9 March, 2009
On 6 March, ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten hosted an international conference on decent work in Utrecht, The Netherlands, attended by 200 activists.
The main topic of the conference was how trade unions globally can work together to respond to and resist the increasing trend of using flexible, contract, and agency workers. The conference featured various speakers from different sectors and regions, discussing union strategies to combat this worrying trend.
As the basis of a now five-year campaign by the ICEM, many corporations throughout the world are increasingly employing workers on temporary contracts, and sometimes use fake employment agencies to avoid labour legislation. The ICEM has documented many instances in which employees remain on rolling, short-term contracts for many years, allowing management to skirt social responsibilities such as health care, welfare benefits, overtime pay, and liveable wages.
The practice of outsourcing allows companies to become extremely flexible in their planning, with improvements in their bottom financial line, while at the same heavily inflicting job security for workers.
Manfred Warda
In Utrecht on 6 March, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda chaired the panel discussion on “Flexibilisation: What can you do as a union?” that included Joseph Toe, ICEM regional coordinator for the Contract and Agency Labour campaign in sub-Saharan Africa. The specific case of Unilever workers in Pakistan was examined, which can be found here.
Practical examples of trade union approaches to Contract and Agency Labour were exchanged through workshops. Issues of health and safety brought about by the increased trend were discussed, as well as concrete future steps in the continued fight for decent work.