Mobilising against

precarious work

International Metalworkers’ Federation

IMF survey results

• 90% said precarious work had increased

• Women, migrants and young workers are disproportionately affected

• Electronics is the main industry affected

• Two thirds said companies in their country were shifting from directly employing temporary workers to hiring them through agencies or brokers

• Wages are generally much less than for regular workers (one third said less than 50%)

• 90% said workers feel less secure

Precarious workers

Are effectively excluded from:• Union membership• Collective bargaining• Social insurances

Mobilising against precarious workGOALS:

•to stop the massive expansion of precarious work•To make wages and conditions of precarious workers equal to those of regular workers•To get workers directly hired and discourage indirect employment•To limit precarious employment to cases of legitimate need

IMF global campaign against precarious work

•Industrial

•Political

•International

Mobilising against precarious work1. Industrial

• Organising precarious workers• Using collective bargaining to limit precarious

work• Including precarious workers in collective

agreements to ensure equal wages and conditions

2. Legal/political• Resist legal reforms that facilitate precarious

work• Remove legal restrictions on rights of

precarious workers to join the same union• Make principal employer take responsibility for

precarious workers• Fight legislation that allows for expansion of

precarious work3. International• Lead global campaigns• Put pressure on ILO, OECD, IFIs

Precarious employment practices

• Direct hire on temporary labour contracts• Hiring in via employment agencies or labour brokers• Contracting out functions to other companies• Personal labour contracts as bogus 'self-employed'

workers• Abusive probationary periods• Disguised employment training contracts• On call / daily hire• Illegal or involuntary part-time work• Homeworking

Why don’t agency workers have bargaining rights?

• Triangular employment relationship– Who is the employer? Who do they bargain with?

• Legal barriers– Restrictions on agency workers from coverage under existing

agreements

• Deliberate employer strategy– To divide the workforce to prevent a collective approach– Many agencies may be present in a workplace

• Weak connection to the workplace– Employment is short term or sporadic, no guarantee of continuity

• Fear of job loss

What employment practices do companies use to resist unionisation and collective bargaining?

• Avoiding a permanent workforce all together and hiring only by way of agencies, brokers, contractors

• Threatening dismissal by not renewing fixed-term contracts combined with dangling promises of possible permanent work if workers “behave”

• Creating such poor conditions for non-permanent workers that high turnover and a constant churning of the workforce results

• Taking advantage of weak legal protections for precarious workers, or lack of enforcement

C.154 Collective Bargaining, Article 5(a) collective bargaining should be made possible for all employers and all groups of workers in the branches of activity covered by this Convention

C.98 Collective Bargaining, Article 4 Measures appropriate to national conditions shall be taken, where necessary, to encourage and promote the full development and utilisation of machinery for voluntary negotiation between employers or employers' organisations and workers' organisations, with a view to the regulation of terms and conditions of employment by means of collective agreements

C.181, Private Employment Agencies, Article 4 Measures shall be taken to ensure that the workers recruited by private employment agencies providing the services referred to in Article 1 are not denied the right to freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively

– What measures have been taken?– Who do the workers bargain with?

Enforcing ILO Conventions

Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies

• The first principle is that the primary form of employment shall be permanent, open-ended and direct

• The use of temporary agencies should be restricted to cases of legitimate need. As a minimum, there should be defined limits on the use of agency workers, as well as restrictions on the duration of such employment

GDF Suez International Framework Agreement

‘GDF SUEZ recognizes the importance of secure employment for both the individual and for society through a preference for permanent, open-ended and direct employment. GDF SUEZ and all sub-contractors … shall not seek to avoid obligations of the employer to dependent workers by disguising what would otherwise be an employment relationship or through the excessive use of temporary or agency labour.’

‘…this new technique of subterfuge has been adopted by some employers in recent years in order to deny the rights of the workmen under various labour statutes by showing that the workmen concerned are not their employees but are the employees of a contractor, or that they are merely daily wage or short-term or casual employees when in fact they are doing the work of regular employees. … Globalisation in the name of growth cannot be at the human cost of exploitation of workers.’

– Supreme Court of India, 2 September 2011

The legislative battle ground

• CIETT (and US Chamber of Commerce) lobbying ‘Agencies create jobs and contribute to decent work’

• EU Directive – the ‘Swedish derogation’

• Korea

• Malaysia

Unions fighting back

• Malaysia

• UK organising agency workers

• Korea unions proposing legislation

KMWU/IMF Complaint to ILO CFA against Korean government

• Subcontracting used to disguise employment relationships and deny workers their rights

• Legal mechanisms used to prevent organising in subcontracted companies and attempts to bargain on an industry basis

• Dismissal for union action disguised as termination of contracts

CFA recommendations include:• Develop mechanisms to strengthen the protection of

dispatch workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining

Legal Catch 22

•Anti-union discrimination is disguised as termination of contracts – employee freedom of association and bargaining rights are not protected

•Principal employer refuses to negotiate, claiming no employment relationship; subcontractor refuses to negotiate claiming no control of terms and conditions of employment

•Industrial action can only take place at principal employer’s plant and is treated as illegal action against a ‘third party’

Mobilising against precarious work

Global Action

September 30 – October 7 2008

65 affiliates from 43 countries

Mobilising against precarious work

Global Action

October 3-10 2009

2009 Actions

• 10 000 march in Bangkok• 15 000 trainees release balloons in Germany• Flash mobs in Hungary• 6 000 march in Bangkok• Joint GUF actions in Turkey and Thailand• Pickets in South Africa• Themed sports games in Bulgaria

Mobilising against precarious work

JAPAN: IMF-JC participates in a rally against precarious work.

Mobilising against precarious work

SOUTH KOREA: KMWU distributes leaflets about precarious work to workers at a bus station.