Prohibiting violence and harassment in the world of work

#MeToo and similar movements have helped expose the scale of the problem in the world of work, encouraging women to speak out and demand justice. Whilst women are overwhelmingly and disproportionately affected, men are not immune. And discrimination against certain groups exacerbates violence ad harassment.

No sector, whether formal or informal, public, private or voluntary is untouched. However, higher rates are consistently recorded in sectors such as transport, health and social care, hotel and restaurant, media and entertainment, agriculture, in domestic work, in the garment industry as well as in the historically male-dominated sectors of manufacturing and extractives, particularly in mines.

Violence and harassment at work can come from managers, supervisors, co-workers, customers and clients. It can happen at the physical workplace, at work-related social events or training, whilst getting to and from work, or anywhere the worker is required to be because of her or his work. Abusive workplace practices can also contribute to the toll of violence and harassment, with work-related stress and mental illness at an all-time high.

There is a window of opportunity to take decisive action. This month, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations agency responsible for setting global legal standards for working conditions, will complete negotiations on a new law to prohibit, prevent and remedy violence and harassment. If the negotiations are successful, the new international law will place clear responsibilities on employers and governments for tackling the scourge of violence and harassment in the world of work. Workers, too, will have responsibilities to refrain from acts of violence and harassment and to comply with any policies, procedures or other steps taken by their employers to prevent it.

Whilst there are differences to settle on the final content of the new law, there is broad support for its adoption amongst trade unions, governments and some employers. Ahead of the negotiations, some companies have made their support public, demonstrating how measures can be taken not only to prevent and respond to workplace violence and harassment, but also to address the effects of domestic violence on the world of work. Such measures include paid leave for victims of domestic violence, easy access to information, advice services or counselling, or varying working hours to minimise the risk of stalking by violent ex-partners. And companies are increasingly engaging in collective negotiations with trade unions at enterprise, sectoral and global levels to ensure that the people who work, or seek to work for them, are protected and free from fear.

Violence and harassment in the world of work is a global problem, requiring global solutions. The negotiations at the ILO are timely, not least as the UN agency celebrates 100 years of its existence this year. Trade unions were campaigning for this new law long before the painful revelations of #MeToo. Our government and employers must now play their part in making this a reality. No one should go to work in fear of experiencing violence and harassment.

Tackling mine safety in Vietnam and Mongolia

Occupational safety and health (OSH) present a serious challenge for mineworkers in Vietnam and Mongolia. Both countries’ OSH performance is a serious concern, reflecting the lack of a national preventative safety and health culture. The ratification of ILO Convention 176 on Safety and Health in Mines (C176) provides the much-needed governance and management system necessary to address these challenges.

At a time when the coal mining industry faces an existential threat from climate change and Industry 4.0, which threatens to disrupt and radically transform their world of work, the Vietnam National Union of Coal Mining Workers (VNUCMW) and Mongolia’s Mining, Energy and General Workers Union (MEGM) benefited from strategic workshops conducted by IndustriALL Global Union.

The workshops, while focusing on OSH, were situated against the background of global mining trends and challenges and IndustriALL’s Just Transition and industrialization policies.

IndustriALL’s director for mining and diamond, gems, ornaments and jewelry production, Glen Mpufane, and Yoon Hywong, IndustriALL’s South East Asia projects coordinator, conducted the two workshops as part of collaboration between IndustriALL’s mining sector and the union building project. The strategic workshops were held on 30-31 May and 3-4 June for the VNUCMW and MEGM respectively.

While Mongolia, to its credit, ratified C176 on 26 November 2015, it is experiencing challenges with developing a national implementation roadmap. As for Vietnam, C176 is a relatively foreign concept, with the culture of blaming the worker rampant in the coal-mining sector. The action plan adopted at the end of the Vietnam workshop includes a proposal for a national OSH summit involving the tripartite stakeholders, together with an awareness-raising national campaign.

The workshop in Mongolia, where the government department of Minerals and Heavy Industries, as well as a representative from Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi mine, made presentations, brought into sharp focus the dysfunctional governance and OSH management failures in the mining industry in Mongolia.

“From a culture of unreported accidents, lack of inspections, lack of budget allocation, lack of accountability, to the complete absence of safety and health representatives and joint occupational safety and health committees, the challenges of implementing C176 are daunting but not insurmountable”

Glen Mpufane

In a meeting with Rio Tinto following the strategic workshop, IndustriALL requested that Rio Tinto Oyu Tolgoi offer technical and resource assistance to the development of the implementation roadmap, to which Rio Tinto responded positively. IndustriALL met with the Secretary of State to discuss the dismal state of OSH in Mongolia and the absence of an implementation roadmap following Mongolia’s ratification.

The Secretary of State committed to resource the development of the roadmap and its implementation and to immediately set up a working group in consultation with both internal and external stakeholders.

Myanmar must reform labour laws to end union busting

They shared their views on topical issues such as law reform, minimum wage and collective bargaining. More activities and organizing targets were identified at the meeting.

Myanmar trade union leaders vowed to fight for the closure of a loopholes in the labour law to help end union busting and defend workers’ right to organize. A two-prong strategy was formulated to achieve the aim: to double lobbying efforts and build up capacity for unionized workers.

The IWFM president Ma Khaing Zar Aung complained that numerous union leaders were dismissed by their employers before they received registration certificates from the government. Owing to shortcomings in the current Labour Organization Law of 2011, union leaders’ right to organize is not protected until a trade union is officially registered.

“We must eliminate anti-union discrimination. IWFM is working closely with the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM) to present our proposed amendments to the government, including the protection of union leaders in the process of forming a union.
“The Myanmar parliament passed the Settlement of Labour Dispute Law 2012 (Amendment) in May 2019, which increased the penalty for unfair labour practice from 1 million kyat (US $656.5) to 10 million kyat (US $6565). The government will impose a penalty on employers if they failed to present at the Dispute Settlement Arbitration Council,”

said Khaing Zar.

President of CTUM Maung Maung said the confederation has been actively lobbying government leaders to reform the labour laws. There have been some successes, but not 100 per cent. He was dissatisfied that civil servants were excluded from the mechanism, but nevertheless glad that individual worker dispute has been included in the conciliation process.

“We are here today to assess the successes and challenges of our two affiliates IWFM and MWFM. We recognise the difficulties and review our strategies from time to time to overcome it,”

said Annie Adviento, the regional secretary of IndustriALL Southeast Asia Office.

Project sponsors FES, FNV and SASK, including Finnish Trade Union Pro, also participated in the meeting.

Young unionists hold second international exchange in Brazil

The second year of the International Youth Exchange and Training Project of IndustriALL Global Union and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) felt like a genuine reunion. Having held their previous meeting in Argentina in 2018, the participants held their next exchange week with enthusiasm on 27 to 31 May in Curitiba, Brazil.

The young Brazilians started to prepared the content and the presentations of the educational materials a month before. They started with a mystica – an artistic performance – about resistance, doing a live performance with music.

Before the sessions, the hosts presented relevant characters illustrating different struggles experienced by Brazilian people: former President Lula da Silva, Marielle, Dandara, Paulo Freire and Dorothy Stang.

They presented the history of the trade union movement in Brazil, the structure of trade union organizations, as well as the characteristics of negotiating and collective bargaining. The objective is that at the end of the three-year project, the participants will be able to compare union density in each country.

The main speakers were the young participants from Brazil, but they also but they also invited activists and specialists in education, gender, communication and research. A whole afternoon was spent debating with Brazilian social movement representatives, all women. Although they are different, they walk together for more social justice in this vast country.

The moment of greatest emotion and convergence of international solidarity was the visit to the #LulaLivre vigil organized just a few metres from the prison where ex-president of Brazil, Lula, is unjustly detained. The young leaders marched to the place where numerous social and union organizations meet to greet Lula three times a day and demand his release.

On his 417th day of incarceration, participants shouted their "good afternoon" in three languages (Portuguese, Spanish and German) and wrote him a letter to let him know that young people all around the world support him.

After a week of numerous exchanges and debates, on the final day, each participant presented their union action plan or project, which would be implemented before the next meeting in 2020 in Germany.

The purpose of these plans is to organize and empower working youth, and to respond to the challenges faced by young people in their countries.

Among other things, the participants proposed training courses to organize young workers, international educational exchange programs for young people from Germany and Argentina, workshops for young people on issues such as addictions, workshops on rights for young pregnant women and congresses for young women.

They also presented communication projects and campaigns against violence at the workplace, research and assessment projects about young people in Brazil, sports meetings for young people to attract them to the union and strategies to form youth committees in the unions.

“This exchange and training programme empowers young people so that they can act to renew and strengthen their unions. We focus on union practice and action. The commitments they all took on are inspiring,”

said IndustriALL youth and project officer Sarah Flores.

Photos from the week of exchange are in the photo gallery:

Historic opportunity for an ILO Convention on violence at work

The trade union movement has long campaigned for a strong and binding international instrument to fight violence and harassment at work. IndustriALL believes that it is now time for governments and employers to play their part in making this new international standard a reality.

During the discussion in the Standard Setting Committee at the ILC, the government, employers’ and workers’ groups will negotiate over a period of nine days a proposed text for both a Convention and recommendation on violence and harassment in the world of work. At the end of the ILC, the governments will vote on the adoption of these instruments.

Jenny Holdcroft, IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary, said:

“A new Convention is an historic opportunity to fill the gap in the protection of millions of workers, especially women workers. We should not miss it. No worker should be left unprotected.”

Trade unions are calling for the adoption of a strong, ambitious and progressive binding international standard. For two years, IndustriALL and its affiliates – along with the trade union movement around the world – have campaigned for this Convention to be adopted by the ILO this year.

Some employers have already taken up their responsibilities: ahead of the negotiations, companies including l’Oréal, Kering, Sodexo, ASOS, H&M, BNP Paribas, Avon, Diageo, M&S and Unilever, Tchibo and Esprit have made a public statement or have addressed a letter to the International Organisation of Employers to express their support for the Convention. Other companies have lobbied their national employer associations and governments in support of the adoption of a binding text.

IndustriALL calls on its affiliates to continue to voice their support for this Convention. It is time for trade unions to mobilize and put pressure on governments and employers during the next two weeks of negotiation.

Unions can post stories, quotes and pictures on social media that highlight the need and support for an ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, using the hashtags #StopGBVatWork, #ILOendGBV and #ALLWomen.

Stora Enso GFA committee plans sustainable future

The parties to the GFA commit to an ongoing dialogue, and will meet once every two years to monitor the implementation of the agreement in the company. The committee brings together the three global unions, plus three national unions, Paperiliitto of Finland, and Pappers and GS Facket of Sweden. The steering committee of the Stora Enso European Works Council is another important part of the committee.

Stora Enso is committed to building a sustainable company, and the GFA is an important aspect of this strategy. Their policy sees sustainability as having three interlocking areas: environmental, economic and social. The company believes that a strong ethical approach gives them a competitive edge in the market. Consumers are becoming more aware and demanding when it comes to environmental and social behaviour.

The company is at the forefront of industrial change to environmentally sustainable production based on renewable technologies. Stora Enso aspires to develop solutions to make everything that is made with fossil fuels today out of trees in the future. That includes cars, planes, plastic bottles, solar panels and even skyscrapers.

The Stora Enso management presented the committee with their ongoing work in the specific areas of safety, working conditions, ethics, responsible sourcing and overall corporate development. The committee analysed ways in which union involvement could be increased in these different areas of work, and these discussions will be ongoing.

Malin Bendz, executive vice president of human resources in Stora Enso, stated:

“The GFA is part of everything we do. It fits with our beliefs, what we try to be as a company. We have a partnership and we explore how we can work together to make us stronger.”

Tom Grinter, pulp and paper sector director at IndustriALL said:

“Stora Enso are doing a lot of things well. One priority for our union reps at the company is to improve union consultation and involvement in the various ethical initiatives that Stora Enso is doing. This company’s importance will continue to grow, and our GFA dialogue will accompany that growth.”

Tenaris Brazil reverses dismissals after strike

Workers from both the morning and afternoon shifts took part in the strike, leading to a complete shutdown of the firm's production line on 21 May. The workers are members of the Union of Metalworkers of Pindamonhangaba, Moreira Cesar and Roseira, which is affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union through the national confederation of metalworkers (CNM-CUT).

Following the strike, Tenaris management agreed to negotiate an alternative for the dismissed workers, as well as 200 workers in the production sector they say they no longer need. It is possible that Tenaris will seek to bring in some kind of voluntary redundancy plan.

The union also says that five of the 25 workers who were fired on 17 May had been injured as a result of workplace safety issues and their dismissals were irregular. The company initially said that it would not negotiate any alternatives with the union, prompting members to go on strike.

The union asserted the lay-offs were not the only option and said it would do whatever it could to safeguard the workers' rights and find an alternative.

In November 2018, the firm announced that it would potentially have to dismiss large numbers of workers. The union then threatened to hold a strike and managed to negotiate temporary lay-offs for 165 workers.

"We're extremely relieved that the company reversed last week’s dismissals and agreed to negotiate. It's a very delicate situation, because we won't be able to negotiate any more temporary lay-offs. Back in November, we tried to discuss the possibility of some kind of voluntary redundancy plan, but the firm refused. But we can still bring that back to the table, so we have made significant progress here at Tenaris Confab," said the union's chairman, Herivelto Vela.

IndustriALL's general secretary, Valter Sanches, stated that:

"Tenaris is involved in anti-union practices all around the world and fails to comply with employment standards, especially in Guatemala and Colombia. We support the workers at Tenaris Confab and members of the CNM-CUT in their struggle and are pleased that their strike action has led to the dismissals being suspended.”

IndustriALL files complaint against Tokyo 2020 Olympic partner, Mitsubishi Electric

Mitsubishi Electric, an official partner of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is contravening the Fundamental Principles of the Games’ Sustainable Sourcing Code, through violations of core ILO Labour Standards at its subsidiary, Mitsubishi Electric Consumer Products Thailand.

Mitsubishi Electric’s Thai subsidiary has subjected workers to degrading and humiliating treatment, locked-out union members, forced workers to sign a document denouncing their union, and disobeyed a ruling by Thailand’s Labour Relation Committee (LRC) to reinstate union members.

The LRC has described Mitsubishi Electric Consumer Products behaviour as “vengeful” towards the union and found that the company violated Thai labour legislation on anti-union discrimination.

Mitsubishi Electric Labour Union Thailand, which represents the workers intimidated and harassed by the company, is affiliated to IndustriALL through the Confederation of Thai Electric Appliances, Electronics, Automotive, and Metal Workers (TEAM) and the Thailand Electronics and Electrical Appliances Workers' Federation (TEEF).

Twenty-three of the union’s members have been laid off at the plant in Chonburi province, while 27 others, including the former union president Cherd and vice president Thanaphat, have been locked out.

Among several violations, the company forced union leaders and 400 locked-out union members to: attend a four-day camp at a military base to “learn discipline and order”; undergo five days of training by an external human resources firm, where they were expected to “reflect on their wrong doing”; perform one day of cleaning old people’s homes to “earn merit”; and spend three days at a Buddhist temple, with no regard for their religious beliefs. The workers were also made to post apologies to the company on their personal social media accounts.

Mitsubishi workers in Thailand were made to attend a 4-day military camp.

IndustriALL has written to Mitsubishi Electric Consumer Products three times since the dispute began in December 2017, urging the company to reinstate and call back the locked-out workers, but has received no response.

“Mitsubishi Electric, as an official partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, has a responsibility to intervene and stop the violation of workers’ rights at its Thai subsidiary, and immediately end acts of intimidation and harassment aimed at weakening the power of the union,” says IndustriALL general secretary, Valter Sanches. “We expect the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to develop an appropriate solution with Mitsubishi to end the contravention of the fundamental principles of the Sourcing Code at Mitsubishi Electric Consumer Products in Thailand.

“IndustriALL wishes the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 to be a real celebration of global diversity, tolerance and peace, that also reward real champions of corporate social responsibility and respect for workers’ rights.”

South African unions optimistic after election of new government

In his inauguration speech, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said that under his administration the government will promote policies that create decent work and skills development especially for young people, empower women, fight corruption and end poverty in a generation.

President Ramaphosa cited the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a provider of new jobs, especially for young workers. Further, he said that during his tenure South African society will be guided by equality and solidarity and that he will promote a social compact between business and labour.

Additionally, sustainable economic development will be promoted “for productive lands and viable communities, for knowledge, for innovation, and for services that are affordable, accessible and sustainable.” Companies will be asked to “generate social value and propel human development.”

Said IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union:

“Growth and development of our manufacturing industry remains crucial for South Africa’s future overall economic well-being. We cannot be a country of raw material exporters and importers of finished goods, if we are to decisively address the triple crises of unemployment, inequality and poverty. The industrialization and beneficiation of our economy is key.”
“We especially appreciate the appointment of Minister Ebrahim Patel as Trade and Industry Minister. It bodes well for the future of the clothing, textile, leather and footwear sectors, and for the fast-tracked development of the manufacturing industry in general.”

Said Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:

“We welcome the announcements by President Ramaphosa, especially the appointment of more women to the cabinet which led to the achievement of a 50/50 gender parity. Further, we expect that the announcements will result in the creation of decent jobs and living wages.”

The South African economic outlook is bleak. According to Statistics South Africa unemployment is high at 27.6 per cent and is even higher as seen in the extended rate of over 37 per cent — which includes discouraged job seekers who have stopped looking for work. Thousands of jobs are also being lost in the mines when operations are closed. But unions are optimistic that the government will turn things around and will continue their jobs and living wages campaigns as strategies to reduce inequality.

Malaysian union signs tenth collective agreement with Denso

After almost a year of marathon bargaining, NUTEAIW successfully negotiated a wage increment of 8.5 per cent for 950 union members. The collective agreement also covers other benefits such as meal allowance for overtime, canteen food subsidy and medical benefit for employees and immediate family members.

“This is a meaningful moment because it marks the tenth collective agreement over a span of thirty years. However, we witness widening inequality over the same period of time, labour share of income per GDP remains low at 35.2 per cent. Therefore, wealth of companies should be shared with workers,”

said Gopal Kishnam, general secretary of NUTEAIW.

In the last financial year, the Denso group of companies generated US $48.3 billion in revenue and US $2.8 billion in profit globally. For its operation in the Asia region, the total revenue increased 7.1 per cent to US $12.8 billion, while its operating profit decreased 6.1 percent to US $1.157 million.

The managing director of Denso Malaysia, Tomoya Nakamura, said that he committed to improving the welfare of workers and sustainable development goals despite the company facing various challenges, with the business environment becoming very competitive and severe.

Gopal added that Malaysian trade unions were looking at reforming labour laws. One proposal was to shorten the working hours to ensure workers’ physical and mental health. He urged employers to create a conducive working environment with reduced working hours.