Two years after Nepal’s powerful earthquake, slow pace of reconstruction offers an opportunity for the nation to change its economic model, which leans heavily on remittances from Nepali migrant workers. It is a “unique moment” to create jobs that protect workers’ rights, pay fair wages and boost the economic status of its citizens, according to a new report by U.S.-based groups Solidarity Center and JustJobs Network.
According to AKM Nasim, senior legal counselor, Solidarity Center, cases under The Fatal Accidents Act of 1855 take a long time to be resolved, and the court fee is unaffordable for a Bangladeshi laborer. “In fact, a case was filed demanding compensation by the wife of a road accident victim named Mozammel Hossain under this Act and it took 20 years to get the final verdict,” he said.
“While governmental institutions in Zimbabwe are complicit in these [wage theft] violations, top managers continue to receive high salaries and generous benefits,” said the report, which was carried out in collaboration with the United States-based Solidarity Center.
“Workers around the world are confronting serious challenges to whether they can exercise their rights and work with dignity. Among them are labor markets and systems that generate, rather than alleviate, poverty; and governments that fail to protect workers,” says Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau.
William Conklin said fashion brands are partly to blame for poor wages in factories producing their clothing. “What we see now is that brands squeeze factories and therefore workers,” he said. “If you a pay a low price per piece of clothing, that dribbles down to the workers. Workers are now being seen as disposable.”
Throughout the Solidarity Center’s recent conference, “Achieving Fair Migration: Roles of African Trade Unions and Their Partners,” union leaders and migrant rights advocates explored the xenophobia, racism and sexism migrant workers face, and sought to increase vital connections between unions and civil society organisations to campaign for laws and policies to level the playing field for migrant workers.