|
Welcome to SUNS 2008! |
|
Committee: ECOSOC Topic B: International labor laws to prevent exploitation of developing countries Directors: Eric Zabroky (English), Alejandro Talamas (Spanish)
Committee Background: An international labor law is a law that guarantees the protection of workers in their jobs and gives them the minimum wage or salary that is established in that country. The problem arises when businesses lower their wage salary or give workers less money in a place where it isn’t their original country. This problem is generally in countries like China or Taiwan, although there are similar cases in many developed countries. This is related to child labor since children aren’t paid that much. Globalization plays a big part in this problem since many companies are trying to expand or grow in different countries, especially less developed countries.
Description of the topic: International Labor laws try to protect workers in different countries. When companies from other countries, like Nike or Reebok from the U.S. or Europe, go to less developed countries, new workers from these countries are paid much less than average because companies think that they don’t need to be very well paid and local wages are low. This creates poverty, injustice, and longer working hours for less money. Many companies and people react in a very astonished or surprised way since they pay workers less than a dollar a day and they sell the product for more than 100 dollars each pair. These shoes are made in less developed countries because in developed countries, such as the U.S., there are laws that strictly prohibit the abuse of workers and companies can be fined. In less developed countries, this is not the case. Either labor laws protecting workers don’t exist in these developing countries, or governments do not enforce strictly the laws therefore causing companies to take advantage of this and exploit workers for their needs without paying them more than a dollar a day in some cases. A sweatshop is a place where people work for very little salary. These sweatshops offer very little rights to the workers and dangerous working conditions. Some conditions include exposure to hazardous materials, extreme temperatures or abuse of workers. Although this idea of sweatshops might sound bad, many anti-sweatshops activists have managed and succeeded to make sweatshops close, which creates more poverty, starving to death and people ended up even more desperately poor. When people became aware of the problem, many workers start to form labor unions. These labor unions go on strike until the companies satisfy their needs. First, companies try to fire all the workers who go on strike and then if this does not work, they try to close down that site. Then they go to other places near that place where they can get workers and they threaten them by telling them that they will go if they start to form strikes. These strikes make a halt or stop to the work by trade unionists. Strikes were made illegal in many countries since the factory owners had much more political power than the workers. In many cases, strikes are made to make the government change of opinion or policy. After people formed labor unions and go on strike, the companies mostly shut down their factories or try to negotiate with the workers. If the companies don’t get to an agreement with the workers, the factories are shut down and the workers probably would lose their jobs. Treaties such as the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) let trade unions go on strike although it also forces the companies to not be able to close down their factories so that there is trade and workers have enough salary. NAFTA countries include Canada, United States, and Mexico. Canada and United States has no problem in complying or following this treaty but Mexico does have a problem. Many labor unions in Mexico fail to raise workers’ salaries, causing Mexico to break the NAFTA policies of labor unions. Currently there are institutes that help the workers have their rights and their security. Such institutes include the International Labor Organization (ILO), the General Confederation of Trade Unions (GCTU), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), International Workers Association (IWA), and the World Confederation of Labor (WCL),which are devoted in making opportunities for men and women to maintain a job, giving them freedom, security and dignity. Their main goals are to promote workers’ rights and give decent job opportunities. These organizations believe that their main mission is to give workers their jobs so that they can achieve prosperity. The minimum wage is the lowest wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. Minimum wage laws are now enforced in more than 90% of all countries. Minimum wage laws are different in every country, according to its government not only in setting a particular amount of money. For example in the US the minimum wage is $6.55 per hour or £5.52 in the United Kingdom. Minimum-wage laws only help the least experienced, least productive and poorest workers. The advantage of this law is that it helps small businesses as well as big businesses. This is because small businesses don’t have to pay that much money to workers, making the businesses gain more money. This also happens to big businesses, they have many workers and they don’t have to pay that much to each one. It also increases the standard of living of the people, encouraging them to work more. It increases the speed of consumption of people since low paid people receive more money and use it much faster. This also has a negative side. It hurts small businesses more than large ones. It also decreases people’s salary, by encouraging people to work at an earlier age and leaving education behind. Minimum wage law increases unemployment since people want more money than what they can get. Other laws include the work hour law, protection of employees law, child labor law and foreign workers law, etc.
The work hour consists of working for 7 hours a day maximum, although this may change depending on the country of the worker, and when required to stay more time, the boss will pay 150% of the salary. In a week, the maximum work hours are up to 45 hours, these working hours in a week also vary depending the country’s law. Night work has to be up to 2 hours from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. The protection of employees’ law says that an employer or boss must take in to account the employee’s term of work and must not fire or dismiss the employee if he or she files a complaint against the employer. The child labor law says that children who are less than 15 years old cannot be employed at any work or job. A child who has 15 years old and has had education in a school can work if The Minister of Education and Culture guarantees that he or she has had education. The foreign workers law states that for a foreign worker to get a job he or she must have a written contract of his or her job in their language and must have agreed to the terms.
Situation in Countries: European Union: The European Union limits the working hours to 48 hours in 7 days, and a minimum of 11 hours of rest every 24 hours. Although these laws apply to all member states, countries such as Great Britain and France have made laws to reduce or increase minimum and maximum working hours in they own countries. Great Britain: The most recent laws that the Great Britain made were the Employment Law Act and the Equal Pay Act in 1970, although they started until 1972. These acts were made for the equality of men and women at work. U.S.: Federal law in the U.S. sets standards for the workers’ rights to have a private property or private sector. Employees can work for maximum 8 hours in the U.S. and for a week, 40 hours maximum. Before the 40 hours, the maximum number of hours an employee could work was 44 hours. France: French government states that for every year that an employer works, he or she will have, at least, 14 days of vacations. In 2000, the French president, Lionel Jospin enacted a law reducing the working hours from 40 hours to 35 hours a week. In 1968, the minimum-wage was increased a 25%. The minimum wage currently is €8.71 per hour. Colombia: Colombia has been the most violent country when it comes to labor unions and workers’ rights. According to Colombian government, assassinations of trade unions have reduced from 205 in 2001 to 26 in 2007. Much of these results come from the security that Colombia’s newest president, Alvaro Uribe, has implemented in Colombia. China: In China, there are many people working in different jobs, while the average educational level is low, resulting in a big problem of unemployment. Recently this year, China announced a new labor law that is designed to better protect workers' rights, including signed, written contracts for all employees. Mexico: In the 1917 Constitution of Mexico, it declared that the maximum number of hours for a person living in Mexico is 8 hours. Article 123 in the Mexican Constitution states that workers have the right to organize labor unions and also have strikes against what they think is wrong. It also establishes that Mexico is divided in 3 zones for the minimum wages: Zone A- This zone gives 51 pesos as minimum wage to the states of Baja California, Distrito Federal and other large states. Zone B- This zone gives 49 pesos as minimum wage to the states of Sonora, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Jalisco. Zone C- This zone gives 48 pesos as minimum wage to all other states in Mexico. India: Currently, India doesn’t have an exact minimum wage for the workers since the government sets a minimum wage to agricultural workers and to industrial workers. Russia: For Russia, the minimum wage in a month is about 2,300 Russian Rubles. Most jobs in Russia are full time, 40 hours a week. If a worker has 2 jobs, the second job is reduced to a part time job, 20 hours. Overtime hours are paid 150% more. Japan: In 2004, Japan’s average working hours were 44 per week. Karoshi, a Japanese word that means “death from overwork” was first seen in Japan in 1992. People would actually die from doing so much work. This problem and the working hours are decreasing, year by year. The minimum wage in this country is about 618 to 739 yen per hour.
· What is your country’s solution to this problem? · Does your country have or had sweatshops? If so, what has your country done to stop them? · Does your country have laws for the protection of the workers? · Does your country have laws for the right of the workers to form labor unions? · Does your country have multinational corporations that employ lots of laborers in developing countries? If so, why aren’t these jobs done by workers in your own country? · What is your country´s working hours in a week and in a day, does this surpass the customary “legal” limit? · What is the minimum wage for workers in your country? · How is your country going to supervise or make sure that these labor laws are enforced in every city? · Does your country have institutions or organizations to protect the workers’ rights? · If so, how do these institutions help in your country? · What recent actions has your country done to avoid this type of problem?
Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage http://www.newsweek.com/id/111027 http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm http://www.tamas.gov.il/NR/exeres/9034396F-AC64-4C44-9466-25104B45FBB1.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country |
|
http://www.forecasts.org/images/leading-indicator/unemploy.gif |
