A group of labour leaders and activists from seven Asian countries gathered to share experiences regarding “Strengthening Freedom of Association in Asia: Strategies and Mechanisms”, co-hosted by Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) and the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR). Aggressive union-busting and violent repression of organizing have been among the chief problems faced by Asian labour organizations when they organize workers in defense of their labour rights – with gross impunity even in cases where such rights are clearly constitutiona
The book provides an analysis that capital mobility has become major and underlying factor of the precarity of workers in Asia. The chapters - case studies on Japan, China, Philippines and Thailand - illustrate that workers’ collective bargaining power has declined which can be seen in the intensification of irregularisation, union busting actions, company closures, and massive dismissal of workers reported across the region. In many cases, this condition has resulted in the weakening of militancy of workers in countries that used to be dynamic actors in the labour rights movement.
The meeting on CSR was held in Hong Kong in May 2010 to discuss and share the experiences amongst critical CSR practitioners and to learn from each other. This report from the meeting elaborates the critiques on CSR from participants’ experiences. Several issues were discussed in the meeting namely on the engagement of NGOs, role of state, consumers, and media in the CSR industry.
‘Will I still have my job next month? Will I still have my job tomorrow? What will I do if I have an accident at work, or if I get pregnant?’ Millions of workers are working daily, contributing to steady profits of their employers without ever knowing the answer to these questions with any certainty – or worse, knowing with a certainty that their jobs and their very health and lives could be disposed in an instant.
What is at stake at the Hong Kong Ministerial in December 20051 will come into sharper focus in the coming weeks, as the negotiating process intensifies in Geneva. A mini-ministerial is being planned for on the 10 October 2005 in Zurich, following which more trade ministers are expected to be present at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Negotiations Committee meeting on 13 October. The highest decision making body of the WTO, the General Council, then convenes from 19 to 21 October.
Special and differential treatment (SDT)—for developing economies is one of the least understood and hardly implemented clauses in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). And yet, no less than the Preamble of the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement (the Final Act of the Uruguay Round) that established the WTO refers to it as the guiding principle for the WTO.
Take a public bus in Hong Kong and you are most likely to be exposed to countless advertisements on ‘state-of-the-art’ LCD screens that are installed on almost all the buses here. Along with the advertisements, passengers are also made to watch various public messages from different government departments.
Racial discrimination at the workplace is an everyday experience of the ethnic minorities living in Hong Kong. Many people report lower wages, poorer working conditions, or even outright rejections of jobs based on their ethnic background.
The aim of this article is to look into some of these aspects of racial discrimination. Mainly I will try to look at the types of discrimination faced by low-skilled workers, as they make up the majority of the ethnic minorities.
According to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, about 380,000 new immigrants from mainland China have settled in Hong Kong in the past seven years.1 Most of them are spouses and children who came to reunite broken families. Over 90 percent of the adult new immigrants are married women. Most of them are aged 35 to 45. Nearly 70 percent have received secondary education.
6 September 2000 was just another working day for Nib Bahadur Sunar in Hong Kong. He was happy with his job at the Tin-Wo-Engineering company that was subcontracted by the construction giant Paul Y-ITC Construction Holdings, a Hong Kong-based company that has construction projects in seven countries in the Asia Pacific region. Paul Y-ITC in turn was contracted by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) that carries over two million persons every day.
Ivy first described her background. She is 40 years old, divorced (2001), has a nine-year-old son, and has been a full-time sex worker for one year in Hong Kong, working in a ‘one-woman flat’ (apartment - not her home).
This book is more than a review of labour law, it is the only comprehensive review available of labour law in the Asia Pacific region. It investigates the impact of labour law on workers in 30 countries. It analyses trade union and labour activists’ responses to changes in labour law, and examines what labour law means for workers’ daily lives. Each chapter representing a country can be downloaded country wise for download below.
Mr Lee Cheuk Yan is General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU). He is also a legislator in Hong Kong's Legislative Council.
ALU Please tell me the first contacts the CTU had with the International Labour Organisation [ILO].
As discussed in much more detail elsewhere in this issue, export credit agencies provide credit insurance (and loans) to enterprises doing business overseas. Although private companies (such as EULER and HERMES, CNA, Eurofactor, and Hiscox) sometimes provide these services, credit insurance and loans are more often provided by public - government-backed - agencies.
Leung Chau-ting, Chairman, Hong Kong Federation of Civil Service Unions; President Hong Kong Clerical Grades Civil Servants General Union (CGCSGU), and Chan Wai-keung, First Vice-President of the CGCSGU
19 March 2002
ALU How many members do you represent, what is the rate of representation, and what kind of workers are they in general?
During the 1970s, 1980s, and the early 1990s, Cathay Pacific was a very profitable company with good industrial relations at all levels. Part of the reason for the good relationship was that pilots were among the best paid in the world and work schedules were undemanding.