ICEM Contract and Agency labour Conference

Contract and Agency Labour, a global phenomenon …

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.

What has been changing primarily are the previous “normal” relationships between employers and workers. For a large segment of the world’s workforce, this relationship has become one of a ‘much lesser’ quality. For many others, such the increasing contingent of “self-employed” 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 – which, in most cases, means a unionised, but also permanent – workforce. It is possibly one of the best arguments against CAL labour, and certainly one that unions should make.

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 “seven-headed monster” 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.

….throughout all regions and continents…

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’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’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.

Migrants were frequently mentioned as another category of workers confronted with the worst excesses of CAL. In numerous countries, migrants have to combine two – or even three – 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 ‘permatemps’ was mentioned - a problem by no means limited to this region.

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’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 “more traditionally outsourced” 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.

… not all is bad, however ….

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 – where it helped that the Lula government was supportive – the Petrobras CAL ratio is 1 permanent Petrobras worker for every 1.5 CAL worker.

In Chile, a new law, ”Ley 20123”, 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.

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 – another example of a country with a new government – 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.

From Finland came the example of how a campaign on a Taiwanese company failed as the union didn’t take the 40% CAL workers into account, and, as a result, didn’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.

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’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.

… some conclusions …

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’ 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.

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 – 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 – by many the preferred option – simply bringing CAL workers into the normal union structures, is seen as a very important and needed accomplishment.