THAILAND:::Thailand to accept ILO convention on workplace safety

BANGKOK, 29 June 2015 (NNT) - Thailand is ready to implement the International Labour Office’s Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention as a national agenda, says the DLPW’s Director-General. 

MALAYSIA:::MTUC wants govt to freeze recruitment of foreign workers

 The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) today called on the government to freeze the recruitment of foreign workers for a period of two years to avoid dumping of foreign workers in the country.

MTUC president Mohd Khalid Atan said this was because the influx of foreign workers would have an impact on Malaysian society, not only in terms of economy, but also in terms of social problems.

“Malaysia has an estimated seven million foreign workers, but only 2.2 million are hired legally. This is an alarming figure and by increasing the recruitment of foreign workers, the government will neither be able to control nor monitor the overall situation,” he told Bernama today.

MALAYSIA:::MTUC gesa beku ambil pekerja asing dalam 2 tahun

KUALA LUMPUR - Kongres Kesatuan Sekerja Malaysia (MTUC) menggesa kerajaan untuk membekukan pengambilan pekerja warga asing untuk tempoh dua tahun bagi mengawal lambakan pekerja asing di negara ini.

Presiden MTUC Mohd Khalid Atan berkata dengan membawa masuk pekerja asing ini, ia akan memberi impak terhadap masyarakat Malaysia bukan hanya dari segi ekonomi tetapi akan melibatkan masalah sosial.

"Dianggarkan Malaysia mempunyai tujuh juta pekerja asing, dan hanya 2.2 juta sahaja yang bekerja secara sah. Ini suatu angka yang merisaukan kerana pertambahan pengambilan pekerja asing ini akan menyebabkan kerajaan tidak dapat mengawal secara menyeluruh masalah ini," katanya ketika dihubungi Bernama hari ini. 

:MALAYSIA:::MTUC HQ LABOUR BULLETIN MAY 2015

MTUC HQ LABOUR BULLETIN MAY 2015

INDONESIA:::BURUH VOKSEL DIHAJAR PREMAN

Buruh Voksel yang sedang menuntut hak-haknya kepada pengusahanya, malah dihadapkan dengan preman, dan yang lebih menyakitkan Polisi hanya diam saja ketika melihat segerombolan preman membawa alat-alat pemukul dan mulai menyerang buruh yang sedang berunjuk rasa. Ada korban dalam aksi penyerangan tersebut. Polisi itu pengayom masyarakat, ketika melihat adanya gejala akan terjadinya kekerasan, mereka harusnya menjaga supaya tidak terjadi kekerasan tersebut. Polisi telah melakukan pembiaran aksi kekerasan terjadi di depan matanya. Apakah ini potret polisi Indonesia? Apakah pantas mereka menyandang nama Pengayom Masyarakat?

Malaysia: MTUC denounces SFI judicial review against Mohr order

The Kota Kinabalu High Court today set 26 June to hear the judicial review filed by Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) against an order from the Human Resources Ministry to recognise the Sabah Timber Industries Employees Union (STIEU). This was conveyed to STIEU representatives by their Solicitor DB Aludah.

At yesterday’s press conference held by the Malaysian Trades Union Congress Sabah Division on the matter, MTUC Sabah Chairperson Awang Ali said, “This judicial review is disappointing as STIEU has won the secret ballot elections; yet the employer, dissatisfied with the results, brought the case to court even though the Human Resources Minister had ordered the employer to recognise the union.” Awang was referring to STIEU’s 2010 secret ballot results following its third claim for recognition, which revealed it had the support of 85.9% of SFI workers.

MALAYSIA:::3 workers killed in Malaysia after roof of shopping mall collapses: Police

KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK/AFP) - Three workers were killed and 19 others were injured after a roof of a three-storey, under-construction shopping mall collapsed in the southern Malaysian state of Malacca, the police said on Monday.

The municipal council has issued a stop work order at a shopping mall here after the indicent. Municipal officials were seen placing the stop work notices at the site in Pulau Sebang following the collapse at about 2.30pm.

PUASA DAN KESIHATAN

Diantara tujuan( Maqasid al-Syariah)  disyariatkan puasa di dalam Islam  ialah untuk menjadikan orang yang berpuasa mempunyai sifat takwa. Takwa membawa maksud : "melaksanakan yang diperintah Allah dan meninggalkan segala apa yang dilarang". Semua perintah Allah yang disyariatkan pastinya mempunyai faedah dan manfaatnya, begitu juga dengan segala laranganNya yang pasti ada kemudaratannya. Maka puasa juga memberikan faedah dan kesan yang sangat baik kepada kita dari aspek kesihatan. Di antara hadis nabi s.a.w menyebut:

" Berpuasalah nescaya kamu akan sihat" (Hadis riwayat Ibnu Sunni dan Abu Naim dari Abu Hurairah)

Apabila sesaorang itu berpuasa, sebenarnya amalan tersebut telah mendidik dan membantu perut (sistem penghadaman) hanya menerima makanan dan minuman pada masa yang ditetapkan sahaja. Sedangkan pada hari-hari biasa, seseorang itu sentiasa menikmati hidangan makanan tanpa mengira masa dan jenis makanan dan yang dimakan. Ia menjadikan  perut  bekerja memperoses makanan tanpa rehat.

MALAYSIA::: Nufam condemns Transport Minister’s statements / Kenyataan Akhbar Mengenai Kenyataan Menteri Pengangkutan Dato Seri Liow Tiong Lai

National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) condemned the statements by Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai for “creating confusion” regarding the dismissal of 6,000 Malaysia Airlines (MAS) employees.

Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin claimed Liow’s statements seem to change from day to day, leaving many of the workers involved frustrated.

Liow allegedly issued a statement to several newspapers today saying that most MAS staff had gratefully received a termination package and that no party was left unsatisfied, except for Nufam.

“The statement is very confusing and different from two days ago. He (Liow) has advised MAS and agreed to sit down with Nufam, but his statement today is different.

500,000 children countrywide engaged in hazardous work - ZCTU

THE Zambia Congress of Trade Unions says over 500,000 children countrywide are engaged in hazardous work because of economic challenges that have mostly affected the vulnerable and working poor. ZCTU trustee Pembere Wadzanayi said the current situation had become a trade union concern because it had potential to deprive children a better foundation particularly in terms of education. 

VIETNAM:::1.75 million Vietnamese children are in child labor: ILO

About 1.75 million Vietnamese children are in child labor, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of children aged 5-17 in the country, according to a new report.

Three in every five of these working children are between 15 and 17, and nearly 85 of them live in the countryside, the International Labor Organization said in its report prepared for the World Day Against Child Labour on Friday.

According to the report, a majority of children in child labor are found in agriculture and they are often unpaid family workers.

MALAYSIA:::Heavy reliance on foreign labour detrimental for Malaysia's economy

 The nation's heavy dependence on foreign labour leads to lower wage rates and the inability to escape the labour-intensive economy trap.

Finance economics expert Prof. Dr. Hoo Ke Ping said one could draw on Singapore as an example.

"In 1977, Singapore decided it would no longer be a labour-intensive economy.

As a result, this created an excess in jobless workers that required retraining," he said at a forum on Malaysia's economic outlook for the second half of 2015, Hoo said between 1977 to 1980, foreign investments in Singapore dropped.

"But by 1981 or 1982, their economy picked up and took off," he said.

"The annual RM50 billion remittance outflow by foreign workers means our own wages will never go up," said Hoo, referring to the findings by the National Professorial Council on the effects of foreign workers in Malaysia on Dec 15.

MALAYSIA::IndustriALL Global Union ICT, E&E World Conference

Trade unions met on 11-12 June in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, for IndustriALL Global Union’s World Conference on ICT, Electrical & Electronics. Around 100 delegates from 32 organizations in 16 countries were present.

In their action plan for the next four years, participants at the World Conference on ICT, Electrical & Electronics affirmed their strong commitment to:

• build union power to confront global capital;
• fight for trade union rights;
• fight against precarious work; and
• promote industrial policy and sustainability.

In the opening speech, Shoji Arino, sector chair, insisted that the situation of precarious workers is getting worse while multinationals are accelerating to expand in this sector. “We must strengthen unity among unions to take wide-ranging solidarity action, especially in the emerging and developing countries,” he said.

MALAYSIA:::Nufam alleges MAS being cowards and avoiding them

PETALING JAYA: The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) has asked that an open debate be held with either Malaysia Airlines (MAS) senior management or the in-house employee union Maseu regarding the retrenchment of the airline’s 6,000 employees as well as issues that led to the airline’s losses over the years.

Saying Nufam was ready for this talk any time, its president Ismail Nasaruddin however felt that MAS was trying to avoid a confrontation with them.

MALAYSIA:::Sabah timber workers to find out next week if they can form union

The workers of Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) will find out next Friday if their 24-year battle be part of a union will come to fruition.

The Kota Kinabalu High Court is due to decide then whether to grant the paper and pulp company leave for its application for a judicial review on June 19.

SFI had filed a judicial review on May 14 seeking to quash a ministerial order on the eligibility of its employees to vote in a secret ballot election on whether they wanted to be represented by the Sabah Timber Industry Employees Union (STIEU).

INDUSTRIALL:::ITUC launches petition to halt TPP trade negotiations

Send a message to your Trade Minister - Show us the text! click link >> sign PETITION http://act.equaltimes.org/tpp

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), together with national trade union centres, is demanding transparency in discussions over the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)  — a free trade agreement currently being negotiated in secret.

INDUSTRIALL:::Asian Metalworkers' Liaison Conference AMLC

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

About 80 members from 15 countries across the Asia Pacific Region met at the 8th Asian Metalworkers Liaison Conference (AMLC) in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia to discuss workers issues in the metal industry in Asia.

After extensive discussions, it was decided that the JCM sponsored Asian Metalworkers Liaison Conference (AMLC) will be held in the summer of 2016, before the IndustriALL Congress in October the same year. Going forward from 2017, possibilities for the meeting format will be explored. 

MALAYSIA:::Stop the culling or we stop work, MAS told / 'Henti buang pekerja atau kami henti buat kerja'

Malaysian Airlines (MAS) ground crew will stop work if MAS does not retract all termination letters within 48 hours, the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) said.Apart from describing it as a "tools down protest", Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin was unwilling to provide further details.

"Wait and see. Give us 48 hours first," he said during a press conference today.

If MAS do not heed the "tools down" protest, Nufam will lead a bigger protest at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport or outside the Khazanah Nasional headquarters.

Khazanah Nasional, the nation's sovereign wealth fund, is the owner of the ailing national carrier.

Additionally, Nufam also set two more conditions for MAS to avoid facing work disruptions.

ILO:::Freedom Of Association And The Right To Strike

Luis Inacio Lula da Silva

It is a fact that technological innovations and changes in the organization of work have caused alterations in the labour market, making certain international labour standards obsolete and, at the same time, giving rise to demands for new rights. However, this does not justify the pressure that the International Labour Organization (ILO) has been put under to reduce its character as an International Organization (IO) to that of an agency of the United Nations system, nor indeed the questioning about whether the right to strike is part of Convention 87, on freedom of association, although the ILO has been fostering this concept for more than sixty years now.

Malaysian jungle graves add to Obama's trade pact headache in Congress

The discovery of scores of graves in people-smuggling camps in Malaysia is casting a shadow over President Barack Obama’s signature trade deal as U.S. lawmakers consider punishing trading partners that are soft on human trafficking.

ILO:::‘Nearly 100m Children Engage In Labour In Agric Sector’

The International Labour Organisation (ILO ) has revealed that nearly 100 million boys and girls between ages 5 and 17 are engaged in child labour in agriculture.

As such it has, with the help of a new training guide developed by the FAO, developed a new visual guide to protect children and extension workers in Africa and elsewhere are engaging with rural communities to reduce children’s exposure to toxic pesticides used in farming

MALAYSIA:::Moderate earthquake hits Sabah / Gempa bumi sederhana melanda Sabah

Gempa bumi sederhana bermagnitud 5.9 pada skala Richter berlaku di Ranau, Sabah pada 7.15 pagi ini.

Pusat Gempa Bumi dan Tsunami Nasional dalam kenyataan berkata gegaran dirasai di kebanyakan tempat di Sabah termasuk Ranau, Tambun, Pedalaman, Tuaran, Kota Kinabalu dan Kota Belud.

MALAYSIA:::Employers looking at cutting staff as GST starts to bite businesses

Faced with falling sales and high operating costs, some Malaysian companies are considering cutting staff either through retrenchment or voluntary separation schemes, said an employers’ federation.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said about 20% of its members were looking into such options and they cut across all economic sectors from retail to hospitality to manufacturing.

MALAYSIA:::GST mula jejas perniagaan, majikan mungkin berhentikan pekerja

Berdepan dengan kejatuhan jualan dan kos operasi yang tinggi, beberapa syarikat di negara ini sedang mempertimbang untuk mengurangkan pekerja sama ada melalui pemberhentian atau skim pemisahan sukarela, menurut Persekutuan Majikan Malaysia (MEF).

Pengarah Eksekutif MEF Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan berkata, kira-kira 20% daripada ahlinya sedang mengkaji beberapa langkah pilihan dan ia membabitkan syarikat yang merangkumi semua sektor ekonomi daripada peruncitan hingga ke sektor hospitaliti dan pembuatan.

Shamsuddin berkata, kebanyakan syarikat sudah berjumpa dengan MEF untuk mendapatkan khidmat nasihat serta perundingan dan sedang bekerjasama dengan mereka mengenai cara terbaik untuk mengurangkan kos sama ada wajar memberhentikan pekerja atau tidak.

Katanya, syarikat terbabit tidak mampu menanggung ko

MALAYSIA:::Penerbangan Tertangguh, Operasi KLIA Kelam Kabut Gara-Gara Tak Cukup Kakitangan

Ternyata percaturan Malaysia Airlines Bhd. (MAB) memberhentikan pekerja dalam jumlah yang besar serentak mengundang kekalutan yang bukan sedikit dalam operasi harian di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur (KLIA) di Sepang.

Selepas sehari keputusan memberhentikan 6,000 kakitangan syarikat itu dilaksanakan, operasi syarikat penerbangan kebangsaan itu kelam-kabut, beberapa jadual penerbangan tertangguh dan lebih malang petugas dimaki penumpang.

Perkara itu disahkan oleh kakitangan MAS kepada MalaysiaGazette.

Menurutnya, keadaan itu berlaku apabila kakitangan kaunter ramai yang diberhentikan menyebabkan tidak ada kakitangan 'back-up'.

ILO::: Work Debate Job issues take centre stage at conference.

Director-general of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Guy Ryder has called for a global debate on the future of work. “The issues of jobs, equity, sustainability, human security, labour mobility, social dialogue, which need to be tackled in a future of work initiative, are almost by definition the key policy issues of our time,” said Ryder at the start of the annual ILO Conference which brings together some 4,000 government, worker and employer representatives in Geneva.

The proposed Future of work initiative would be structured around four conversations: work and society; the organisation of work and production; decent jobs for all; and the governance of work. Subsequently, a high-level commission on the future of work would prepare a report to the ILO’s centenary conference in 2019.

Ryder called on delegates to “look at the longer term drivers of change, the transformational mega-trends, and what they imply for the goals we pursue in the ILO in its second century.”

Ryder’s proposal is contained in his report to the ILC entitled, The Future of work centenary initiative and is accompanied by an annual report on the situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories.

According to the latest World Employment and Social Outlook report , global unemployment reached 201 million in 2014, over 30 million higher than before the start of the global crisis in 2008. Moreover, providing jobs to the more than 40 million additional people who enter the global labour market every year is proving to be a daunting challenge. In addition to widespread joblessness, the employment relationship itself is facing a major transformation that is bringing further challenges.

In addition to the director-general’s future of work initiative, the conference this year will discuss various other issues, including climate change, a proposed first ever international standard on the transition from the informal to the formal economy; the role of small and medium enterprises as a major job creation engine; and how to ensure labour protection (wages, working time, maternity protection and occupational safety and health) which is at the heart of the ILO’s mandate and does not currently cover many types of employees. 

High-level discussions on climate change and the world of work, as well as child labour will take place on 11 and 12 June, respectively, and there will be a focus on encouraging ratification by member States of the 2014 protocol to the ILO Convention on Forced Labour (C029, 1930) to enable it to enter into force.

source:::http://www.theglobalrecruiter.com

 

Short-term contracts increasing worldwide

The REC’s latest report on jobs backs up the findings of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) stating that increasingly agency staff are being used for short-term access to key strategic skills.

The report states that one in five employers have increased staffing levels over the last year, and that 84% are using temporary staff to bridge the skills shortage in the permanent market.

In particular employers are seeing a shortage in the technical and engineering sector, with 18% of employers expecting to see shortages in permanent jobs, whilst 36% expect to see shortages for agency workers.

The ILO has found that only one quarter of workers around the world have permanent jobs. The remain

MALAYSIA:::Nufam hits out at MAS for axing crew on maternity leave / Pekerja MAS cuti bersalin juga diberhentikan, dakwa Nufam

The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) has accused Malaysia Airlines (MAS) of worker discrimination in its ongoing restructuring exercise which includes the culling of some 6,000 jobs.

Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin said the management was being heartless by axing female cabin crew members who were on maternity leave.

The airline began sending out termination letters to some 20,000 staff yesterday, but will offer re-employment to some 14,000 staff.

ILO:::Regional labour and employer groups sign MOU

GENEVA—The Caribbean Employers Confederation (CEC) and the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work together to identify areas where common legislative and regulatory principles having regional application are essential.

MALAYSIA:::MTUC is concerned about refugees and is against all forms of slavery and forced labour

Media Statement

Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) is shocked at the discovery of about 139 graves, and signs of torture, in more than two dozen squalid camps in Northern Malaysia suspected to have been used by gangs involved in human trafficking of migrants across the border from Thailand.

MTUC is against all forms of human trafficking which includes exploitation of workers. MTUC is against slavery and forced labour.

MTUC calls on the Malaysian government to immediately investigate, and determine whether these were really human trafficking camps, and also whether the deaths have been brought about by torture and murder. If so, then immediate action must be taken to bring the said perpetrators to justice.

There is also the possibility that some of these ‘camps’ were really housing used by undocumented migrant workers, who always worry about the possibility of arrest, detention, imprisonment, whipping and deportation. There are estimated that at present there are at least 2 million undocumented migrants in Malaysia – most of them are workers.

MALAYSIA:::MAS Bhd boleh disaman jika enggan iktiraf kesatuan, kata peguam

Pemegang jawatan dan ahli kesatuan sekerja boleh mengambil tindakan mahkamah ke atas MAS Bhd jika ia cuba memusnahkan suara pekerja dengan mengharamkan kesatuan, hakim bersara dan peguam industri memberi amaran.

Mereka berkata, hak mempunyai kesatuan sekerja dijamin di bawah Perlembagaan Persekutuan melalui Perkara 10 mengenai kebebasan berpersatuan.

INDONESIA:::Indonesia’s size hampers efforts to eradicate child labor - ILO

The size of Indonesia, the fourth largest country in Asia, is an obstacle to child labor eradication efforts as the practice is more common in rural areas, says an UN official.

“Things are happening in rural areas, while there are 34 provinces in Indonesia. We have to make sure the message [on child labor eradication] trickles down to the village level,” the International Labor Organization (ILO) officer-in-charge in Indonesia, Michiko Miyamoto, said at the Manpower Ministry in South Jakarta on Monday.

Miyamoto was speaking at an event to launch June as the month of child labor eradication at the ministry.

Manpower Ministry data shows that among the 4.1 million child workers in Indonesia, approximately 2 million of them work in rural areas, compared to 386,000 children who work in cities.

Miyamoto also said that regular discussions with the children’s families, companies and other workers in all areas of Indonesia were important as they needed to understand the impact of child labor in Indonesia.

The Manpower Ministry recently announced a plan to fully eradicate child labor by 2020, along with a target to pull out 16,000 children workers from the workplace all over Indonesia this year.

MALAYSIA:::MAS tidak profesional sasarkan Nufam dalam pemberhentian kerja - NUFAM

KUALA LUMPUR: Kesatuan Kebangsaan Anak-anak Kapal Kabin Penerbangan Malaysia (Nufam) mendakwa ia menjadi sasaranMalaysia Airlines (MAS)untuk diberhentikan kerja, ekoran lantang bersuara mengenai penstrukturan semula syarikat penerbangan itu.

Presidennya, Ismail Nasaruddin berkata perkara ini jelas dilihat melalui suratpemberhentian kerjayang diterima oleh tiga exconya, pada Isnin.

“Saya dimaklumkan oleh sumber-sumber yang dekat dengan MAS bahawa Nufam menjadi sasaran MAS kerana kami lantang bersuara.

“Ini seperti MAS sudah mengambil perkara ini sebagai isu peribadi. Ini menunjukkan MAS tidak bersikap professional.

ILO:::About the ILC - International Labour Conference

The member States of the ILO meet at the International Labour Conference, held every year in Geneva, Switzerland, in the month of June.

Each member State is represented by a delegation consisting of two government delegates, an employer delegate, a worker delegate, and their respective advisers. (Employer and Worker delegates are nominated in agreement with the most representative national organizations of employers and workers.)

Every delegate has the same rights, and all can express themselves freely and vote as they wish. So it happens that worker and employer delegates sometimes vote against their government's representatives or against each other. This diversity of viewpoints, however, does not prevent decisions being adopted by very large majorities, or in some cases even unanimously.

MALAYSIA:::Wage index can’t take off over productivity dispute, say economists

The dispute over worker productivity and minimum wages in Malaysia is an indication that Putrajaya's new wage index, part of a strategy under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) to increase livelihoods, especially the bottom 40%, is unlikely to get off the ground, say economists and trade unions.

Unions quote one set of figures to show that productivity has gone up to support their argument that wages are low and should be increased. 

On the other side is the employers' federation, whose figures show that productivity levels do not warrant a wage hike.

Economists say that because Putrajaya cannot get these two groups to agree on which figures to use and how to even calculate minimum wage levels, it will not be able to implement a national wage metric.

MALAYSIA:::‘Kedudukan istimewa’ GLC sukarkan siasatan, kata PAC ke Nufam

‘Kedudukan istimewa’ syarikat-syarikat berkaitan kerajaan (GLC) di bawah Khazanah Nasional menyebabkan Jawatankuasa Kira-Kira Wang Negara (PAC) sukar untuk melakukan siasatan atau mendapatkan penjelasan daripada pengurusan mereka.

Pengerusinya Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed berkata, di bawah pelan transformasi Putrajaya, GLC di bawah Khazanah tidak tertakluk secara langsung bagi memberikan penjelasan mengenai apa yang berlaku dalam pentadbiran, operasi atau pelaburan mereka kepada PAC.

“Ini yang berlaku apabila PAC memulakan dan melengkapkan prosiding klia2, projek di bawah MAHB, GLC di bawah Khazanah, sehingga ke hari ini, kerajaan masih belum mengarahkan Jabatan Audit Negara melakukan pengauditan terhadap projek pembinaan berkenaan,” kata Nur Jazlan.