ILO Takes Big Steps Toward Domestic Workers Rights
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has taken a giant step forward in its fight to create workplace justice for the millions of housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers around the world. At its conference in Geneva, which ended June 16, the ILO began the process which establishes  a first-ever international  standard “convention”  to protect the rights of domestic workers.

 If the convention is passed at the ILO’s meeting in 2011, it will require governments that ratify it to ensure that domestic workers are covered by the fundamental rights and principles of the ILO, which include the freedom to form unions, elimination of forced labor, abolition of child labor and an end to discrimination. Employers would be responsible for making sure workers are informed of the agreed upon conditions of work, preferably through a written contract, defining wages and working conditions.

In the United States, domestic workers have few rights. They were not even covered on the rights relating to wages until 1974. Early this month, the New York Senate extended basic rights to more than 200,000 domestic workers in the state.  The State Assembly passed a similar bill last year. A new law on domestic worker rights will take effect on Jan. 1, 2011.

Paid Parental Leave Is an Achievement for Australian Working Moms
Australian working mothers will have better health and financial security after the passage of the first national paid parental leave scheme, say the Australian Council of Trade Unions. ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the passing of the bill by the Senate on June 17 was the culmination of a 30-year campaign by working women and their unions.

Two-thirds of Australian women who have a baby currently get no paid parental leave. Parents have been forced to make a choice between having a child and paying the bills, Burrow said. This week, ACTU presented all political parties with a petition from 25,000 people, urging the Senate to pass the paid  maternity leave bill.

A new national standard that gives all women the right to take a period of paid leave will also be a major benefit to maternal health and child-care development, supporters of the bill argue.

Undocumented Immigrants Win Concessions from French Government
A couple of hundred immigrants without regular working papers, ended their six-week demonstration on Place de la Bastille on June 18 after the French government agreed to re-evaluate their right to work in France. The CGT trade union said it had made progress in talks with government officials, agreeing to make adjustments in current regulations.

The text put forward by the trade union calls on the government to take into account “the specifities of certain professional sectors.”  The immigrants, mostly West Africans,  packed up  their tents late Friday and evacuated the area after weeks of protest.

Most were claiming to have been working for many years in France without any official recognition. Government estimates suggest there are currently hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in France. The new measures are set to be re-evaluated every three months.

Scores of Bangladeshi Garment Factories Close as Workers Strike
Thousands of stone-throwing garment workers clashed with the police in a manufacturing hub outside the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, on June 19 as they swarmed the streets and factories to demand higher wages. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to gain control  of the protesters.  About 50 factories in the area shut down because they feared attacks by the workers.

The protest began when  7,000 employees of one factory stopped work to demonstrate on the premises. Thousands more workers from surrounding factories later filled the streets. One protester, Abdus Salam, said  at least 100 people were injured and many of his colleagues were taken to hospitals. Salam said the workers were demanding a minimum wage of 5,000 takas ($73) a month. The current  average monthly  wage is 2,000 takas ($29).

The garment industry, which employs two million people in Bangladesh and is a mainstay of the country’s economy, has been hit hard  by the global recession. Bangladesh exports about $12 billion in garments, mainly to the United States and Europe.

Employers in Russia Raise Workers’ Pay by an Average 10%
Sixty-five percent of all major companies working in Russia have raised their employees’ salaries by an average of 10 percent since the peak of the recession, according to a survey Only 6 percent of the employers slashed  salaries over the period from April 2009 to April 2010, in the survey  conducted by human resources consultancy, Kelly Services.  By the end of the year, it is estimated that a full 80 percent  of all firms will have raised wages since the worst part of the economic crisis.

Most firms are now focusing on keeping their existing staff happy through pay increases, and plan to encourage those who have survived the economic crisis by increasing  their bonuses, reinforcing benefits and investing  in education and training.

Despite the inducements to the staff,  job losses have continued through 2010, with 37 percent of the companies saying they cut staff by 14 percent. When hiring picks up toward the end of the year, many of the new jobs may be in different sectors from  where the original layoffs occurred, The Russian government is redirecting its demand for specialists in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

70 Feared Dead in Colombian Mine Blast
More than 70 Colombian miners are feared dead after they were trapped by an explosion that ripped through a coal mine in what could become one of the Andean country’s worst mining disasters. At least 18 bodies were pulled from the wreckage after the midnight  gas explosion in northwestern Antioquia province. The death toll was expected to rise steadily as rescuers struggled against gas and debris into the mine shaft.

The blast in the small underground San Fernando mine occurred far from the major operations run by companies such as Drummond and Glencore, near the Caribbean coast. In the town of Amaga, near the destroyed mine, relatives sobbed and hugged each other and anxiously pressed rescuers for news, a bodies wrapped in white sheets were carried from the wreckage to waiting hearses.

Last year, a methane gas explosion in another Antioquia province coal mine killed eight workers. Two years ago, five miners died in the same mine during a flood and in 2007, 31 miners were killed in an explosion in Norte de Santander, in one of the country’s worst mining disasters.