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There is one final suggestion we would like to make for the improvement of workers rights that is, the distinction between blue and white collar workers. In Singapore itself it is still very evident that there is separate treatment for each of the two groups of workers. For example, the revised Employment Act (EA) published in 2018 clearly showcases this division. The distinction between the groups was still very clear with the EA only catering to white-collar workers. Within the parliament itself, concerns were voiced regarding the matter and the resolution was made to ease the divide between the groups by using a common term to address all workers.

Outside of Singapore the segregation runs even deeper. For example, the cartoon above demonstrates how different blue collar workers are from white collar workers, strenuous manual labour as opposed to indoor desk jobs. Hence given the opposing nature of their occupations divide is inevitable but organisations can put in more effort into elevating the view and disposition people have towards blue collar jobs, given that it is not only important for the sake of humanity towards blue collar workers but also because the negative perception we hold against blue collar workers has resulted in a decline in the number of people taking up such manual jobs, which as ‘trivial’  and ‘unskilled’ as they may seem are crucial to the running of our society. Hence, we propose that organisations and unions consolidate and refocus on, minimising the divide between the worker groups, as well as elevating the perceptions, and eradicating negative notions we have of blue collar workers so that our society can continue to run smoothly and efficiently.

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This post targets the special rights of workers that should be addressed, such as but not limited to, maternity leave and leaves for the care of dependent members. The new age has brought a modern wave of working mothers and fathers and workers rights should and can be further improved for catering to their needs as full-time workers and parents. Firstly maternity and paternity care. In spite of significant strides made in parental leave policies around the world, in public and private sectors, huge economic and cultural barriers remain. There has been a segregative improvement in parental care as can be seen in Iceland where you’re entitled to nine months of leave, with three sets aside for each parent and Sweden where it’s up to 480 days of leave at 80% of normal pay. This is as opposed to in the United States where paid parental leave isn’t even guaranteed. Given its importance for the cognitive development of the child, the basic care of a child which should be a shared responsibility as well as for improved employee morale. Organisations should focus on providing this for their employee not just for the employees care but also for the benefits yielded for the company as well. Just by focusing a little time and money, for extra incentive prior to leave for childcare as well as for  facilitating their return, companies experience greater employee morale, lower turnover of staff and greater productivity so much so that more than 90% of employees offered  pad leave in  the US in 2017  felt that the effect was not negative. Organisations simply have to make companies aware of the benefits of providing generous paid parental leave plans, making for a situation of mutual benefit for the principal and the worker, so that this aspect of workers rights too can be covered.

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Our suggestions to organisations

There has been a vast progression in the coverage of workers rights, however, in this modern era, there is room for improvement in certain aspects for specific demographics of workers. Firstly, the evolving gender roles have led us to the point where it is common to have two working parents as opposed to just one. Yet our legislation still seems to lack the sensitivity towards female workers needs and fundamental rights. This involves two aspects, equality in terms of hiring workers based on their dexterity rather than their gender while still ensuring special rights such as maternity leave are addressed and catered towards.

In respect to gender equality as the right of workers, some improvement has been made to tackle issues such as discrimination and wage gap. However, it is very these improvements have been very segregated with very few countries experiencing any changes to their legislation,  on this issue. In fact, four-in-ten working women (42%) in the United States say they have faced discrimination on the job because of their gender.  Furthermore, as of 2017, the wage gap was 7%. Hence it is clear that unions should focus more on equality between genders for workers. I suggest that more campaigns and rallies are made specifically focusing on This issue. Additionally seeing as a vast proportion of these issues affect women, collaboration with feminist movements may also assist in resolving the problem. Labour Unions combined with feminist movements create a louder more impactful voice that is more likely to be listened to by legislators and private companies. This may not only allow for changes made to legislation but also more effort and focus on the issue of discrimination in the workplace against female workers by individual companies.

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What else can we do?

The reason why workers rights have been a prolonged struggle is that the control of the legislation and therefore control of the workers’ rights are in the hands of legislators and various relevant government bodies. However, there are some things the general population can do to aid in the fight for workers rights.

The simplest would be educating oneself on the rights. Why is this important? It’s quite simple. The majority of workers who experience a violation of their human rights are in one of two positions, first they need the job to survive and hence have to bear the violation of their rights and secondly, they do not understand what their rights are and can easily be exploited. Often it is the second one where the workers are uneducated and perform unskilled manual labour. They do not have a basic understanding of their human rights. By learning their human rights we would first be aware if there is an attempt made to violate your own rights and secondly you would be able to educate others, spreading awareness on what should be the minimum level of rights a worker should expect.

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We can all do our part to contribute towards the fight for workers’ rights, for fair and just treatment for all workers. There are many simple ways in which we can do our part for the promotion of human rights. For example, we should all read up more about workers’ rights to ensure that we are all aware and familiar with the rights that we are eligible for so that we know when we are being exploited or taken advantage of by our employers. If we witness any unjust treatment or personally experience any mistreatment or deprivation of workers’ rights, we should immediately voice this out to the appropriate authorities. We should also read up more about issues pertaining to workers’ rights so that we can learn more about what workers around the world are doing to fight for their rights or what non-profit organisations are doing to help in the promotion of workers’ rights in developing countries. We should discuss about these issues with our family and friends because this will lead to greater awareness about such issues. We can also donate some money to organisations that aim to fight for the rights of workers in developing countries. Such organisations are non-profit ones, however, they usually need to travel to these developing countries in their quest to promote workers’ rights for the people there and therefore, they need funds. We can do our part by donating a little bit of money to these organisations to help them and the money we donate also goes towards the funds they use to implement the different schemes that aim to end the exploitation of the workers. No matter how big or small the amount is, we can all do our part and donate some money. We should also boycott companies that have been known to treat their workers badly, in the sense that they give low pay or force their workers to work excessively long hours. For example, companies such as Uniqlo has not paid workers from Jaba Garmindo who sewed a variety of Uniqlo clothes and owes them about 40 million kroner in severance. Boycotting companies that deprive workers of the rights or pay they deserve will teach the companies to provide fair and just rights for their workers.

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The City is Ours, Not Uber’s

Uber and Lyft Drivers Strike

In the modern day, when a lot of work has already been put into establishing the labour movement and much progress has been made across the world, a certain level of basic human rights is expected of private companies. However even in developed countries and in fact internationally, many companies have business models that are in clear violation of workers rights. Uber is amongst these, displaying its disregard for minimum wage and overtime in plain sight. However, in order to combat this and promote a fair regulation of their rights, Uber drivers had a strike on May 8 2019. Uber had just announced that there would be 25 per cent cuts in pay and the workers retaliated by rallying outside the headquarters of Uber, in New York City. Protesting the unreasonable and drastic cuts in workers wages was amongst the many reasons for the strike; including poor working conditions, and a lack of transparency from Uber. In fact, Uber, has an illegal business model based on loopholes which allow it to mistreat and overwork workers and also to obtain maximum profit. Classifying drivers as independent contractors Uber to avoid protections such as minimum wage, overtime, unemployment compensation, and the right to form a union. This extreme classification has been detrimental to many workers, and should definitely be considered a violation of workers rights. This strike was successful in gaining the attention of the international public. Legislators have also been drawn to the issue with Senator Bernie Sanders declaring his support for the striking drivers and condemning the Trump administration for providing cover for gig economy companies like Uber. Sanders also introduced legislation that would bar employers from continuing to misclassifying their employees. Hence we see that this strike was, in fact, successful in drawing attention and pushing the legislators to take action.

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In recent years, due to education and the advancement of technology, there has been a greater awareness observed amongst workers in developed countries about the rights they are eligible to as workers. Therefore, there has been a surge in the number of incidents where workers have been seen taking a stand against the mistreatment they face in the workforce. Workers are not afraid to use their voice to protest against the exploitation they face by their employers and have learnt how to stick up for themselves. For example, last year, tens of thousands of low-wage and fast food workers went on strike in hundreds of cities across the United States of America, they were protesting to have a minimum wage of $15 per hour and they also protested for their rights to unionise, they wanted to form a union for all low wage and service sector workers. Although initially, Mcdonalds fought against raising the minimum wage and justified their actions by talking about how they have tripled tuition assistance for employees, however, they eventually decided to abandon their fight against the $15 minimum wage. They increased their starting wages, such that it was $1 more than the minimum wage set by the local law. Another incident would be that Amazon warehouse employees in Europe have protested against their poor and harsh working conditions as they have been mistreated and treated like slaves by Amazon, such as being forced to work excessive hours in poor weather conditions. The slogan that they used for their protest was "We are not robots." As part of their protest, Amazon warehouse workers in Germany, Spain, and France walked off their jobs at their respective fulfilment centres on Black Friday, which is one of their busiest days of the year. Above are only a few examples of how workers in developed countries have learnt to fight for their rights. Therefore, the promotion of workers’ rights in developed countries has been conducted through the workers themselves learning to take a stand to demand the rights they are eligible for.

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📸: WorkRight initiative by MOM SG

What has been done to promote human rights in dcs

The WorkRight initiative is introduced in September 2012 by the Ministry of Manpower Singapore (MOM) and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board. It helps employee and employers understand their rights and obligations respectively in accordance with the Employment Act and CPF Act and aims to ensure that workers, especially low-wage workers, enjoy basic employment rights under the law such as being paid their salaries and CPF contribution on time. For employees, WorkRight helps them to understand their basic statutory employment benefits and for employers, WorkRight helps them to be more familiar with their employment obligations in order to better look after the rights and welfare of their workers through visits by inspectors. This initiative proved to be effective as 9 out of 10 employers now comply with employment laws, up from 7 out of 10 in 2013.

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Check this out

In developed western countries such as France and UK, one would expect there to be a decent standard for workers rights. Unfortunately, until the mid 20th century the legislative systems were quite poor in covering all aspects of these rights.

Firstly, France’s pension system which was established in 1910, had omitted the inclusion of the non farm self-employed workers for mandatory coverage and it was only added in 1948, a little more than just 70 years ago. Additionally self-employed farmers were excluded from mandatory coverage of pension until 1952.

This issue arose in UK and in USA as well, with the addition of coverage for self-employed workers only being made in 1952 and 1954 respectively.

Apart from the exclusion of self-employed workers, there is only some remnants of the insensitivity to the changing dynamics of families. The current legislative system implicit a ‘traditional’ nuclear family; a couple and their children. With an increasing number of women joining the labour force, the system should also be modified to suit their needs, such as maternity leave and leave for care of dependent family members. However, many women face pay inequity; where they earn less than their male counterparts, in the same job and position. According to the Shriver Report released in 2014, white women’s average annual paychecks reflected only 77 cents for every $1.00 earned by men. The pay gap is reflected to be even larger for women of colour. Furthermore, many working women cut back in work as they also have to bear their family responsibilities. This in itself disadvantages them, and furthermore,it can also impact their earning potential as many experience the “motherhood penalty”. This is the ‘discrimination” against mothers who join the workforce. They are less likely to be employed and if employed would likely be paid less than other non-mother women.  Hence, we see that the lack of proper enforced legislation regarding female workers rights regarding maternity leave, discrimination for employment and disparities in pay, women’s employment opportunities may affected in these ways as well as their overall income and way of life; as they would have to sustain themselves and their families on a lower salary.

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📸: Protests for workers’ rights

Effects of lack of workers rights in dcs

From Puerto Rico to Korea, workers are starting to protest against workers’ rights and have created an uproar that has disturbed national peace and people have been arrested due to the unruly behaviour during protests. In Puerto Rico, thousands of the citizens marched on the streets to traditional music whilst demanding austerity measures and even the ouster of a federal control board. In South Korea it is evident that their citizens are unwilling to face the work abuse anymore and have started to protest against it as shown from the Associated Press news agency. “Wearing headbands and swinging their fists, protesters in South Korea’s capital of Seoul rallied near City Hall, marching under banners denouncing deteriorating working conditions and demanding equal treatment and pay for temporary workers. A major South Korean umbrella trade union also issued a joint statement with a North Korean workers’ organization calling for the Koreas to push ahead with joint economic projects, despite lack of progress in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.”

Hence this shows the unison agreement among the citizens living in dcs that they are entitled to workers rights that are not yet met.

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If you think that all workers in developed countries receive all the workers’ rights that they should have, you might want to rethink that statement. Large-scale corporations usually take advantage of their workers and deprive them of the rights they deserve. The brutal reality Amazon warehouse employees face while working during the holidays was revealed during interviews with Business Insider. It was revealed that during prime or peak season, Amazon warehouse employees are all required to work mandatory overtime during holidays, such as Black Friday. During most of the year, the warehouse employees work 40 hours a week but during peak season, they have to work 60 hours a week, which are 5 12- hour night shifts. The workers essentially become slaves during these periods and the work they have to do is extremely physically gruelling and exhausting. During peak season, workers are banned from taking holidays. They are only allowed to do so if there are any extenuating circumstances, however such exceptions to the embargo are extremely rare. Amazon employees work under extremely harsh conditions, in order to keep up with the hourly rate, workers cannot take bathroom breaks or they risk TOT, otherwise known as time off task points, that could be used to justify job termination. Amazon drivers have to deliver 200 parcels a day and they do not even have time to take bathroom breaks. This not only shows the lack of workers’ rights, it also highlights the denial to a basic human right for the workers. Amazon warehouse employees are forced to work even during the most treacherous of weather conditions. For example, workers are asked to report for duty at their respective fulfilment centres even during storms or severely snowy conditions. They were told that they would be given days off when weather conditions are drastic. However, that was never really the case. If workers are unable to report for duty because of how bad the weather conditions are to the point where they are unable to see while driving, they get hours deducted from their unpaid time off. These instances showcase how Amazon workers are treated like slaves and robots and are thus, denied basic workers’ rights.

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Fair Pay

📸: Effects from Brexit

Effects of lack of workers’ rights in DCs

With the EU referendum and the possible negative consequences that may derive from Brexit for the workers, migrant workers may face problems in the future. Migrant workers on precarious contracts face situations when their employers have the authority to fire them or having no fixed wage. Workers are unable to take legal action against their employers due to these contracts that force them to oblige to their employers’ actions. Workers are thus exploited as their work conditions can be revoked any time by their employers and this is outside their control.

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Labour Force Survey

📸: Tabulation of hourly pay by Labour Force Survey

Comparison of average hourly pay around the world

The average hourly pay measures the wage inequalities between different ethnicities in the United Kingdom. From 2013 to 2017, the wage inequality gap between most ethnic groups had narrowed, allowing everyone to be paid equally. However, people from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups experience the lowest average hourly pay for all 5 years and have a drastic gap between the second lowest average hourly pay ethnic group, people from other Asian ethnic groups of £1.53. This highlights the social prejudice against one’s ethnicity or national origin, which thus resulted in them being depleted to the right of equal pay which may result in not enough money to meet all their needs and have little to none disposable income left to use for their own leisure.

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International Labour Rights Forum

ILRF: how it promotes workers’ rights in LDCs

📸: The International Labor Rights Forum is a human rights organization that aims to fight for justice for workers all around the world. It was established in 1986 and the motto that it lives by is “Building a Just World for Workers”.  The organisation has taken it upon itself to hold global corporations accountable for any labor rights violations that they have made in their supply chains. It aims to advance policies and laws that help to protect workers and helps to strengthen workers’ ability to advocate for their rights. ILRF works with a number of organisations around the world, such as labor unions and other human rights organizations, in the process of fighting for justice for workers.  ILRF also consults with workers themselves to check if the transnational campaigns they promote are able to benefit the workers.  For example, one of the campaigns that they have initiated is “Chocolate without Child Labour”. In developing countries such as Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire, cocoa is an extremely profitable business. However, since these are areas with abysmal infrastructure, farmers face the issue of securing better prices for their cocoa and there is also the conflict of a poverty-driven migration. Therefore, the cocoa business has turned into a supply of child and forced labour. The ILRF has been successful in shifting the focus in solving this crisis from simply removing children from work to prioritising parents’ livelihood and whether or not they have sufficient income to care for their families and big corporations’  accountability to not deprive the farmers of any workers’ rights.  The ILRF has also implemented many other successful schemes, such as the promotion of workers’ rights for those working in the seafood industry and has ensured that there is fair labour in the palm oil industry.

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Clean Clothes Campaign

📸: Clean Clothes Campaign

What has been done to promote workers’ rights in LDCs

Founded in 1989 during solidarity for action for workers in the Philippines, the CCC works to expand and establish basic labor rights for workers in the global garment and sportswear industries. They have brought together more than 200 unions, women's groups and research organisations worldwide and is now allied with 16 different European Countries. They educate and mobilise consumers, lobby companies and governments, and offer direct solidarity support to workers as they fight for their rights and demand better working conditions and put pressure on companies and governments to take responsibility to ensure that the rights of manufacturing workers in global supply chains are respected and implemented and promote workers rights in LDCs. This ensures that all the workers working under any employee regardless of race, gender or age etc. have an entitlement to good and safe working conditions, where they can exercise their fundamental rights to associate freely and bargain collectively, and earn a living wage, which allows them to live in dignity.

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Nike Lean Management

📸: Statistics of the Lean Management adopted by Nike

Nike is one ideal example of they managed to decrease sweatshop workers, and ideally, many other garment companies should adopt these strategies. Many assume lean management simply helps decrease wastage and improve productivity and financial performance. However, there has been a noticeable improvement in labour standards in these factories as well. According to statistics released by Nike, a factory operating under lean management showed a 15% decrease in the probability of labour violations, because of its overall improvement to health and safety of the company, since more workers received formal training as well, to adapt to this type of management.

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Lack of workers’ rights consequences

📸:Maruti Suzuki Case Study

Depriving workers of the rights they are eligible for usually leads to labour unrest and strife. In less developed countries, there have been cases of workers resorting to violence, in order to resolve whatever conflicts that they have with their employers regarding their working hours, pay or other issues concerning their workers’ rights. This can be seen from the Maruti Suzuki Case, which occurred in 2012. The incident had triggered by a disciplinary issue with a labourer from Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s Manesar plant, he had had a conflict with his shop floor director and was suspended. The union requested for him to be reinstated immediately as they felt that he should not have been suspended and also demanded for contract workers to receive the same salary as permanent employees but their demands were not heeded to by the management. Hence, this prompted a serious conflict between the workers and employers. The workers burnt down the wing of the plant, which caused the general manager of human resource to be suffer severe burn injuries, which eventually led to his death. This shows the negative effects of the lack of workers’ rights in less developed countries since workers resort to violence in the fight for their rights, which thus brings harm on others and causes a loss of lives.