English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission recently published the damning results of an inquiry into the recruitment and treatment of agency workers in the meat and poultry processing sector in England and Wales. 
 
Although the investigation focused exclusively on the meat and poultry industry, it was said that &ldquo;...the Commission has no evidence to suggest that supply chain practices in the meat processing sector are more detrimental to workers than in any other sector that makes significant use of low-paid, agency migrant labour.&rdquo; 
 
The Commission found evidence of widespread poor treatment of agency workers, especially among those who are migrants or who are pregnant, both by agencies and by user enterprises. In particular, the Commission found evidence of practices that contravene legal requirements, ethical trading standards, and basic human rights. Other types of treatment were described as being &ldquo;an affront to dignity.&rdquo; 
 
One-third of agencies told the investigators that they had acted unlawfully by recruiting workers of particular nationalities, by giving preference to candidates with particular nationalities they judged the user firm would prefer, or by discriminating against certain nationalities at the direct request of the user firm. 
<img alt="" src="" width="237" height="60" />
While flexibility is often cited as being an advantage of agency work by the industry, only two workers cited the flexibility of agency work as a positive aspect. Almost all workers said they would prefer permanent work due to the security and rights it offers. More than 80% of the interviewees said that agency workers were treated worse than permanent workers in every aspect of their job. The agency workers said they received poorer pay, were allocated the worst jobs, and were treated like inferiors. Not a single interviewee thought that agency workers were treated better than their permanent counterparts. 
 
Workers reported being refused toilet breaks, and enduring physical and verbal abuse. Concerns about health and safety were raised in over half the interviews, and many interviewees expressed concern that their personal protective equipment was poor quality, ill fitting, shared with other workers, or missing altogether. 
 
The Commission found that abusive treatment was less common in organised factories, and said that &ldquo;In workplaces where unions are recognised, or have a strong presence, we found that they provide a significant degree of protection for workers.&rdquo; However, some workers reported that their right to Freedom of Association had been restricted and reported instances where hostility of companies towards union activities discouraged people from joining a union for fear of retribution. 
 
The report concludes with a set of recommendations to key bodies in the industry to &ldquo;encourage a systematic change in behaviour,&rdquo; and improve the operations of the Gangmaster Licensing Authority (GLA). Although outside of its remit, the Commission said &ldquo;...that there is a case for broadening the GLA&rsquo;s remit to include other sectors where low-paid agency workers are at risk of exploitation&rdquo; and urged the government to positively consider this proposal. 
 
Commenting on the findings, Nicola Smith, Senior Policy Officer at the UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC), said, &ldquo;This strongly evidenced based report demonstrates the scale of mistreatment that continues across low paid industries, where temporary workers with insecure employment status face some of the greatest risks. The TUC remains concerned that such exploitative practices are not confined to the meat processing sector.&rdquo;

Report on Abusive Treatment of Agency Workers in the UK

Lacking job security and decent working conditions creates a great deal of stress, particularly in people who are struggling to support a family. Medical researchers discovered, in the 1930s, that stress by itself could produce physical effects. Since then, there has been an ongoing effort to better understand the stress response. 
 
The strict scientific definition of stress is &quot;any stimulus, or group of stimuli, that provokes a physiological or psychological response.&quot; A more useful definition of stress in the work context might be &quot;conditions that exceed a person's normal coping capacity.&quot; In occupational health, we are particularly concerned with the stressful effects on workers of conditions in the workplace. 
 
What are the negative effects of excessive stress on health - and by health, we mean all aspects of physical, mental, and social well-being? 
 
The symptoms of stress are generally thought to arise from the &quot;fight or flight response.&quot; In our evolutionary history, human beings were adapted to respond to a threat by preparing to either fight, give chase, or run away. The body instinctively reacts in certain ways designed to prepare itself for a sudden, short-term, all-out effort to survive. 
<img alt="" src="" width="126" height="95" />
At first, the sense heightens, blood pressure goes up, heart rate accelerates, respiration increases, blood flow to the muscles is increase, muscles tense, and the digestive system shuts down. Your body temperature may change, provoking sweating. In our evolutionary past, these responses prepared you mentally and physically to meet a threat that would be resolved, for better or for worse, within a few minutes. 
 
The problem in modern terms is that our bodies seem unable to distinguish between the &quot;threat&quot; posed by a cave-bear, a bullying boss, or perpetual fear of job loss. The fight-or-flight response, maintained or repeated too often, results in chronic or long-term damage. These can include hypertension and cardiovascular disease, ulcers, colitis, compromised immune systems, headaches, and psychological changes. 
 
To further complicate things, different people respond to chronic stress in different ways and with different symptoms. Faced with the same workplace stressors, Jane may experience diseases of her digestive system while John may develop high blood pressure. These inconsistent symptoms have made it very difficult to get stress symptoms recognized as a legitimate occupational disease. 
 
All working people experience some degree of career stress; but workers who toiled under Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), who lack even minimal job security and often work for lower wages and in poorer conditions than their full-time counterparts, experience much more. Career stress should be thought of as adding to all the other stresses caused by every aspect of a person's life. 
 
To control stress in the workplace, the same hierarchy of controls that are considered in the control of any other hazard should be used. Control the hazard at the source, if possible; failing that, control the hazard before it reaches the worker (along the exposure path); and as a last resort, control the hazard at the worker. 
 
CAL workers have less scope to seek these controls. They may be subjected to heavy work demands, a poor workplace environment, harassment or bullying, shift work, role uncertainty, a lack of training, unrealistic expectations, lack of input or control over the work, poor ergonomic factors, a high degree of scrutiny or monitoring, and of course job insecurity. Stress at work can have a synergistic effect on stress away from work, capable both of exacerbating and being exacerbated by: family problems, financial problems, sleep and fatigue problems, financial problems, and a feeling of powerlessness and low self worth. 
 
Unlike full-time workers, who often experience a level of loyalty to their employer and their work, CAL workers can feel less commitment. In the long term, this can increase the risk of burn-out. Job performance will come to consist of doing just enough to get by, and this can spill over into personal life as the burned out worker fails to look after their own health, relationships, and families. 
 
Stress is not a trivial condition that can be dealt with simply by willing it away. It is a serious problem, and a proven cause of a wide range of medical conditions 
 
Control of the hazard at the source, would in this case mean the conversion of contract and agency jobs to secure, decent work. 
 
Contract and Agency Labour can and does make workers sick.

Contract and Agency Labour … and Stress

The Global Union Federation representing workers in the food, agriculture, and services sector, the International Union of Food and Allied Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), has written to John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, requesting that the relationship between precarious work and the effective realisation of human rights be incorporated into his investigations and recommendations as a matter of priority. 
 
In June 2008, Ruggie proposed a policy framework which was unanimously welcomed by the Human Rights Council. The &quot;Protect, Respect, Remedy&quot; framework is made up of three pillars: the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, by avoiding infringing on the rights of others; and greater access by victims to effective remedy, judicial and non-judicial. 
<img alt="" src="" width="145" height="73" />
John Ruggie 
In preparing to make operational the framework, Ruggie is currently consulting with a wide range of actors, including through an online consultation forum, that can be found <a href="http://www.srsgconsultation.org">here</a>, the forum for which the IUF used for its submission. 
 
In that submission, the IUF argues that a meaningful investigation of the relationship between business and human rights must address how the degeneration of traditional employment relationships has impacted on workers&rsquo; human rights. Non-traditional forms of working arrangements, such as agency work, contract work and bogus self-employment, are being used to undermine trade union organising and bargaining. Says the IUF, this is a &ldquo;fundamental human rights issue demanding a strong response rooted in a comprehensive human rights framework.&rdquo; 
 
The IUF draw attention to the ILO&rsquo;s 2008 report on industrial relations at Coca-Cola&rsquo;s Colombia bottlers, which found that the company was systematically denying and restricting the ability to join a union by outsourcing many core jobs. In order to redress this and ensure that workers are capable of fully exercising their rights the global union calls for urgent, systematic action by governments and business to restrict the use of precarious work.

IUF Urges UN Special Representative to Probe Precarious Work

The Zambian Labour and Social Security Minister, Austin Liato, has publically criticised some employers for using temporary workers to fill traditionally permanent positions simply to evade paying statutory employment benefits to workers. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Mineworkers Union of Zambia&rsquo;s (MUZ) 12th quadrennial conference on 27 April, Mr. Liato said this trend is found not only in the mining industry but other sectors as well. 
<img alt="" src="" width="83" height="107" />
MP Austin Liato
Mr. Liato said that despite the Government&rsquo;s commitment to halt the casualisation of employment, the situation has not improved. &quot;The Government has always led a campaign against casualisation. This state of affairs can't be allowed to continue and I urge labour leaders to be vigilant. We should not turn permanent jobs to temporary jobs,&quot; he said.

Zambia’s Labour Minister Decries Labour Casualisation at MUZ Conference

In occupational health and safety, accidents are best described as the results of failures in those systems that ought to keep workers safe. These can include choices of materials, tools, equipment, processes; the design of specific tasks or the work process; level and competence of supervisory control; workplace environment including noise, dust, fumes, heat, cold, and conditions of floors, surfaces, lighting; and the characteristics of workers themselves, including experience, skills, training, and other human factors. 
 
When one or more of these systems fails, an accident can occur. Was an inappropriate tool provided? Was the task poorly designed to begin with? Were supervisors absent or negligent? Was the workplace environment inhospitable? Did the workers have the appropriate skills and capabilities to do the work safely? Systems failures that expose workers to hazards must be corrected at the source, with personal protective equipment used only where elimination at the source is not possible or practical. 
 
Unions demand three fundamental rights for workplace health and safety: the right to know about the hazards of the work; the right to participate in health and safety systems, and the right to refuse unsafe work. 
<img alt="" src="" width="146" height="66" />
The systems above are far more likely to be weak or absent entirely for Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) workers. The hazards they face are less likely to be corrected at the source, and more likely to be dealt with by providing personal protective equipment - if even this is provided. Finally, contract and agency workers are in a weak position to demand any of their three basic occupational health and safety rights, without the risk of losing their job. 
 
The vulnerability of CAL workers is reflected in accident statistics. Last year in Belgium, agency workers were twice as likely as permanent workers to suffer a workplace accident. The ICEM&rsquo;s Peruvian mining affiliate, FNTMMSP, reported that 49 miners died in the first nine months of 2009, 37 of whom were working for subcontracting companies. In Turkey, thousands of young migrants who work in jeans factories are likely to develop silicosis, following exposure to high levels of silica during the denim sandblasting process. Forty-four workers have already died this year and 550 have so far been diagnosed with the disease. 
 
Unions and decent work make work safer. Insecure contract and agency labour can and does injure workers.

Job Vulnerability Puts Health of Temp Workers at Risk

The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) has conducted a survey of how Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is affecting workers and unions, and what steps are being taken to deal with the issue. Forty-eight ITGLWF affiliates completed the online survey, which was conducted with the assistance of the ICEM&rsquo;s CAL project. 
 
The results of the survey overwhelmingly indicate that CAL is an increasing problem in the textile, garment, and leather sectors, with 69% of affiliates who responded saying that the share of short-term and agency labour work in their sector and country increasing over the past year. A full 37% said that CAL had increased by 16% or more. Some 26% of respondents said that the share of CAL has decreased. 
 
In parallel with affiliates of the Global Union Federations ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), who conducted similar surveys earlier in the year, ITGLWF affiliates indicate that CAL workers receive significantly lower wages than permanent, direct-employed workers. Over 66% of those who replied said that wages paid to CAL workers are less than those paid to permanent workers, and 21% said that CAL workers&rsquo; wages are less than half those of regular workers. Some 41% of those who responded indicated that the wages and benefits gap between permanent, direct- employed workers and CAL workers had increased as a direct result of the global economic crisis. 
<img alt="" src="" width="146" height="66" />
The survey results make clear that employers evade their obligations to CAL workers in various ways with non-payment of overtime, denial of maternity and family leave, and denial of vacation and holiday leave being the most common forms of abuse. Some 18% of the total responding said that CAL workers are denied access to social security and pensions, and 15% said that the biggest way employers evade their obligations centres on occupational health and safety. 
 
There is a substantial difference in the number of CAL workers that ITGLWF affiliates represent. Fifty-two percent of affiliates indicated that CAL workers make up between 0 and 5% of their membership, while 19% say that CAL workers made up more that 31% of their membership. Almost one quarter of affiliates said that they had organised more CAL workers in the last year, while 17% said they had lost CAL members. The survey asked affiliates what were the obstacles to organising more CAL workers, and the results clearly demonstrate that the biggest obstacle to CAL workers joining a trade union is fear of dismissal or discrimination. Twenty-three percent of affiliates responding say that government legislation was a barrier to organising CAL workers in their country. 
 
ITGLWF affiliates are including CAL issues in their collective bargaining agendas. The four most common CAL-related bargaining objectives were to guarantee equal pay for similar work, to ensure non discrimination and realisation of trade union rights, and to convert precarious jobs into permanent jobs. 
 
In response to the fact that there is an increasing trend towards indirect and insecure forms of employment, 43% of affiliates indicated that they are currently taking action to ensure that new jobs created in the sector are filled by permanent workers with direct employment relationships. 
 
More details on the results of the ITGLWF CAL Survey are available <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/lang/en/documents/CALSurveyresultsITGLWF.pdf">here</a>.

ITGLWF Survey: Garment Sector Experiences Big Increase in Short-term, Agency Work

Following the start up seminar of the ICEM Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) project in Dakar, Senegal, in March 2009, the Industrial Workers' Union of Senegal (SUTIDS), conscious of the issue and consequences on workers and their organisation, started a media campaign through the major outlet channels of the country. 
 
The union did this through the two biggest television channels of Senegal and the West African region. 
 
Statements made by the general secretary of SUTIDS, those of the ICEM/CAL Project Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa, and a representative of the Minister of Labour were broadcast and commented on in most of the languages in Senegal (Ouolof, French, Toucouleur, S&eacute;r&egrave;re and English). 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="115" />
The conclusions of the seminar were also sent to the Office of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office, the National Assembly, the Senate, the National Labour Advisory Commission, the Ministry of Labour, and the ILO. 
 
When the General Secretary of SUTIDS met the Prime Minister of Senegal, he had the opportunity to raise the issue of outsourcing and interim employment, making the country&rsquo;s leader aware of the sensitive nature of the issue. The Prime Minister requested to see all of the reports of the ICEM/CAL seminar held in March 2009. 
 
SUTIDS therefore organised a media and advocacy campaign among the highest state authorities of Senegal. 
 
These actions contributed to the adoption and promulgation by the President of the Republic of Senegal of Law No. 2009- 1412 on Private Recruitment Agencies and Casual Employment.

Origins of a New CAL Law: ICEM Work in Senegal

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
ICEM Presidium member Angeline Chitambo was re-elected President of the Zimbabwe Energy Workers' Union (ZEWU) in a fractious Congress recently in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. After two tied ballots, she bested ZEWU Vice President Joseph Sibanda in a third ballot, 36-30. 
 
Chitambo now begins her second three-year term as leader of ZEWU. She is credited with giving an international profile to the union, as well as bringing financial stability to a union operating inside a troubled country with an unenviable and unfavourable economic environment. 
 
&quot;For the first time in many years, (ZEWU) has managed to acquire assets and this is commendable,&quot; said one of the union's founders, Misheck Kanyarare. 

<img alt="" src="" width="260" height="195" />
Angeline Chitambo, right
Angeline Chitambo was elected as an ICEM Vice President in 2007 as one of two women representatives to the Presidium. 
 
ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana, also President of South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), attended the ZEWU Congress, as did NUM Health and Safety Chairman Peter Bailey. Also in attendance was Rayford Mbulu, ICEM Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Vice President, who leads the Mineworkers' Union of Zambia (MUZ). 
 
ZEWU, one of the strongest trade union affiliates inside the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, has several important bargains ongoing in 2010, including the Zimbabwe Electric Service Authority, other electric power operators, and a petroleum company called Petrozimline.

Angeline Chitambo Wins Contested Election in Zimbabwe

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
The latest meeting of the Asia-Pacific Electric Power Industry Network took place in Seoul, South Korea, 5-6 April, 2010. Hosted by President Kim, Joo-young, of the ICEM-affiliated Korean National Energy Workers Union (KNEWU) the meeting brought together over 20 delegates from ICEM affiliated trade unions representing workers in the Electric Power Industry from, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) and Thailand as well as observer delegations from both the People's Republic of China and Vietnam. The Network meeting, which has now become an annual event, was supported by FES. 
 
After an opening session which included welcome speeches from the Director of the local FES office, Dr. Kamppeter and President Kim, the meeting unanimously elected, Seiichi Taneoka, the new President of the Japan Electric Power Confederation (Denryoku-Soren) as Chairperson of the Network. Denryoku-Soren has been an essential supporter of the Network since its foundation. 

<img src="" width="323" height="211" alt="" />
ICEM Energy Officer, Jim Catterson, gave a detailed overview of the industry globally and recent ICEM work, and following presentations on the Korean Labour situation from a representative of the Ministry of Labour, together with an introduction on Electric power in Korea by a representative of the national electric power company, Kepco, delegates shared information on their own national situations with the discussions on the first day focussed on the industry and sustainable development. All delegations made detailed reports which supplemented written reports and the results of a questionnaire which had been circulated in advance of the meeting. 
 
Delegates were particularly interested to hear the reports from Ms. Zhang Mengmeng, the head of the delegation, from the Peoples Republic of China and Vice-Chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese Energy and Chemical Workers' Union (ACFTU) and that of Brother. Tran Van Ngoc, President of the National Electricity Union, (VGCL) Vietnam. Both presentations emphasised their organisations wishes to work more closely with ICEM in the future in this globalised industry. 
 
Delegates left the conference room for proceedings on the second day to see the industry and trade union organisation at first hand in Seoul. The day's activities began with a meeting with the President of the KNEWU Seoul branch, Brother Kap-Soo Kang, who after a presentation on the history of the union branch and its present activities showed delegates the control room from which all electric power provision to Central and Southern Seoul was coordinated. After a question and answer session, delegates then visited a nearby centre of the Distribution Automation System (DAS) of KEPCO. DAS utilises recent advances in Information Technology and is an integrated control system operating the entire electric distribution system. It allows the distribution control center to remotely monitor and operate the automated switch on the distribution lines, that detect fault locations, and automatically collect operation data. A training simulator was shown to the delegation and a simulated major fault demonstrated. 
 
A detailed report on the meetings, together with an overview of the conclusions will be prepared and, together with the various national reports, loaded to the ICEM website. Delegates resolved that the 2011 meeting will take place in Thailand, hosted by our affiliate there EGAT-LU. ICEM staff attending the meeting were Jim Catterson, Energy Officer, Phee, Jungsun, Asia Pacific Regional Contact Person and locally based project coordinator, Yoon, Hyowon.

ICEM Asia-Pacific Electric Power Industry Network Meeting

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
ICEM was represented by Jim Catterson at the 20th Anniversary Congress of this important affiliated trade union, held in Sibiu Romania 23 March, 2010. The Congress was attended by around 400 delegates. 
 
Following a report on delegates present, voting rights, and total votes available, the Congress opened with an excellent, professionally produced film of the first 20 years of the union, covering its foundation, activities and the role it has played internationally within both ICEM and EMCEF. International guests included a delegation from our Austrian affiliated union, PRO.GE., Romanian petroleum company, Industri Energi of Norway and the MOL trade union in Hungary. 
 
Petrom is now 51% owned by the Austrian headquartered multinational company, OMV. 

<img src="" width="233" height="113" alt="" />
Union President Liviu Luca 4th from the left
The Congress approved unanimously a detailed document on activities, past and proposed, and then accounts and a budget for the immediate future were approved. 
 
Two major issues at the Congress were firstly the fact that privatisation had led to the situation that workplace numbers have been under constant pressure since the OMV investment, with the union losing members as a result. 
 
Secondly Petrom, and other ICEM affiliated trade unions in Romania, are under strong attack by the government in an attempt to reduce both their power and their independence. ICEM is in discussion with our affiliates in the country, including Petrom, as to the best way to support their struggle internationally.

20th Anniversary Congress of Federatia Sindicatelor Libere Independente Petrom

Archive