Top brands including H&M, Zara to boycott Bangladesh garment summit

Yahoo - AFP, February 22, 2017

H&M, C&A, Tchibo and Inditex which owns Zara -- all top clients of Bangladesh's
$30-billion garment industry -- have pulled out of the Dhaka Apparel Summit

Leading fashion brands including H&M and Zara will boycott a key industry conference in Bangladesh in support of garment workers who have been sacked, hunted or jailed for participating in wage strikes, the companies said Wednesday.

H&M, C&A, Tchibo and Inditex which owns Zara -- all top clients of Bangladesh's $30-billion garment industry -- have pulled out of the Dhaka Apparel Summit, the signature annual event in the global textile hub, scheduled for Saturday.

The move follows strikes in December when tens of thousands of garment workers in the industrial town of Ashualia staged mass protests demanding a three-fold hike in pay, which can run as low as $68 a month.

Dutch clothing brand C&A said, "C&A together with other apparel brands, including H&M and Inditex decided not to participate in the BGMEA Dhaka Apparel Summit."

"We strongly encourage the Government of Bangladesh to take immediate steps to ensure the protection of the workers' rights, with special attention to the legitimate representatives of the workers who have been arrested," C&A spokesman Thorsten Rolfes told AFP.

A spokesman for Swedish apparel giant H&M confirmed the boycott.

"H&M believes that attending the Dhaka Apparel Summit would create confusion and send the wrong signals regarding our commitment to freedom of association and that the ongoing situation must be peacefully resolved," spokesman Iñigo Sáenz Maestre said.

The strike, which lasted for a little over two weeks, was squashed, with some 1,600 employees sacked and 34 arrested, while cases alleging burglary, arson, vandalism and extortion, among other charges, were filed against more than 1,500 workers.

Last week union leaders said the workers were "living in constant fear of being arrested as the police hunt those who were involved in the strikes".

The summit is hosted by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), an industry body that represents the country's 4,500 clothing factories, and features Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as its keynote speaker.

BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman told AFP that they "did not get any communication from any brand not attending the summit".

International rights group Clean Clothes Campaign welcomed the brands' decision to withdraw participation and said it would be "a major embarrassment" for the government and the organisers.

CCC spokeswoman Mirjam van Heugten said, "Unless all detainees are released, unsubstantiated charges are dropped, and other acts of intimidation and harassment of trade unions are stopped... (the brands) cannot credibly participate in a summit on "sustainable growth" of the industry."

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Indonesian Poor to Receive Rp 14 Trillion in Aid Ahead of Fuel Hike

EU launches debit cards for refugees in Turkey

Yahoo – AFP, September 26, 2016

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos
 Stylianides (L) delivers a speech next to Turkey’s EU Minister Omer Celik (R)
during a joint press conference following their meeting on September 26, 2016
(AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

Ankara (AFP) - The European Union on Monday launched a scheme worth almost 350 million euros providing mainly Syrian refugees in Turkey with pre-paid debit cards, the biggest project yet under a landmark deal between the bloc and Ankara.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides, in Ankara for the start of the programme, said the debit cards will help give vulnerable refugees a "sense of normality" in their lives.

The refugees will be able to use the cards in shops or institutions to pay for food, education, housing and clothing or also to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Each card will be automatically topped up with 100 Turkish lira ($33.50) a month, giving people the chance to choose their own purchases.

Stylianides said the programme was an "unprecedented response" to an "unprecedented crisis".

"This (scheme) is, in our humanitarian field, a game-changer in the delivery of humanitarian aid. Refugees can choose what they spend money on."

Turkey is home to some three million refugees, most of them Syrian. The vast majority live in cities without direct support from non-governmental organisations and aid groups.

Supported with 348 million euros ($392 million) from Brussels and its member states, the scheme will be rolled out by Turkish Red Crescent and the UN World Food Programme supported by the Turkish authorities.

Applications will start in October for the scheme. Families who have children going to school will receive more cash. All refugees registered in Turkey, including Iraqis, are eligible to apply.

Stylianides suggested that the programme would also benefit Turks.

"The money will be spent in local shops, boosting local businesses and encouraging social cohesion between citizens and refugees."

The project is part of a six billion euro ($6.75 billion) deal struck in March between Brussels and Ankara to curb the migrant influx into Europe, which saw more than a million arrive in the EU last year.

There have been fears the deal could collapse with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complaining that the promised money was not handed directly to Turkey.

In exchange for cutting the flow, Brussels also offered Turkey visa liberalisation for its citizens to visit EU countries in the Schengen area as well as accelerated membership talks.

But Ankara has threatened to withdraw from the agreement if Europe does not allow visa-free travel for Turks by next month, though the numbers coming to Europe have dropped significantly since March.

Higher wages in store for foreign caregivers in Taiwan

Want China Times, CNA 2015-08-30

Foreign caregivers at a park in Taipei, March 30. (Photo/Fang Chun-che)

Foreign caregivers planning to work in Taiwan will receive a monthly wage of NT$17,000 (US$525) beginning on Sept. 1, the country's labor minister Chen Hsiung-wen announced on Friday.

That represents an increase of NT$1,160 (US$35), or 7.32%, from the current monthly wage of NT$15,840 (US$490), which has been the fixed rate for the past 18 years.

In contrast to the minimum monthly wage of NT$20,008 (US$617.34) for workers in Taiwan, which has increased 26% during the period, Chen said the 7.32% raise was reasonable.

Foreign nationals working as domestic caregivers in Taiwan are not covered under Taiwan's Labor Standards Act and therefore not entitled to the statutory minimum wage.

The higher monthly wage will only be applied, however, to new applicants from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and not to those already working in Taiwan.

With the monthly pay for migrant domestic helpers in Hong Kong and Macau at NT$16,530 (US$510), Taiwan hopes that the wage increase can attract quality domestic helpers to work in the country, Chen said, after a meeting with officials from the four Southeast Asian countries earlier in the day.

Indonesia and the Philippines, the two countries that provide the most migrant domestic helpers in Taiwan, have pressed Taiwan for months to increase the wages for their workers to NT$17,500 (US$540) per month, and have been holding back new workers from employers unwilling to pay that amount.

It was not immediately clear if the new wage settled the differences between Taiwan and the two countries.

But Agusdin Subiantoro, deputy director of Indonesia's National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, told CNA on Thursday that Indonesia and Taiwan had reached the agreement to increase migrant caregivers' pay to NT$17,000 (US$525) after rounds of negotiations.

Groups of manpower brokers called for the ministry on Friday afternoon to require incoming migrant workers to have HIV/AIDS testing and pregnancy tests done.

But the Labor Ministry said that considering international human rights conventions and workplace gender equality, those tests should not be requirements for those workers.

Related Article:

Indonesia Proposes 50% Salary Hike for Migrant Maids in Malaysia

Indonesia Proposes 50% Salary Hike for Migrant Maids in Malaysia

Jakarta Globe, May 31, 2015

Women training to be domestic workers abroad take part in an infant care exercise
at a training center in Semarang, Central Java. (JG Photo/Dhana Kencana)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government is proposing a 50 percent increase in the minimum wage for its citizens employed as domestic workers in Malaysia.

Hermono, the charge d’affaires at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, said his office had submitted the proposal to the Malaysian government, where it will be discussed at an upcoming cabinet meeting.

The Indonesian government is seeking an increase of the monthly minimum wage from the current 800 ringgit ($219) to 1,200 ringgit.

“This is indeed our proposal. Malaysia has determined that it will be brought to a cabinet meeting. Now we are waiting for Malaysia’s response,” Hermono said as quoted by news portal Detik.com.

There are an estimated two million Indonesians in Malaysia, employed mostly as domestic workers or manual laborers.

Hong Kong's domestic workers 'treated worse than the dogs'

Many of the hundreds of thousands of migrant domestic workers looking for a better life in Hong Kong end up exposed to abuse at the hands of their employers. Zigor Aldama reports with three women's stories.

Deutsche Welle, 8 Mar 2015

Kamsiah (pictured above) was one of the 334,000 foreign domestic workers registered in Hong Kong. She is also one of the many who have suffered abuses at work. At 41, she left her hometown in Indonesia to work her way to a better life. However, she found herself in a nightmare.

"This is the second time I have worked in Hong Kong, and with my previous employers I had no problems," she said. "But this family treated me worse than their five dogs."

Kamsiah said she had to sleep with the animals and was barely fed with a daily bowl of rice with some vegetables. The pets, however, received all kinds of care from five o'clock in the morning.

"I had to get up at that hour to walk them," she said. "Then I would prepare breakfast, clean the house, do laundry, make lunch, do shopping, hang and iron the clothes, cook dinner, and then the lady would ask me to give her massages until the wee hours of the morning."

No money, no passport, no options

All that for a meager HK$3,920 ($500, 466 euros) a month, from which she had to foot the HK$2,543 fee the agency charged her during her first six months on the job.

Without passports or money, there are few places foreign workers
can go to escape abusive employers

"I escaped because they made me sign my paycheck, but refused to give me the money," she said. "I could not take it anymore."

It was almost midnight when Kamsiah took refuge in a McDonald's, one of the few places open 24 hours. "I had no money or documents because the passport was being held by the agency. I desperately waited until another Indonesian appeared," she said. "She told me about an NGO that provides assistance to domestic helpers and I went to them."

But her difficulties had only just begun as she was later arrested by the police. The family that had employed her accused her of stealing a wallet containing HK$7,300. Now, after proving her innocence, Kamsiah has filed a lawsuit for labor exploitation against her former employers.

She's not the only one. Until recently this situation went unnoticed to most Hong Kong citizens, but a particularly violent case has brought it out of the shadows. In January last year, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih showed that Kamsiah's was not an isolated case.

Case reopens debate in Hong Kong

Also an Indonesian, Sulistyaningsih was taken to the airport by her employers and forced to return to her country with just 100,000 Indonesian rupiah (around $8) in her pockets. "Do not even think about saying anything of what has happened in Hong Kong, because we will kill your parents!" they threatened.

With one day off per week, many foreign workers gather to meet in Hong Kong parks

Immigration officials let her leave without asking any questions - despite her broken nose, several missing teeth and bruises all over her body. Upon her arrival, doctors in Indonesia ordered her immediate admission to a hospital where they discovered that she had suffered brain damage due to repeated blows to the head.

On February 10, a Hong Kong court found her employer, Law Wan-tung, guilty of 18 separate charges of abuse, for which she will serve six years in prison. This case reopened the debate on the employment and living conditions faced by foreign domestic workers.

Protection laws go unenforced

"The problem is that the law itself discriminates against migrants working as maids in Hong Kong," said Mabel Au, Amnesty International's China director. "First there is the obligation of living with those who employ them, and, secondly, a rule stipulating that if they do not get a job in the two weeks following the termination of their previous contract they should leave the city. But the worst is that laws theoretically passed to protect these women from abuse are not implemented."

Au said an intricate web of mafia-like organizations profit from those women thanks to a lack of supervision by government authorities.

Grace said she didn't see any options other than signing a work contract

Labor exploitation starts when workers have to sink themselves in debt to pay large amounts of money to agents and continues when they arrive in Hong Kong where, by law, agencies arranging employment for them can only charge 10 percent of the first month's salary as service fee. That's about HK$401.

"In fact, the amount ends up being much higher," Au said. "Most of the girls are scared and have little information about legal formalities. They sign their contracts in a language they don't understand - Chinese and English - and have no idea how the sector works."

Left with nothing but debts

Such practices, Au added, mean the foreign workers are often paid less than the minimum wage and unable to report how they are ripped off by agencies and employers. The workers' passports are also confiscated upon arrival "leaving them vulnerable and fully exposed to abuse."

Grace knows that well. Originally from the Philippines, she signed a labor contract to work in Hong Kong but her employer's family sent her illegally to Dalian, in northeastern China. Without her passport and unable to speak any Chinese, she didn't know what to do, so she signed a work contract. After having worked there for a while, the employers refused to pay her and sent her back to Hong Kong with just 200 RMB ($32, 30 euros) in hand.

She has filed a lawsuit against the family who employed her, but said she's not very optimistic about the outcome. Grace said doesn't think she will be able to pay the 40,000 pesos ($903, 832 euro) in debts she contracted in the Philippines with the employment agency.

Indonesia to gradually stop sending domestic workers to abroad

Want China Times, CNA 2015-02-28

An Indonesia domestic worker and the elderly man she cares for at a
Chinese New Year event, Feb. 8. (File photo/Yang Han-sheng)

Indonesia plans to begin measures to stop sending domestic workers to Taiwan in 2017, as the Southeast Asian country is moving forward with a plan to stop sending domestic workers abroad in an effort to protect the country's dignity, according to an Indonesian official.

To move forward with President Joko Widodo's policy of preventing any more Indonesians from working abroad as domestic workers, Nusron Wahid–head of the Agency of Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers–said his country will stop sending domestic workers to the Middle East, starting this year, as the first step.

From 2017, it will gradually stop sending domestic workers to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau and other countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, he said Wednesday during an interview with Indonesian media Liputan6.com.

Rather than sending domestic workers overseas, he said, Indonesia will begin exporting trained and skilled workers. To that end, he said, his government is preparing to provide training programs to help give them skills.

He said he believes this policy will help Indonesian migrant workers get better salaries.

He was appointed after Widodo was inaugurated as Indonesia's new president in October.

The new government has made improving the rights and benefits of migrant workers and their overall working conditions one of its top administrative priorities.

During an interview with CNA in December, the official said he understands Taiwan's need for domestic helpers from Indonesia and suggested a solution to maintain the flow of workers in informal sectors.

Taiwan should comprehensively raise wages for Indonesian domestic helpers based on its own minimum wage regulations, and work hours should be limited to a level consistent with local law, he said, adding that domestic helpers should not live under the same roof as their employers but should be housed in dormitories.

Related Articles:

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Hong Kong woman gets six-year sentence for abusing maid

Hundreds of Indonesian Migrant Workers Repatriated

Jakarta Globe, Jan 19, 2015

There were 4.3 million Indonesians working abroad in 2012, according to official
data from the BNP2TKI. The majority are woman. (EPA Photo/Mast Irham)

Jakarta. More than 480 Indonesians who were living or working in Saudi Arabia without the correct documentation have arrived home.

The 482 Indonesians, 64 of whom were children under 12, were welcomed back into the country on Monday.

Nusron Wahid, head of Indonesia’s migrant workers agency, or BNP2TKI, said the arrival was the first phase of President Joko Widodo’s plan to repatriate migrant workers stranded abroad.

The majority of the migrants were overstayers that had left six to ten years ago, Nusron said in a statement. Most had encountered administrative problems or run away from their patrons.

There were 4.3 million Indonesians working abroad in 2012, according to official data from the BNP2TKI. The real figure, however, was estimated to be at least double that — and perhaps as much as four times as high — according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are the most popular destinations.

Nusron said the government would provide work and entrepreneurship training for the workers, but promised to help them if they decided to return.

“We’re now trying to make a new contract with the Saudi Arabian government that includes a new minimum wage and new protection scheme,” he said. “We also offer help for those who want to come home.

“We already have a budget to give them protection as well as development in the food industry, creative industry, and tourism.”

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Basuki Rejects Request to Delay New Minimum Wage

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, Jan 05, 2015

Jakarta. Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has rejected a request from 27 South Korean companies that they be exempt from immediately implementing Jakarta’s 2015 minimum wage.

Basuki on Monday said there would be no delay in implementing the new provincial wage of Rp 2.7 million ($219) a month.

“We rejected the motion because I refuse to be ordered around,” the governor said.

He added that if foreign companies did not want to comply with regulations they could move elsewhere.

“They could move to Majalengka [in West Java] the provincial minimum wage is still cheap there.”

Basuki said the companies — who are all garment manufacturers based in Cilincing, North Jakarta — had made similar requests in the past, despite the fact wages were based on the capital’s Decent Living Index, or KHL.

The KHL is used to define the minimum amount needed to sustain a “decent” quality of life in the capital.

The head of Jakarta’s Manpower and Transmigration Agency, Priyono, said all companies that wanted a delay had to go through the correct procedure.

An exemption could only be granted with a recommendation from the wage council, after a review of a company’s finances, he said.

Joko Sets Jakarta Minimum Wage at Rp 2.4m

Jakarta Globe, Arientha Primanita, SP/Deti Mega Purnamasari & Lenny Tristia Tambun, November 1, 2013

Workers protest at an industrial area in Jakarta as part of a nationwide strike
over wages on Oct. 31. (EPA Photo)

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo on Friday set the capital’s minimum wage for 2014 at Rp 2.4 million ($213) per month, a far cry from the Rp 3.7 million previously demanded by the city’s workers.

“The [wage] has been decided at Rp 2,441,301.74,” Joko told reporters at City Hall. “That is the agreement, and I have signed it.”

He said that he agreed on the new minimum wage after balancing the country’s economic growth with the cost of living for its low-paid workers. The increase will, however, be wiped out in real terms by inflation.

On Thursday, the Jakarta Wage Council — a body made up of city administrators, employers and workers — held a meeting and proposed two options for the 2014 wage. Employers suggested Rp 2,299,860.33, while city administration officials suggested Rp. 2,441,301.74. Afterwards they forwarded both recommendations to Joko in order for him to determine the best option.

The new figure represents a 10 percent increase from last year’s minimum wage, which was set at Rp 2.2 million. The number, though, is still far lower than the Rp 3.7 million the nation’s laborers had been calling for widespread during strikes on Thursday and Friday.

Regarding his decision, Joko said he is ready to face protests and potential legal suits filed against him by labor unions.

“Last year we increased the wage nearly 50 percent and I was still protested,” Joko said. “I think all decisions have risks. Whatever that is, we have made a decision based on the wage council meeting.”

The workers representatives, however, did not attend the meeting.

Once set, companies must oblige with the new wage based on the 2003 Law on Manpower.

Sarman Simanjorang, the deputy head of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said that employers will respect the city administration’s decision, even though many labor-intensive industries had requested no minimum wage increase for 2014.

“We will follow through with what the government has decided,” Sarman told the Jakarta Globe. “Maybe capital-intensive industries like service, banking and telecommunication sectors will not have any problems. But labor-intensive sectors such as the garment, textile and shoe industries — they will be affected. The increase is still normal.”

Companies that could not afford the increase, Sarman said, will ask the government for a postponement of the implementation based on their abilities to pay the workers.

He added that even though the workers did not attend the wage meeting, the new number will stand. Sarman referred to Presidential Instruction No. 9 on Minimum Wage, a regulation issued in 2013 which states that all provinces must announce a minimum wage on Nov. 1

Last year, when the 44 percent wage increase was determined, the employers did not attend the council meeting.

Meanwhile, Said Iqbal, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers (KSPI), said that the city’s unions rejected the new minimum wage.

“If Joko really approved that wage, that means that he does not side with the poor,” he told the Globe. “It means that he defends the employers’ interests.”

Said said the workers will file a legal suit to challenge the wage at the State Administrative Court (PTUN).

Meanwhile, thousands of workers from Jakarta, Bogor, Bekasi, Karawang, Purwakarta, Sukabumi, Semarang, Batam and Medan are set to continue their two-day strike on Friday. Some will still protest at industrial areas, while workers in Jakarta will concentrate their demonstrations at City Hall.

He added that workers in Bekasi will also protest at the National Police regarding the brawl they had with paramilitary youth organization Pemuda Pancasila that left eight people injured and 18 motorcycles destroyed in South Cikarang on Thursday morning.