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<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 59px" width="390" />

	The 20 February shooting at strikers &ndash; mainly women &ndash; of the KaoWay Sports Ltd. footwear factory in Bavet, Svey Rieng province, Cambodia, appears to have been committed by the governor of Bavet region, Chhouk Bandith. Three women were shot and seriously wounded after a man dressed in police-style khakis got out of a vehicle and began firing at people.

	The factory produces shoes primarily for the German apparel company Puma. According to ITGLWF&nbsp; affiliate, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers&rsquo; Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), thousands of the 6,000 employed at the factory engaged in strike action on 17-18 February. When strikes resumed on 20 February, Chhouk Bandith allegedly jumped out of a Lexus 470 with a bodyguard and a policeman after exiting the factory and fired shots from a high-power gun equipped with silencer.

	After firing, he fled in a Toyota Camry and truckloads of police moved in to quell disbelieving and angry strikers. Police have questioned Chhouk Bandith, and C.CAWDU believes he was held for three days, but has since been released.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Choukk Bandith

	The entire incident, occurring about 09h00, was captured by a KaoWay factory security camera. Puma has been conducting its own investigation since the outset, together with an NGO.

	Buot Chinda, 21, was shot through the chest with bullets that narrowly missed her heart and severely punctured her lung. She was near death, but now is in stable but serious condition at a Phnom Penh hospital. The two other women who were shot and injured are Keo Neth, 18, and Nuth Sakhorn, 23.

	A senior ILO official who monitors a programme called Better Factories Cambodia, said in press comments, &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t look good for Cambodia when this type of violence is concerned.&rdquo;

	Puma&rsquo;s shoe workers, employed by Taiwanese-based KaoWay, were striking over better transport and food allowances, and better pay and conditions overall. Due to the industrial action &ndash; and Puma&rsquo;s rapid response to the random violence &ndash; the strike has ended and all workers&rsquo; demands have been met in full.

	The strike and shootings had a different scenario at a separate Cambodian dispute, this one at Singapore-based Medtecs, a health textiles and apparel maker located in Kampong Siem district, some 125 kilometres from Bavet. While 2,000 strikers pelted the factory with rocks, police at the scene were unarmed and at stand-down because of the KaoWay shootings.

	The Medtecs strike was over the company failing to live up to decisions handed down by a binding Arbitration Council. It has been resolved due to the strike action.

Local Governor Accused in Shooting of Cambodian Footwear Strikers

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 68px" width="390" />

	The third phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry&rsquo;s investigation of the Pike River mine explosions of November 2010 that killed 29 concluded in mid-February in Greymouth, New Zealand, and several experts testified to the inherent weak safety mechanisms in place by Pike River Coal Ltd.

	The latest set of hearings also reveal a company that was 18 months behind on orders to deliver &nbsp;premium metallurgical coal, and in the words of a technical services manager who resigned just days before the first explosion, &ldquo;There was no way the company would delay coal production&rdquo; because of safety concerns.

	The manager, Pieter Van Rooyen, testified that workers had given him notice of inadequate methane drainage pipes, requesting that drilling cease until rectified. Despite passing that on in writing to senior operational managers, nothing was done. Van Rooyen said the decision to begin hydro-mining deep within the shaft without constructing a second exit &ndash; and in areas of high methane gas build-up &ndash; was strictly for &ldquo;cash-flow purposes.&rdquo;

	An electrical engineer who investigated New Zealand&rsquo;s worst mining accident in 100 years said the faulty Pike River electrical systems multiplied chances for disaster since stray currents in many mechanical instruments produced sparks. Pike River&rsquo;s main exhaust fan was located underground, an anomaly to modern mining.

	In late October 2010, the company was warned by a regulatory agency that the stability of an expanded roof in an underground area was worrisome, and again nothing was done. A mine safety expert from Australia testified that the blast was caused by a roof collapse deep inside the mine, causing a massive release of gas. When the underground fan failed, the gas could have ignited from a small spark.

	For 16 months now, the bodies of the 29 have remained entombed inside the South Island mine, despite efforts by families to recover their loved ones. In this inquiry round, photos of two miners who were sighted dead near self-rescue units were shown. The photos indicate that the miners might have survived the initial blast on 19 November 2010. In the following days, five more major explosions occurred.

	Pike River Coal Ltd. killed 29 miners, including 26 New Zealanders, a miner from South Africa, one from the UK, and another miner who was an Australian national. The mother of this Australian miner named Josh Ufer is currently speaking out in Australia on the necessity to maintain full trade union involvement in all mine safety matters.

	As the Single Bargaining Unit led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) wages a battle against BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi to retain union-mandated safety deputies and open cut examiners inside Queensland collieries, Joanne Ufer is versing the dangers inherent in unilateral management control of safety matters in union advertisements.

	The final phase of the Pike River Royal Commission of Inquiry will convene next month, with the commission&rsquo;s report and findings to be issued in September.&nbsp; See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4681-Pike-River-s-Royal-Inquiry-Sees-Troubling-Safety-Issues-Inside-NZ-Mine-Disaster">ICEM report </a>following the commission&rsquo;s second phase hearings.

New Zealand: Pike River Mine Inquiry Hears ‘Disaster Waiting to Happen’

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 68px" width="390" />

	In calling attention to jobs creation as equivalent economic growth, working people across Europe today led by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) are in a Day of Action in opposition to the European Council&rsquo;s adoption of a budget discipline treaty.

	The decentralised mobilisations are occurring in scores of cities and worksites with a common theme pointed at EU governments and decision-makers: &ldquo;Enough is enough! There are alternatives to austerity. Employment and social justice are the number one priorities.&rdquo;

	Today&rsquo;s ETUC Day of Action is taking the form of demonstrations, work stoppages and information postings inside workplaces and government institutions stating that the European summit&rsquo;s Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance is a straightjacket that will plunge the Eurozone into free-fall recession.

	The actions include two demonstrations in Brussels, site of the European Council&rsquo;s 1-2 March summit where the misguided treaty will intrinsically slash wages and social protections, restrict collective bargaining, and provide even more neo-liberal policies, hardly the remedies for economic growth to assure a sustainable future.

	Union leaders, led by ETUC General Secretary Bernadette S&eacute;gol, meet with Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Parliament President Martin Schulz at the European Council Building, while a mass rally takes place outside. Meanwhile, members of all Belgian trade unions will protest today outside the Belgian National Bank.

	A sampling of other actions today includes a mass demonstration organised by the Romanian national trade union centres between 14h and 16h at Victoria Square in Bucharest. In Rome, Italian labour federations CGIL, CISL and UIL will demonstrate at Pantheon Place at 16h, while Hungarian trade unions will hold a press conference and manifestation.

	In Greece, trade unions will take a three-hour work stoppage from 12h to 5h, while even in Georgia trade unions will protest Trade Union Action Day with a rally at Parliament in Tbilisi against their government&rsquo;s one-sided labour code and the economic harm it brings.

	&ldquo;In mobilising on the same day everywhere in Europe for the first time,&rdquo; said S&eacute;gol, &ldquo;European trade unions are reacting with anger and exasperation.&rdquo;

	In the UK, British trade unions used the day to gear up their defence of the National Health Service (NHS), which will happen across the UK massively on 7 March. Both the ETUC and Trades Union Congress (TUC) denounced austerity measures that always &ldquo;fall hardest on the shoulders of the weakest&rdquo; when public services are cut.

Europe’s Unions Protest ‘Straitjacket’ Treaty

<h3 style="text-align: justify">
	Packaging Workers Need Support!</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: justify">
	Des travailleurs de l&rsquo;emballage ont besoin de votre soutien!</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: justify">
	&iexcl;Trabajadores/as del empaque requieren tu apoyo!</h3>

	After engaging in lawful industrial actions earlier in February, 140 workers represented by Unite the Union in the UK were locked out by Austrian packaging firm Mayr-Melnhof on 20 February. The reason: so management could move product and equipment to another plant in event of a further stoppage. UK workers at this plant are vigilant over this misdeed and they deserve our prompt support.

	The lockout forced 40 workers to occupy the plant on 20 February. Unionised workers of Unite need our immediate support during this acrimonious dispute in the Bootle food packaging plant in Merseyside. Please cut and paste the message below, or write your own message in your own language to <a href="mailto:Tony.burke@unitetheunion.com; ian.tonks@unitetheunion.com; p-potter1@sky.com; mmpcanpaywontpay@unitetheunion.org">these workplace leaders</a>, and be sure to include the name of your union. Subject head: Support to Unite at Mayr Melnhof.

	Dear Comrades,

	We have heard of your dispute and the lockout imposed on you by Mayr-Melnhof. We understand that management has been completely unreasonable regarding a compromise offered over redundancies. It seems that Mayr-Melnhof wants it their way, or the alternative is a harsh lockout. Please know that our union stands with you and we will be watching this dispute very closely in the coming days. Best of luck and we stand with you in winning this dispute!

	(name)

	(union)

	For further information on this lockout, please see this <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4904-UK-Packaging-Workers-Face-Lockout-at-Mayr-Melnhof-Plant-in-Merseyside">ICEM report</a>&nbsp;from last week.

	Thank you for your Prompt Action on this.

	In Unity,

	Dick Blin

	ICEM Pulp and Paper Officer/Geneva
<hr />

	Des travailleurs de l&rsquo;emballage ont besoin de votre soutien!

	Apr&egrave;s avoir entrepris des actions syndicales tout &agrave; fait l&eacute;gales d&eacute;but f&eacute;vrier, 140 travailleurs repr&eacute;sent&eacute;s par le syndicat britannique Unite ont &eacute;t&eacute; lockout&eacute;s par la firme d&rsquo;emballage autrichienne Mayr-Melnhof ce 20 f&eacute;vrier. Raison avanc&eacute;e&nbsp;: pour permettre &agrave; la direction de d&eacute;placer les produits et les &eacute;quipements vers une autre usine en cas de nouvel arr&ecirc;t de travail. Les travailleurs britanniques de cette usine font preuve de beaucoup de vigilance par rapport &agrave; cette agression et ils m&eacute;ritent notre soutien imm&eacute;diat.

	Ce lockout a oblig&eacute; 40 travailleurs &agrave; occuper le site le 20 f&eacute;vrier. Les syndiqu&eacute;s de Unite ont sans d&eacute;lai besoin de notre soutien dans le cadre de cet impitoyable conflit qui se d&eacute;roule &agrave; l&rsquo;usine d&rsquo;emballage de Bootle dans le Merseyside. Veuillez faire un copier-coller du message propos&eacute; ci-dessous, ou en r&eacute;diger un autre de votre cru dans votre langue et le faire parvenir &agrave; <a href="mailto:Tony.burke@unitetheunion.com; ian.tonks@unitetheunion.com; p-potter1@sky.com">ceux qui m&egrave;nent l&rsquo;action&nbsp;</a>, en prenant soin d&rsquo;y inclure le nom de votre organisation. Sujet&nbsp;: Soutien &agrave; Unite chez Mayr Melnhof.

	Chers Coll&egrave;gues,

	Nous avons eu connaissance du conflit chez Mayr-Melnhof et du lockout qui vous est impos&eacute;. Nous savons que la direction s&rsquo;est montr&eacute;e totalement d&eacute;raisonnable par rapport &agrave; un compromis qui lui &eacute;tait propos&eacute; &agrave; propos de licenciements. Il semble bien que Mayr-Melnhof ne veuille rien entendre et que sa seule alternative soit un lockout brutal. Sachez que notre organisation est derri&egrave;re vous et suivra ce conflit&nbsp; de tr&egrave;s pr&egrave;s dans ces prochains jours. Nous vous souhaitons bonne chance et sommes &agrave; vos c&ocirc;t&eacute;s pour emporter cette victoire&nbsp;!

	(nom)

	(organisation)

	Pour davantage d&rsquo;informations sur ce conflit, nous vous invitons &agrave; consulter <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4904-UK-Packaging-Workers-Face-Lockout-at-Mayr-Melnhof-Plant-in-Merseyside">l&rsquo;article que l&rsquo;ICEM</a> a publi&eacute; la semaine derni&egrave;re en anglais.

	Merci de bien vouloir agir rapidement.

	Bien fraternellement.

	Dick Blin

	Responsable P&acirc;te et Papier de l&rsquo;ICEM/Gen&egrave;ve
<hr />

	&iexcl;Trabajadores/as del empaque requieren tu apoyo!

	Despu&eacute;s de participar en paros legales de protesta durante el mes de febrero, 140 trabajadores/as miembros de Unite the Union en el Reino Unido resultaron v&iacute;ctimas de un cierre patronal impuesto el d&iacute;a 20 de ese mismo mes por la empresa austriaca de empaque Mayr-Melnhof. La administraci&oacute;n actu&oacute; as&iacute; para poder trasladar productos y equipos a otra planta en caso de producirse otra huelga. Los trabajadores de esta planta brit&aacute;nica est&aacute;n en estado de alerta a consecuencia de esta siniestra maniobra, y merecen nuestro apoyo urgente.

	El cierre patronal oblig&oacute; a 40 trabajadores/as a ocupar las instalaciones de la planta el 20 de febrero. Los trabajadores/as sindicalizados de Unite necesitan de nuestra ayuda inmediata durante este agrio conflicto en la planta de envasado de Bootle, en la regi&oacute;n de Merseyside. Rogamos copiar el mensaje que aparece a continuaci&oacute;n, o bien escribir su propio mensaje en su idioma, dirigido a <a href="mailto:Tony.burke@unitetheunion.com; ian.tonks@unitetheunion.com; p-potter1@sky.com">estos dirigentes sindicales</a>, sin olvidar de mencionar el nombre de su propio sindicato. Encabezamiento: Apoyar a Unite en Mayr-Melnhof.

	Estimados compa&ntilde;eros/as:

	Hemos sabido de su conflicto y el cierre patronal que les impusiera Mayr-Melnhof. Entendemos que la administraci&oacute;n ha sido completamente irracional con respecto a una soluci&oacute;n intermedia que afectar&iacute;a a los trabajadores despedidos. Parece que Mayr-Melnhof quisiera imponer a la fuerza su intransigencia: la alternativa es un inflexible cierre patronal. Por favor sepan que nuestro sindicato est&aacute; con ustedes y que en los pr&oacute;ximos d&iacute;as vamos a estar vigilantes ante este conflicto. &iexcl;Cuenten con nuestro apoyo para ganar este conflicto!

	(nombre)

	(sindicato)

	Para mayor informaci&oacute;n sobre este cierre patronal, ver el <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4904-UK-Packaging-Workers-Face-Lockout-at-Mayr-Melnhof-Plant-in-Merseyside">informe de la ICEM</a> que se public&oacute; la semana pasada, en ingl&eacute;s.

	Agradecemos su pronta atenci&oacute;n a este asunto.

	Unidos en solidaridad,

	Dick Blin

	Encargado del Sector Pulpa y Papel de la ICEM/Ginebra

Packaging Workers Need Support!

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 110px;height: 50px" width="390" />

	What does precarious work look like in Australia?

	One of the things that has characterised clothing workers in Australia over many decades has been that companies manufacture goods through very long, complex and broad supply chains. The supply chains in numerous cases have multiple levels and often at the end of those supply chains you find someone working at home &ndash; these are predominantly women, mainly migrant women in the Australian context; they don&rsquo;t have English as a first language and they are working in very isolated circumstances; they commonly work 7 days a week and when there&rsquo;s a rush for orders they&rsquo;ll work throughout the day and night. It&rsquo;s also common that they&rsquo;ll involve other family members including children to try to get the work done and part of the other aspect that characterises these workers is that they&rsquo;re often told that they&rsquo;re not employees, that they&rsquo;re not workers, and the people who give them the work require them to have some sort of company name or corporate structure to be able to give them the work. This is a sham arrangement &ndash; they&rsquo;re not genuine contractors and have no genuine independence at all. This is an attempt by the company and the brand to distance themselves from their employment responsibilities.

	What action has the Textile, Clothing &amp; Footwear Union of Australia taken?

	More than 20 years ago we succeeded in having a legal set of award conditions that said that if you are a worker in a factory in our industry or at home you are entitled to the same pay and conditions &ndash; this along hasn&rsquo;t fixed the problem. So, what we are now doing &ndash; and have had some success &ndash; is with different state governments in Australia introducing state legislation.

	Our unions campaigned for many, many years on this issue, and we don&rsquo;t do it alone we&rsquo;re part of a broader campaign called the &lsquo;Fairwear&rsquo; campaign which is made up of unions, church groups, student groups, community organisations and activists who for more than 15 years have had a campaign which focuses publically on companies who don&rsquo;t take seriously their responsibility to workers in their supply chains, and pressures them to become accredited with a voluntary scheme which makes the whole supply chain transparent. The accreditation scheme is based on Australian legal minimum standards being met, so through the campaign and the unions&rsquo; exposure of many examples of exploitative behaviour of workers working from home we got some state governments to introduce laws and now we&rsquo;re just at the point of having the federal government introduce a national legislation which picks up on what we achieved at the state level and makes it nationally consistent. It&rsquo;s now gone into the Australian Parliament and will be voted on in the next couple of weeks.

	The proposed legislation does 4 keys things. The first thing is it deems all outworkers (our terminology in Australia for these workers working at home is outworkers) to be employees, it says regardless of whether you are required to have a business name or company structure you are an employee. Secondly, it allows those workers to recover unpaid money up the supply chain, so if the person who gave them the work disappears they can go to the next company up the supply chain, or the next company above that, to recover unpaid wages and it includes the notion of the &lsquo;apparent employer&rsquo; so it allows you to recover money from the apparent employer as opposed to only the actual employer. The third thing it does is allow the government to introduce a mandatory code to complement the voluntary code that I spoke about before, and that mandatory code would put obligations not just on the manufacturers but on the retailers &ndash; so it would require retailers by law to make their whole supply chain transparent. The forth thing it does is gives the union greater right of entry powers &ndash; not into homes, we already have right of entry powers in relation to the records etc. about homeworkers and we don&rsquo;t want to be able to enter into someone&rsquo;s home without their permission, but it gives us far greater powers to enter what we describe as sweatshops than apply to most other unions under Australian law - most other unions under Australian law have to give 24 hours&rsquo; notice of entry, and are only able to look at their members&rsquo; records. What this law will do is allow us to not give any notice so we&rsquo;ll be able to go straight into the workplace without giving them any prior notice, and it will also allow us to check all of the workers&rsquo; records, not just the union members.

	How does your union organise homeworkers?

	We&rsquo;ve tried a variety of different methods and are still trying new things all of the time because they are, from our experience, the hardest group of workers to organise. Because of the level of pressure that they&rsquo;re placed under they are very fearful of seeing to be associated with the union, otherwise they lose work. But the method where we&rsquo;ve had some success is that for many years we&rsquo;ve run free English language classes that are targeted to outworkers in their community so in the regions and suburbs that they live in. Those classes deal with English languages and literacy, but also with rights and the role of the union. We also visit workers and try and establish new networks of connecting these workers, often using social occasions as a way of bringing workers together. One of the things that characterises this work is that it is really isolated so we try and find opportunities to bring them together. We do things like a trip to a garden show &ndash; a range of activities where they and their children can come. The other thing we do is employ organisers who have done outwork themselves and also speak the language &ndash; the majority of these workers currently are Vietnamese, so we&rsquo;ve got a strategy of employing Vietnamese organisers in the union that can deal directly with people in their first language and also organisers who have had the experience of doing that sort of work themselves.

	More information on this campaign is available <a href="http://tcfua.org.au/outworkers/union-campaigns">here</a>.

	Since the interview took place the bill has been passed by the Senate and will now be discussed at the House of Representatives.

Interview with Michele O Neil, National Secretary of the Textile, Clothing, Footwear Union Australia

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	The Syngenta Employees Union of Pakistan won a proud legal victory in the Labour Appellant Tribunal of Sindh Province on 20 March, when the court dismissed appeals from management and ruled in favour of the union. The ruling declares that 50 Syngenta employees must become permanent employees of the Swiss-based world leading corporation in the agricultural chemicals industry.

	Management has preferred to finance the expensive legal battle to keep its Pakistani employees on short-term precarious contracts and has chosen to repeatedly combat the union instead of accepting offers of dialogue.

	The court victory is extra significant in view of the size and resources of each side. The small Syngenta Employees Union is affiliated to ICEM member union PCEM, with 2,000 members and led by General Secretary Muhammad Suhail.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 115px;height: 183px" width="390">&nbsp;

	The Labour Appellant Tribunal decisions were in compliance with Pakistan&rsquo;s &ldquo;Standing Order Ordinance, 1968&rdquo; which clearly outlines the nature of permanent and temporary workmen. The court also ruled that the 50 workers are entitled to join and be members of the union.

	However, in the time since the ruling, PCEM has approached Syngenta management to work through the contractual changes with necessary benefits. Syngenta are still refusing to accept the court&rsquo;s decision. Management has instead hired a famous law firm to file an appeal to the High Court.

	The union is also still fighting for the reinstatement of Brother Imran Ali, the President of PCEM and General Secretary of the Syngenta Employees Union, who was dismissed for his trade union activities by Syngenta.

Syngenta Pakistan Refuses to Accept Law Court Ruling to Regularise of 50 CAL Employees

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The ICEM this week protested the unfair dismissal of 14 employees of Molds Medellin in Sabaneta La Estrella, Colombia. The members of Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol were informed on 22 March of the immediate cancelation of their contracts with no prior discussion with union representatives and with no reason given.

	Writing to the new CEO of Ross International, Tom Lusk, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda stressed the international attention and expectation on the company&rsquo;s management following the recent passing of Mr Larry Ross, the company founder.&nbsp;

	<img alt="" height="174" src="" width="232" />

	Similar damaging downsizing inside Ross International&rsquo;s operations is affecting ICEM members of the United Steelworkers in the US. Since 2008 the closures of Ross&rsquo;s Penn Mold facility in Washington, Pennsylvania and the OMCO Mold facility in Winchester, Indiana have ended employment of approximately 150 mould makers. Currently the workforce at Brockway Mold in Brockway, Pennsylvania has been reduced by 50 percent to 44 mould makers with a further 12 slated for layoff.

	Reminding Ross International that their conduct in Colombia was in breach of international labour law, Warda insisted on the company&rsquo;s respect for the fundamental principle of dialogue with workers, which the unions are sure, could lead to alternative solutions to downsizing and shop closures.

ICEM Protests Ross International’s Unfair Dismissal of 14 Colombians

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 110px;height: 50px" width="390" />

	What does precarious work look like in Australia?

	One of the things that has characterised clothing workers in Australia over many decades has been that companies manufacture goods through very long, complex and broad supply chains. The supply chains in numerous cases have multiple levels and often at the end of those supply chains you find someone working at home &ndash; these are predominantly women, mainly migrant women in the Australian context; they don&rsquo;t have English as a first language and they are working in very isolated circumstances; they commonly work 7 days a week and when there&rsquo;s a rush for orders they&rsquo;ll work throughout the day and night. It&rsquo;s also common that they&rsquo;ll involve other family members including children to try to get the work done and part of the other aspect that characterises these workers is that they&rsquo;re often told that they&rsquo;re not employees, that they&rsquo;re not workers, and the people who give them the work require them to have some sort of company name or corporate structure to be able to give them the work. This is a sham arrangement &ndash; they&rsquo;re not genuine contractors and have no genuine independence at all. This is an attempt by the company and the brand to distance themselves from their employment responsibilities.

	What action has the Textile, Clothing &amp; Footwear Union of Australia taken?

	More than 20 years ago we succeeded in having a legal set of award conditions that said that if you are a worker in a factory in our industry or at home you are entitled to the same pay and conditions &ndash; this along hasn&rsquo;t fixed the problem. So, what we are now doing &ndash; and have had some success &ndash; is with different state governments in Australia introducing state legislation.

	Our unions campaigned for many, many years on this issue, and we don&rsquo;t do it alone we&rsquo;re part of a broader campaign called the &lsquo;Fairwear&rsquo; campaign which is&nbsp; made up of unions, church groups, student groups, community organisations and activists who for more than 15 years have had a campaign which focuses publically on companies who don&rsquo;t take seriously their responsibility to workers in their supply chains, and pressures them to become accredited with a voluntary scheme which makes the whole supply chain transparent. The accreditation scheme is based on Australian legal minimum standards being met, so through the campaign and the unions&rsquo; exposure of many examples of exploitative behaviour of workers working from home we got some state governments to introduce laws and now we&rsquo;re just at the point of having the federal government introduce a national legislation which picks up on what we achieved at the state level and makes it nationally consistent. It&rsquo;s now gone into the Australian Parliament and will be voted on in the next couple of weeks.

	The proposed legislation does 4 keys things. The first thing is it deems all outworkers &nbsp;(our terminology in Australia for these workers working at home is outworkers)&nbsp; to be employees, it says regardless of whether you are required to have a business name or company structure you are an employee. Secondly, it allows those workers to recover unpaid money up the supply chain, so if the person who gave them the work disappears they can go to the next company up the supply chain, or the next company above that, to recover unpaid wages and it includes the notion of the &lsquo;apparent employer&rsquo; so it allows you to recover money from the apparent employer as opposed to only the actual employer. The third thing it does is allow the government to introduce a mandatory code to complement the voluntary code that I spoke about before, and that mandatory code would put obligations not just on the manufacturers but on the retailers &ndash; so it would require retailers by law to make their whole supply chain transparent. The forth thing it does is gives the union greater right of entry powers &ndash; not into homes, we already have right of entry powers in relation to the records etc. about homeworkers and we don&rsquo;t want to be able to enter into someone&rsquo;s home without their permission, but it gives us far greater powers to enter what we describe as sweatshops than apply to most other unions under Australian law - most other unions under Australian law have to give 24 hours&rsquo; notice of entry, and are only able to look at their members&rsquo; records. What this law will do is allow us to not give any notice so we&rsquo;ll be able to go straight into the workplace without giving them any prior notice, and it will also allow us to check all of the workers&rsquo; records, not just the union members.

	How does your union organise homeworkers?

	We&rsquo;ve tried a variety of different methods and are still trying new things all of the time because they are, from our experience, the hardest group of workers to organise. Because of the level of pressure that they&rsquo;re placed under they are very fearful of seeing to be associated with the union, otherwise they lose work. But the method where we&rsquo;ve had some success is that for&nbsp; many years we&rsquo;ve run free English language classes that are targeted to outworkers in their community so in the regions and suburbs that they live in. Those classes deal with English languages and literacy, but also with rights and the role of the union. We also visit workers and try and establish new networks of connecting these workers, often using social occasions as a way of bringing workers together. One of the things that characterises this work is that it is really isolated so we try and find opportunities to bring them together. We do things like a trip to a garden show &ndash; a range of activities where they and their children can come. The other thing we do is employ organisers who have done outwork themselves and also speak the language &ndash; the majority of these workers currently are Vietnamese, so we&rsquo;ve got a strategy of employing Vietnamese organisers in the union that can deal directly with people in their first language and also organisers who have had the experience of doing that sort of work themselves.

	More information on this campaign is available <a href="http://tcfua.org.au/outworkers/union-campaigns">here</a>.

	Since the interview took place the bill has been passed by the Senate and will now be discussed at the House of Representatives.

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 110px;height: 50px" width="390" />

	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

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 110px;height: 50px" width="390" />

	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

Archive

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New Zealand: Pike River Mine Inquiry Hears ‘Disaster Waiting to Happen’

Europe’s Unions Protest ‘Straitjacket’ Treaty

Packaging Workers Need Support!

Interview with Michele O Neil, National Secretary of the Textile, Clothing, Footwear Union Australia

Syngenta Pakistan Refuses to Accept Law Court Ruling to Regularise of 50 CAL Employees

ICEM Protests Ross International’s Unfair Dismissal of 14 Colombians

Interview with Michele O Neil, National Secretary of the Textile, Clothing, Footwear Union Australia

Toying with Workers’ Rights

Global Unions Research Network web resource on Precarious Work

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