RE Literature Review

On Foreign Labour Policies - “Our Governments and Us”

Abstract

With the rise of globalization, foreign labour is becoming an increasingly popular labour option

1. Lower wages than local labourers2. No union or political clout

Often leads to violations of foreign labourers’ rights

Examine the role which the Governments around the world played in helping foreign labourers.

Three case studies: Singapore, Russia and Saudi Arabia

Singapore

The PAP encourages the employment of foreign labourers

1. As of March 2006, there are 670,000 foreign labourers in Singapore – a 170% increase since the last 46 years

On the other hand,

1. There is rapid rise in the number of cases of foreign labourer abuse

2. In 1997, there were 4 cases of domestic worker abuse. In 2000, there were 39 cases

“Foreign labourers complain, among others, of unsafe working environments, insufficient pay, and physical abuse by employers.”

– Human Rights Watch Report

PAP To The Rescue!

The Ministry of Manpower provides a special hotline for foreign labourers

Prints information on employees’ rights and police hotline number; random interviews conducted to ensure that they are not abused

Singapore Government funds shelter for abused workers, providing them with counseling, health care, physical security and skills development programs

– www.humantrafficking.org

However, some cases has still slipped through MOM’s scrutiny

Rating: Good Job

In Soviet Russia……

The financial crisis adds fuel to the nationalist anti-foreigners flame

For example: Russia, hit by global recession, faces widespread loss of jobs for rural native workers.

1. Companies retrench local workers

2. Turn to foreign labourers for workforce

3. Foreign labourers work for much lower salary than locals

“Recent executions push the number of race murders to more than forty”, which is “twice the number of race murders at this point last year”

(Sova, Moscow-based organization, 2007 report)

The Party Finds YOU!

Russia revised its migration laws recently

Workers who enter Russia without a visa can legalize their stay and employment more easily

This prevents unscrupulous employers from blackmailing workers

1. Threaten to report the labourers without a visa to the authorities

2. Fearing a fine or a jail term, the labourers would have to work in harsh environments, with little pay

Unfortunately, the reforms “do not go far enough to protect migrant workers from abuse “

– Human Rights Watch Feb 2009

Rating: Not up to standard

Saudi Arabia…’Nuff Said

Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are frequently exposed to “egregious abuses” with “little or no hope of redress”

Ramani Prianka, a worker there, worked from 4.30am till midnight, without fail every day.

Others complain that their pay is routinely late, or that it is partially, or sometimes even totally, withheld from them

Their complaints were rarely heeded

It was not until 1992 that foreign workers obtained the right to litigation; not much has changed since then