17 June, 2009At a side event to the International Labour Conference, unions showed how precarious workers are being systematically denied their rights to organize and bargain collectively.
GENEVA: The International Metalworkers' Federation joined with other global unions to organize a special forum during the International Labour Conference (ILC) to draw delegates' attention to the many abuses of labour rights suffered by precarious workers.
Shin Seung-Chul, General Secretary of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions described how dispatch workers in Korea are prevented from joining a union and bargaining with their employer. Chair of the Korean Metal Workers' Union's Kiryung Branch, Kim So-Yun, then updated delegates on the situation in Kiryung Electronics where precarious workers have been on strike now for over 1400 days in a protracted, and at times violent, struggle for regular employment status.
The experiences in Korea are typical of how companies are acting throughout the world to evade their responsibilities as employers and pass risks onto workers. Jenny Holdcroft of IMF explained how IMF affiliates see the explosion of precarious work as a devastating threat to wages and working conditions as it undermines workers' rights to join a union and bargain collectively. She also briefed delegates on steps the global unions have taken to insist that the ILO give greater recognition to the situation of precarious workers in its work, including application of labour standards.
Kirill Buketov of the IUF gave a further illustration of the damage wrought by this trend by presenting the employment practices of food multinational Unilever. In factories producing Lipton Tea, up to 100% of the workforce are now casual or daily hire workers and have no right to join the union, nor to medical benefits, sick leave or annual leave.
Jim Baker, Coordinator of the Council of Global Unions summed up the presentations by saying ''This is a key issue which will undermine or even destroy the ILO if it is not reversed."
The ILC delegates present expressed their support for an increased focus on the rights of precarious workers and there was consensus on the need for the ILO to take stock of how Conventions 87 and 98 on the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining can be effectively applied in an employment environment dominated by precarious work.