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An agreement has been reached at the Labour Ministry of S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, state between BASF and the chemical workers of Guaratinguet&aacute;. The agreement aims to regulate the use of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) and requires the company to pay the same salary and benefits to agency workers as is paid to permanent, directly-employed workers. Failure to implement the agreement will result a fine of 500 Reales per worker/per day. 
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This Guaratinguet&aacute; plant is the largest BASF entity in Latin America and has about one non-regular worker for each directly employed worker.

Brazilian Social Partners Agree on CAL Regulation at BASF

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The Americas Regional Contract and Agency labour (CAL) conference was held in Recife, Brazil, on 27 June 2010. The conference was attended by ICEM affiliates from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Uruguay, as well as by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, the ICEM Vice-President for Latin America, Sergio Novais, the ICEM Women&rsquo;s Officer and Latin America Contact Person, Carol Bruce, and Ashling Seely, the Global CAL Project Coordinator. 
 
Affiliates at the conference spoke about how CAL is being used to undermine freedom of association, for example with Sintracarb&oacute;n in Colombia, the ICEM&rsquo;s Mine Workers&rsquo; affiliate. Representatives from that union told how trade union activists are being transferred from permanent positions into what are known as &ldquo;rubbish contracts.&rdquo; 
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CAL Project Coordinator for Latin America - Rosane Sasse
Another ICEM affiliate, Sintravidricol, the Colombian Glass Workers&rsquo; Union, spoke about how workers at Owen-Illinois are being dismissed and replaced by agency workers. Affiliates also spoke about the problems of triangular employment relationships, with CAL workers not being clear on who is ultimately responsible for their working conditions. 
 
Participants exchanged information on the increasing efforts being made to halt the outsourcing of employment and abusive use of short-term contracts. For example, the Union of Rubber Workers of S&atilde;o Paulo, representing 26,000 workers, is attempting to negotiate a collective agreement clause prohibiting outsourcing in the manufacturing sector. 
 
In Brazil&rsquo;s oil sector, more than two thirds of the workforce is outsourced. The Single Federation of Oil Workers (FUP) has held several debates, regional and national meetings in various regions of the country, to raise awareness of the negative impact of CAL. The umbrella federation of oil workers&rsquo; unions at state-owned Petrobras has also worked with its affiliated organisations to encourage them to restructure in order to improve the full involvement of outsourced workers in their unions. 
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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
ICEM&rsquo;s Warda concluded the meeting, saying that governments must be made aware that ILO Conventions apply equally to contract and agency workers, and that, where there are obstacles to full rights for CAL workers, these should be tackled with legal actions. Warda also spoke about the need to work against the practices of the World Bank and the IFC, organisations which are still advising governments that they need to create more &ldquo;flexible&rdquo; labour markets. 
 
Affiliates agreed that the day 28 July would become a day of action on outsourcing.

CAL Regional Conference in Latin America Gathers Important Case Studies

Joseph Toe is ICEM's Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) Project Coordinator for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region. He is a native of Togo.
How prevalent is the issue of Contract and Agency Labour and Precarious Work in Africa? 
 
In some cases, the proportion of temporal workers may reach 80% of the permanent workforce. Deregulation of the labour market has accelerated this process. 
 
What factors have impacted on the use of CAL? 
 
Structural adjustments imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions adversely affecting the institutional employment context at two levels: 
 
&bull; The de-regulation of the labour market and the fact cry that use of labour must become more flexible; and 
&bull; The reduction of trade union participation and the inability of civil society to effectively make its voice heard over anti-social measures advocated by lending institutions. 
The arrival of Asian investors has also disrupted the labour market in Africa and jeopardises previous social gains. 
 
What is the Sub-Saharan African ICEM CAL Project? 
 
The Sub-Saharan African ICEM CAL Project started at the end of February 2009 and covers 8 countries, Guinea, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. The selected targeted countries were all identified as nations where the issue of contract and agency labour is wide spread, but also where there are relatively strong trade unions. This means that there are possibilities of carrying out actions to achieve reasonable progress on this issue. 
 
What are the Project Objectives? 
 
The project aims to develop trade union strategies and seek best practices to address contract and agency labour related problems in Sub-Saharan Africa; it seeks to create a coherent regional coordination to address the problem; it advocates for governments to take the relevant initiatives and policies to halt the use of temporal contracts and to regulate private employment agencies; it seeks to carry out high level and specialised regional research; to have trained union negotiators on the issue of rights for contract and agency workers; to build the organisational capacities of the leadership in CAL campaigns; and to create a network for information- and experience-sharing of ICEM affiliates on the issue across the region. 
 
The training is based on a number of simple and practical tools designed from examples taken from around the world. At the end of each session, a plan of action is developed on the future actions to be carried out at the national level in synergy with other GUFs&rsquo; affiliates, and guidelines are defined to be included in the ICEM Global Campaign on CAL. In order to implement the national plan, a monitoring mechanism, which is part of the plan of action is defined, and the officers in charge of its implementation are appointed. 
 
Trade union action is indispensable to neutralising the development of outsourcing and temporal employment, particularly as it is crosscuts and affects all trade and industrial sectors. Sub-Saharan African countries are seriously affected by this problem and are reacting in order to stem and/or reduce the adverse effects. The Sub-Saharan African ICEM CAL Project also encourages and assists unions in: 
 
&bull; Building trade union organising and negotiating capacity; 
 
&bull; Institutionalising sector-based negotiations and reinforcing trade union unity of action, which is necessary to combat outsourcing, labour brokering, and contract agencies. It fights for the regulation of employment agencies and recourse to outsource, and to be involved in that redress process; 
 
&bull; Reinforcing solidarity between temporary and permanent workers; 
 
&bull; Training those who organise temporary workers; 
 
&bull; Negotiating collective agreements which include clauses on the systematic recourse to outsource and use casual labour with regard to the improvement of the working conditions and the reduction of the consequences of casual labour; 
 
&bull; Campaigns for the transformation of casual labour into permanent employment; 
 
&bull; Develops strategies for CAL workers, with the emphasis on decent work and inclusion of gender and race in those strategies; 
 
&bull; Organising campaigns and lobbying at national and international levels against casual labour, and developing plans of action aimed at ridding this phenomenon in the Export Processing Zones (EPZ); 
 
&bull; Carrying out studies on the consequences of outsourcing and contract labour agencies within the context of worsening disparities and inequalities of the social strata. This means addressing the Millennium Development Goals 2015, the 2007&ndash;2015 Decent Work Agenda in Africa; the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), Sustainable Human Development Programme, and the Tripartite and Social Dialogue Principles which serve as the basis of ILO. 
 
Casual employment affects positive labour values, which develop, distinguish, and socialise the human being.

Interview: Joseph Toe, CAL Project Coordinator, Sub-Saharan Africa Region

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The government of Zambia bent to the will of the country&rsquo;s two major mining unions, including ICEM affiliate Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ), to investigate and remedy the anti-Zambian outsourcing policies planned by Anglo-Indian Vedanta Resources at several of its Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) operations. 
 
That government intervention did achieve the desired results, since KCM has now rescinded its plan to outsource major operational activities at its Nchanga mines, Chingola Copper concentrator and open pit mines, and the Nampundwe refractory to foreign contractors. 
 
On 24 August, a tripartite dialogue consisting of the Labour and Mines Ministries, Vedanta&rsquo;s senior executives, and the MUZ and the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) produced an agreement that should deploy more Zambians to the country&rsquo;s mines and resource processing plants.
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MUZ President, Rayford Mbulu&nbsp;
The agreement caused cancellation of a mass demonstration at mine sites and other locations by the MUZ and NUMAW for 28 August. 
 
According to Labour and Social Security Minister Austin Liato, the compromise with firstly, &ldquo;on outsourcing, which has threatened a number of (local) jobs, it has been agreed that the issue will be stalled and the two parties shall engage each other before any decision is made. 
 
&ldquo;Then secondly, on the vice president human resources, who is about to retire, it has been concluded&nbsp;that the position will be advertised&rdquo; within Zambia. Both the government and civil society, including the Zambia Institute of Human Resource Management, was livid that Vedanta was about to hire another foreign national in this position. 
 
The outsourcing and offshoring issue between Zambian mining unions and Vedanta had become pitched in August, particularly at a time when Vedanta is greatly expanding many of its copper-producing facilities. 
 
The outsourcing issue at KCM became especially exasperated when a mining boss at the Chingola mine &ndash; operated by the Brazilian contractor U &amp; M Mining &ndash; refused to allow the deputy minister of Labour and Social Security onto the mine to inspect labour conditions. 
 
In the days before the tripartite meeting, KCM attempted to resolve the dispute by offering any worker affected by outsourcing to transfer to the contract employer at equal pay and the same pension contributions, transfer to one of two other KCM operations, or voluntary separation under existing conditions of service. But that was unsatisfactory to the unions. 
 
KCM is 20% owned by the Zambian government. In 2009, over 80% of Zambia&rsquo;s foreign exchange earnings and 15.9% of its GDP came from copper mining. The ICEM Secretariat commends Sub-Saharan African Regional Vice President Rayford Mbula, President of the MUZ, for his leadership and vigilance on this issue with both the government and Vedanta.

Planned Outsourcing by Vedanta inside Zambia’s Copper Belt

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Draft legislation in South Africa on whether to ban labour brokers or to increase regulation on enterprises that supply workers to businesses is stalled in the government, with the likelihood that revisions to the Labour Relations Act (LRA) on this key national issue will not be heard in Parliament by year end. 
 
Four draft bills were submitted to the Cabinet in May, but have been returned to the Labour Ministry for language revisions. Even after the Cabinet accepts the draft amendments to the LRA, including revising Section 198 (temporary employment services), they must still go the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) for review, and then to public comment before the full Parliament takes up South African labour law revisions. 
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Besides whether or not to ban labour brokers, the proposed legislation is expected to prohibit discrepancy in wages and working conditions between temporary and permanent workers, provide protection against unfair dismissals during probation periods for workers, provide more government labour inspectors to investigate abuses, harsher fines on abusive companies that are linked to their annual turnovers, and impose extended liability on primary employers when abuses occur. 
 
The major employer federations that cover staffing companies in South Africa, namely the Association of Personnel Service Organisations (APSO) and the Confederation of Associations in the Private Employment Sector (CAPES), are taking a pro-action position that some type of legislation must pass. 
 
But these groups are lobbying for tighter regulation of the more nefarious side of the industry, believing that there is abusive practices by unscrupulous labour brokers that must be stopped. 
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Labour unions in South Africa, however, led by the Congress of South African Unions (COSATU), are holding firm that a complete ban is necessary. The unions have made it a rule to inject the ban language on labour brokers in their collective agreements, and several employers have agreed to the ban. 
 
In the ten-day strike in August between the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the Automobile Manufacturers Employers Association (AMEA), representing BMW, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen, the two sides agreed to the ban. It takes effect on 1 January 2011, with the exception of pre-existing labour broker contracts, which will be permitted to run their term. 
 
Regarding the legislation, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana made it clear while speaking at a labour law conference in mid-August that labour brokering in the country will definitely get a revamp with the objective of creating decent jobs. 
 
He told labour lawyers present that the notion of treating labour as a commodity must halt. &ldquo;We must stop this thing of selling labour,&rdquo; Mdladlana stated.

Labour Broker Law in South Africa Stalls, For Now

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To highlight how the issue of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is being used by companies around the world, and to demonstrate the innovative way trade unions are dealing with these issues, the ICEM CAL Project is producing a series of country reports. The first of these reports focuses on the situation in Thailand. 
 
The use of CAL is widespread in Thailand and became even more so during the economic crisis, which hit Thailand&rsquo;s export markets hard. In 2008, the Thai labour code was amended to include improved rights for agency workers, with companies being required to pay equal wages to agency workers doing the same jobs as permanent workers. 
 
This promising piece of legislation, however, has been severely undermined by the fact that many companies simply switched to employing workers directly on short-term contracts and paying them only the legal minimum wage. 
 
Thai unions are responding to the proliferation of CAL in various ways. Many are working to ensure that CAL workers can join the same union as permanent, directly-employed workers. TIGLU, the union representing workers at Thai Industrial Gases (TIG), Thailand&rsquo;s largest provider of industrial gases and a subsidiary of German-based Linde Group, launched a campaign to secure their right to recruit CAL workers.
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CAL Thai Project Manual
In early 2008, with support from the ICEM CAL Project and from ICEM affiliated unions in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, TIGLU signed a milestone agreement with the company solidifying the union&rsquo;s right to organise contract and agency workers. The ICEM is working to ensure that freedom of association is respected for all workers at TIG/Linde. 
 
Although it is often extremely challenging to recruit CAL members, a number of Thai unions have been successful in their attempts to do so. A branch union affiliated to the ICEM affiliate, the Paper and Printing Workers Federation (PPFT), successfully recruited 80 of 120 contract workers employed by Cellox, a tissue paper company in Thailand. The ICEM Asia CAL Project is working with the union and PPFT to organise union education for the new members. 
 
Many Thai unions have made CAL a priority in their collective bargaining and organising efforts. Since 2006, the Local Union of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, called EGAT-LU, has been bargaining collectively to improve the working conditions of CAL workers at EGAT, the public-sector electric power company that employs 7,000 agency workers. 
 
In April 2007, the ICEM-affiliated union amended its statutes to make it possible for contract workers to join. Since then, the union has negotiated a new company policy with EGAT, which not only aims to improve working conditions for CAL workers but also ensures that all workers receive the entitlements outlined in Thai labour legislation. In 2009, the union launched an organising drive and succeeded in recruiting 650 of EGAT&rsquo;s 760 contract workers. The ICEM is working with EGAT-LU and the Danish Union of Electricians (Dansk El-Forbund) to organise union education for the newly recruited members.

Country Report Thailand: Exemplary Actions by ICEM Unions on CAL

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At the ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industry today in Stavanger, Norway, global trade union leaders issued the following statement:
Protest Note to the EU Commission on EU Coal Production 
 
Interfering in national legislation, the European Union (EU) Commission presented a law to close coal mines all over Europe until 2014 for reasons of austerity and liberal market policies regarding state aid. 
 
ICEM declares its solidarity with the unions in Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and in all other countries which oppose the EU Commission&rsquo;s proposal and which defend miners&rsquo; rights to employment now and in future for a sustainable energy supply that includes coal in their respective counties under safe, secure and decent work conditions.

ICEM Energy Conference Takes Issue with EU Coal Policy

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All of France&rsquo;s main trade union confederations will strike tomorrow throughout the country, protesting President Sarkozy&rsquo;s bid to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, increase public sector workers&rsquo; pension contributions, and increase the pension required contribution period to 41.5 years before a worker is entitled to a full state pension. 
 
The national strike will be held tomorrow, 7 September, to coincide with the Plenary debate of the bill in the National Assembly. The stoppage will be conducted from 7pm this evening, until midnight Tuesday. Stoppages are predicted across sectors, from public transport, power generation, teaching, telecommunications, while hospital staff will guarantee only emergency services. The action will seek to fight the proposed pension reforms, and also defend jobs and demand government action for economic recovery.
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The proposed pension reform is extremely unpopular in France, and unions are aiming to build on the 2 million people mobilised in June to protest the changes. Union activists plan strategy meetings on 8 September to consider next steps in the campaign. 
 
President Sarkozy is seen to be scrambling at present, with record low levels of public support, 18 months before presidential elections, the president&rsquo;s government last week scrapped plans to cut student accommodation subsidies, in an effort to reduce student support for tomorrow&rsquo;s protest. Defeat of the pension reform bill would conserve workers&rsquo; conditions, but also strike a significant blow to Sarkozy&rsquo;s right-wing UMP party&rsquo;s election chances in 2012. 
 
ICEM French affiliated union FCE-CFDT describes the pension reform and other government austerity measures as &ldquo;carriers of social injustice&rdquo;, adding that it is unacceptable that all the financial burden of the economic downturn is passed onto employees in both the public and private sector. 
 
Sarkozy is also suffering heavy criticism for his crime crackdown which is targeting the Roma community. The president&rsquo;s decision to target a group based on their ethnicity has concerned many, including members of his own cabinet.

French to Strike Tomorrow in Protest Against Retirement Age Rise

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ITF&rsquo;s (International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation) Turkish affiliate TUMTIS&rsquo; (the union of road transport workers) ongoing dispute with UPS, was the centre of a global day of action, attracting solidarity and support from throughout the world, on 1 September. Those participating in the day of action called upon UPS in unison to &ldquo;Deliver Justice not Abuse&rdquo;. 
 
Local management of UPS, the global messenger company based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, has reacted disgracefully to an organising drive of its workers by TUMTIS. While management have used physical intimidation on workers not to join the union, 157 employees of UPS and its contractors in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir have been sacked since April 2010 when the drive began, because of their support for TUMTIS. 
<img height="195" alt="" src="" width="137" />
(Photos: ITF)
Out of the 157 total, 126 were sacked at 3 UPS facilities in Istanbul, and 27 in Izmir. In Izmir one manager fired gunshots near the TUMTIS picket line, while other protesting workers were attacked by riot police. This is in direct breach of Turkish labour legislation, and certainly not in line with the company&rsquo;s pledges on corporate social responsibility, in which UPS promises to never obstruct its employees from joining a union. 
 
The day was organised following a unanimously adopted emergency resolution at the ITF Congress in Mexico City 5-12 August, reported InBrief No. 163 <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3970-42nd-ITF-Congress-in-Mexico-City-Elects-MUA's-Paddy-Crumlin-President">here</a>. 
 
The global day of action saw trade unionists protesting in front of national UPS offices in Australia, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia, among others. See more about the day of action <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/ups-justice.cfm">here</a>. 
<img height="113" alt="" src="" width="170" />
TUMTIS&rsquo; national labour centre, TURK-IS has supported the union&rsquo;s daily picket since the start of the conflict. 
 
The ITF urges supporters around the world to contact their local UPS management and transfer this <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Model_letter_UPS_CEO.doc">model letter</a> condemning the union busting in Turkey. Locate your nearest UPS office <a href="http://www.ups.com/content/corp/worldwide/index.html?WT.svl=SubNav">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
Workers at the 80% UPS-owned subsidiary &lsquo;Unsped Global Logistic Ticaret AS&rsquo; receive a monthly wage of 382 euros, while contract and agency (CAL) workers earn far less. The vast majority of UPS&rsquo; 5,000 employees in Turkey are CAL workers, often working over 70 hours per week. 
 
The ICEM supports demands of the ITF that all 150 sacked UPS employees are reinstated unconditionally, and that anti-union harassment is stopped immediately and fully at UPS and its subcontractors in Turkey. 
 
There will be a second global day of action on 15 September if the workers are not reinstated. 
 
Support the LabourStart campaign <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=750">here</a>.&nbsp;

Day of Action for UPS Workers in Turkey

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Successful bargaining between the ICEM affiliated Argentine Trade Union of Tyre Workers (SUTNA), Argentina&rsquo;s Chamber of Commerce, and the Ministry of Labour culminated in agreement on 23 August, in Buenos Aires. A new collective agreement for the sector, covering the period July 2010 to June 2011, provides a salary increase of 27.5 percent, plus improved conditions and a lump sum for members. 
 
The agreement lays out a reclassification of jobs in the sector which improves social benefits by an average of 12 percent. All workers will also receive a lump sum of 1,000 pesos (US$250) and a further payment of 500 pesos in January. 
<img alt="" src="" width="149" height="164" />
SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko
Of the 27.5 percent pay rise, 22.2 percent will be retroactive to 1 July 2010, with the remaining 5.3 percent increase coming on 1 January 2011. SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko commended the corporate commitment to negotiate in good faith, with talks to reopen in the first half of 2011, &ldquo;there will be further improvements to these gains&rdquo; stated Wasiejko. 
 
The collective agreement was accepted by 75.5 percent of workers balloted, with a turnout of over 80 percent. 
 
The ICEM salutes SUTNA and its General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko for achieving such significant advances for its members. 
 
Argentina was hard hit by the global economic crisis.

Argentina’s Rubber Workers Achieve Significant Wage Gains

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