Worker Centres from a Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Lens

The purpose of this paper is to explain how a worker centre can also perform functions that support fundamental principles and rights at work. The paper draws on the experience of the ILO’s Work in Freedom programme in supporting worker centres in South and West Asia.

Worker centres are meant for all types of workers, however they tend to cater primarily to the needs of informal workers and migrant workers and tend to exist and be located in areas where fundamental principles and rights at work, such as non-discrimination, freedom of association and collective bargaining as enshrined in International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions No. 111, No. 87 and No. 98, are a distant reality for both informal workers and migrant workers.

This paper draws on the experience of the ILO’s Work in Freedom programme in supporting worker centres in South and West Asia. It was presented at the ILO Anniversary Conference “Continuing the Struggle: The International Labour Organization Centenary and the Future of Global Worker Rights” held on 21–22 November 2019 in Washington, DC at a panel titled “Protecting Migrants and Refugees Working in Global Supply Chains: New Directions for the ILO.

Lessons Learned Part 2: Recruitment

This document describes the lessons learned by the Work in Freedom programme on recruitment of migrant workers. This compilation was preceded by an earlier edition of Lessons Learned in October 2017, followed by another one in February 2019. This new edition focuses particularly on recruitment of migrant workers. It lists and describes the nature of both conventional and non-conventional interventions and reviews some of the assumptions behind the rationale for these interventions.

Understanding patterns of structural discrimination against migrant and other workers in some countries of South and West Asia

This background paper reviews the literature that sheds light on the structural patterns of discrimination against migrant workers in some countries of South and West Asia. It also articulates recommendations that would help officials in UN agencies, international organizations, constituents and other civil society individuals and groups, while referring to the existing evidence of structural discrimination to support the application of international labour standards.

While references to international non-discrimination standards do occasionally surface in public discourses, this paper reviews evidence that discrimination in the world of work is not only characterized by socially deviant cases of discriminatory abuse, as reported in the media, but is rather intrinsic to the way various market economies and political systems are structured. This is manifested by indicators of privilege for some and indicators of deprivation for those at the bottom of the social and political hierarchies, including the interaction between both.

The invisible workers: Bangladeshi women in Oman

The purpose of this ethnography is to follow the lives of working women from Bangladesh and document and analyse the diversity of their individual and collective experiences. The findings reveal a reality that contrasts from the usual characterisations of migrant women.

This study explores the work and lives of women from Bangladesh in Oman. It is meant to be an exploratory study about the working and living conditions of women domestic workers from Bangladesh. The study lays out the context of women’s migration from Bangladesh to Oman, it’s relationship with the migration of men, the types of work and living arrangements that were encountered, the social networks of migrant women and other considerations that Bangladeshi women reflected on. This ethnographic study fills a gap on research regarding migrant workers from Bangladesh in Oman.

Migration and gender in Bangladesh: An irregular landscape

This survey is part of a series of studies commissioned by the Work in Freedom Programme of the ILO in order to document the motives and trajectories of migrant women workers. The survey explores the local and regional gendered specificities of migration and work-seeking in selected localities of Bangladesh by collecting gender disaggregated data and analysing contrasting patterns that inform women and men’s migration.

This report presents the result of a survey conducted in five districts of Bangladesh to document international labour migration. The districts were selected for their contrasting features. Two districts, Barguna and Patuakhali, are relatively new to women’s migration, whereas three districts, Manikganj, Narayanganj and Brahmanbaria, have a long history of such movement. The extent of women’s participation in migration was a major criteria for the selection of districts aimed to capture a range of situations. In all, 8,437 migrant workers were recorded in 125 villages. The analysis brings out important consideration that challenge common assumptions on women’s migration. For example, the survey brings out hard evidence that questions policy assumptions that women migrate homogenously from around the country or that their cost of recruitment is high. In that sense, this survey’s findings have important implications on local, national and regional policy making related to safe migration, anti-trafficking and labour policies.

Policy Brief on Practices and Regulations of Recruitment to Domestic Work

The policy brief highlights common recruitment practices and regulations observed along recruitment pathways to domestic work in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Jordan and Lebanon.

The purpose of this policy brief is to respond to the rising interest in improving recruitment practices and regulations in order to reduce vulnerability to human trafficking and forced labour. In some cases, examples from other regions have been highlighted. Given the complexity of cross jurisdictional recruitment practices and regulation this brief presents common practices and regulations, pointing to where and how they can constitute better practices. The mapping and analysis are based on research and lessons learned from the ILO’s Work in Freedom Programme recruitment pilots within South Asia or from South Asia to the Middle East. There are two sections to this brief, first – describing common recruitment practices and regulations and second – giving examples of better recruitment practices and corresponding regulations.

For a fee: The business of recruiting Bangladeshi women for domestic work in Jordan and Lebanon

This working paper aims to shed light on the business models of labour recruiters that facilitate the recruitment of women from South Asian countries into domestic work in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Bangladesh, Jordan and Lebanon.

Focusing primarily on Bangladesh, Jordan and Lebanon, the study draws on 126 interviews conducted with key stakeholders, to analyse the recruitment ‘business model’ utilised by private employment agencies specialising on the domestic work sector.

Globally, the international recruitment industry is composed of an increasingly complex web of actors. In order to profit, private employment agencies must devise competitive strategies to generate income greater than the costs of selecting, processing and mobilising people into jobs. Such business models are dynamic and responsive to changes in market demands and skills’ availability. 

The study also assesses the influence of national laws, policies and regulations on how private employment agencies conduct their business. By illuminating the factors that guide the actions of private employment agencies, the study aims to inform better policies and interventions to protect migrant domestic workers and eliminate abusive practices.

Pathways for empowering employment: Diversity and challenges for women migrant workers of Bangladesh

The study focuses on short term overseas employment of semi-skilled and low-skilled workers because most Bangladeshi female workers fall under this category. It covers only regular migration because there is insufficient data available on irregular, undocumented migration.

Committed to ensuring the protection and empowerment of women migrant workers in alignment with the outlined targets, the Government of Bangladesh recognizes the need to explore new employment markets and additional trade opportunities that are safe and that provide dignified work opportunities. For this reason, UN Women (in collaboration with the International Labour Organization and financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) commissioned these two studies: an analysis of Japan as a potential destination for work for Bangladeshi women and an analysis of caregivers in health care and beauticians in beauty parlours as two potential formal labour sector occupations.

Recruitment Monitoring & Migrant Welfare Assistance: What Works?

As numbers of temporary labour migrants have rapidly increased over the past four decades, facilitating international migration has become a highly profitable and multi-faceted business. Human rights defenders, civil society organisations, journalists and academics have consistently exposed exploitation of migrants which occurs during recruitment processes. Abuses include high recruitment fees that lead to debt bondage, the processing of fake employment and immigration documents, confiscation of identity documents, and emotional and physical violence, or even trafficking for forced labour. On arriving in many destination countries migrants are left unprotected and vulnerable to more exploitation.

This study, conducted by an international research team between January and April 2014, reviews existing recruitment monitoring mechanisms and migrants’ access to rights and welfare assistance across Colombo Process Member States (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam), and key destination states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen).  With analysis presented thematically, the report concludes with a series of recommendations for Colombo Process governments.