Equal Pay for Equal Work

The Paycheck Fairness Act will make filing a discrimination claim easier, provide protection for workers who blow the whistle on pay discrimination, and strengthen the Department of Labor’s efforts to ensure fair pay for all workers.

http://www.pay-equity.org/info-leg.html

IUF Challenges Job Destruction at Nestlé, Unilever on World Day for Decent Work

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The IUF is targeting the systematic, programmed destruction of permanent work at two major food TNCs - Nestlé (the world's largest food company) and Unilever (number 3) - as unions worldwide highlight the menacing spread of precarious work on October 7 - World Day for Decent Work.

Casual, insecure, subcontracted jobs are not an accidental byproduct of the constant redefinition of "core" business, or the search for "flexibility". The destruction of permanent work has become a major pillar of corporate human resources strategy, implemented to fund record dividends and share buybacks in the name of "shareholder value". Alongside their brands, the companies are manufacturing insecurity. Precarious jobs are corporate policy for shrinking and ultimately extinguishing the number of workers who retain a direct employment relationship with the corporations whose products they manufacture - and with whom they can negotiate their terms and conditions of employment. Precarious work is union busting.

Nestlé and Unilever have been brutally and systematically eliminating permanent work while touting the virtues of job creation and "corporate social responsibility." Behind their famous "billion dollar brands" the former Nestlé or Unilever worker has been increasingly replaced by an abusive system of outsourcing, casualization, "temporary" hiring and "co-packing" which is steadily eliminating the use of permanent employment contracts.

To highlight the leading role of these two food giants in destroying decent work the IUF is launching two new websites.

Nestlewatch and Unileverwatch are interactive sites with translation toolbars for multi-language use. We've launched them to challenge these companies' systematic cultivation of insecure, precarious work, to put a corporate face on the process of job destruction, and to assist in fighting back.

http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&ID=5399&view_records=1&ww=1&en=1

Take action on forced labour and exploitation of domestic workers in the Philippines

Domestic workers in the Philippines, the vast majority of whom are women and girls, are not given the same protections as other workers under labour laws and work in other people's homes hidden from public view. This leaves them particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and many are the victims of forced labour. Many domestic workers migrate from rural areas to the cities and are vulnerable to trafficking, as well as to debt bondage.

The Domestic Workers Bill, known popularly as the Batas Kasambahay, was first filed in 1995 and affords key protections to all domestic workers. For several years, the passage of the Batas Kasambahay has been delayed by Presidential impeachment proceedings and various other postponements.

The enactment of the Batas Kasambahay would be a vital step forwards in ensuring that domestic workers in the Philippines are not subject to abuse, exploitation and forced labour. Anti-Slavery International urges the Philippines Government to prioritise this legislation and ensure that it passes without further delay.


http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/campaign/phillippines.htm