direct employees, prior to consulting with the employees&rsquo; union representatives. 
 
The importance of networking was highlighted, as was the need of sharing information at a global scale. The exchanging of good examples was mentioned as being very useful. Good examples were those where unions are successful in dealing with the CAL problem, be it in avoiding contract and agency labour, or in finding ways to work with it. 
 
Most participants agreed that trade unions, in the majority of countries, will not be able to get CAL to disappear. Nor do they want that necessarily to happen. Some union members simply prefer short-term contracts. 
 
However, we need to make sure that CAL workers do get the same rights as permanent workers. This includes social protection benefits, pensions, health coverage, and other social benefits. And, obviously, it also includes equal pay for equal work, as part of the struggle for equal rights in general. 
<img height="71" alt="" src="" width="50" />
Also stressed at the meeting was the importance of establishing legal guidelines and regulations on contract and agency labour, preferably at national level. The principles from the ILO Recommendation 198 (the Employment Relationship Recommendation) are an important tool in all this &ndash; a recommendation that still needs to be ratified by a many countries. 
 
One other unambiguous observation, mentioned throughout the meeting - in spite of the fact that this was an ICEM conference, with mainly ICEM participants - was that the phenomenon is not only a global one, but also one affecting nearly all sectors and industries. It was made clear that the ICEM is already cooperating, under the umbrella of the Global Unions Council, with the other Global Union Federations, looking at issues in regard to the employment relationship. The leadership role that the ICEM is taking in this effort needs to be continued, and strengthened. 
 
Finally, it was said by many that unions need to be open to CAL workers. In too many countries, CAL workers have been facing resentment by other trade union members, as they are perceived as the enemy. Setting up unions, or union divisions, for CAL workers, or &ndash; by many the preferred option &ndash; simply bringing CAL workers into the normal union structures, is seen as a very important and needed accomplishment.

ICEM Contract and Agency labour Conference

The Global Union Federation ICEM today commends the Liberian Supreme Court's 21 December to certify the Firestone Agriculture Workers' Union of Liberia (FAWUL)&nbsp;as bargaining representative for workers at Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda called the decision start to &quot;ardent reconciliation that will finally give workers the fairness and equity they deserve.&quot;
The ICEM agrees with a statement on the Supreme Court's decision issued by the US-based United Steelworkers (USW), a union that has supported plantation workers at Firestone in&nbsp;organising their democratic and responsive Labour Union. &quot;The legal decision in favor of FAWUL signals a new day in Liberia,&quot; said USW President Leo Gerard and&nbsp;International Vice President&nbsp;Fred Redmond. The ICEM also joins the USW in calling on Bridgestone/Firestone management to begin earnest engagement with FAWUL in collective negotiations.
<img height="129" alt="" src="" width="280" />
In early July, a sizeable majority of some 5,000 plantation workers voted for FAWUL, which is now an ICEM&nbsp;affiliate. Liberia's Labour Ministry supervised the election, and a Special Elections Committee monitored the balloting.
On 10 December, after delays in certifying FAWUL, ICEM's Warda wrote Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: &quot;In the name of Free Trade Unions worldwide, we call on you to use your influence inside the Liberian government to recognise the legitimacy of the Firestone Agriculture Workers' Union. We insist that you certify the elected leaders of FAWUL, and ensure that local management at the Firestone plantation&nbsp;engages in full and meaningful collective negotiations with this union.&quot;
The ICEM welcomes the 21 December Supreme Court decision in Liberia, and, together with the USW and&nbsp;other worldwide unions,&nbsp;will continue to stand with the USW&nbsp;in aiding and assisting the&nbsp;FAWUL.
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ICEM Welcomes Liberia&#039;s Certification of Legitimate Firestone Union

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ICEM Contract and Agency labour Conference

ICEM Welcomes Liberia's Certification of Legitimate Firestone Union

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