Category Archives: Employment

UN report: half a billion people struggle to find adequate paid work

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Study also shows global unemployment due to rise for the first time in a decade

Nearly half a billion people around the world are struggling to find adequate paid work, trapping individuals in poverty and fuelling heightened levels of inequality, according to a UN report.

In a study published as world leaders fly into the Swiss ski resort of Davos to voice concerns over inequality and the climate crisis, the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) said more than 473 million people around the world lacked the employment opportunities to meet their needs.

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‘The river is our home’: Bangladeshi boatmen mourn their receding waters

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Decreased flows caused by water-hungry neighbours, especially India, are damaging river communities

• All photographs by Kaamil Ahmed

Holding his downturned palm level with his waist, Musana Robi Das indicates how tall he was when he started working on Bangladesh’s rivers.

As a child he helped his father ferry villagers across local waterways. Now a tall and spindly 50-year-old, he has had to abandon that life as a boatman. The waters now sit so low that his services are unnecessary. So the past decade has instead been spent repairing shoes inside a dimly lit wooden booth in the village market.

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The underpaid Georgian workers who risk their lives for your Christmas tree

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In Georgia’s northern mountains, workers scale daunting heights in search of the pine cones seeds that produce Europe’s favourite Christmas tree. But while foreign importers line their pockets, the climbers hazard all for a pittance

It takes Ramaz Chelishvili just a few seconds to reach the top. Soon, a pine cone falls to the ground. Then another. One by one, cones keep dropping, until none are left in the tree. Chelishvili, as fast as he climbed up, gets back down.

“I try to not think of anything up there, just focus. The problem is, if you lose concentration, then you might fall,” he says.

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Seafarer abandoned for three years off UAE will be home in time for Christmas

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After 39 months of waiting for his wages Vikash Mishra will finally be able to return home to his family in Mumbai

For the past three years, Vikash Mishra, a merchant seaman from Mumbai, has been stranded on a rusting cargo ship at sea in the United Arab Emirates, thousands of miles from his young family, after being abandoned by the vessel’s owner.

His 39-month ordeal, which he describes as “mental torture”, was covered by the Guardian in July, when conditions in the busy shipping lane became so dangerous after the vessel developed engine failure that he and three crew members feared for their lives.

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Every McDonald’s in Peru closes amid protests at death of two workers

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Chain to close all its restaurants for two days of mourning after deaths lead to protests over workplace safety

The death by electrocution of two young employees at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lima has spurred protests and stoked anger over working conditions in the wider economy, which are viewed as exploitative and sometimes dangerous.

Peru’s public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the deaths of Alexandra Porras, 19, and her former boyfriend Gabriel Campos, 18, who were reported to have died in the early hours of Sunday while cleaning the kitchen at the fast-food outlet.

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Qatar World Cup chief insists progress being made on migrant rights

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Gulf state says it plans to end kafala system in response to criticism of migrant workers’ treatment

The Qatari official in charge of organising the most controversial edition of the football World Cup since the tournament’s inception in 1930 has claimed that criticism of his country’s treatment of migrant workers will have a ripple effect that will improve regional labour standards.

The 2022 World Cup has been dogged by criticism of its host’s kafala system, which ties migrant workers to so-called sponsorship by their employer, meaning they cannot move jobs or leave the country without the employer’s approval.

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‘CVs at bottom of pile’: Britons in EU say Brexit is taking its toll

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Uncertainty over UK citizens’ future status is prompting some European employers to steer clear

Past 40, and nearly five years after he arrived in Madrid, John Halliday is moving back to the UK and in with his parents. He had “nowhere else to go”, he says: Brexit had cost him his job and made other Spanish employers reluctant to hire Britons.

Related: Britons in Europe face citizens' rights 'lottery' in event of no deal

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Norwegian wealth fund blacklists G4S shares over human rights concerns

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Sovereign wealth fund cites risk of company contributing to ill-treatment of migrant labour in Qatar and UAE

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has banned all holdings of shares in G4S because of the risk of human rights violations against the British security company’s workforce in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Norway’s Council of Ethics, which monitors investments in the country’s £860bn Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), said there was an “unacceptable risk of the company contributing to systematic human rights violations”. Up to 30,000 staff could be affected.

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Cuba’s secret deal to monetise medics working in Qatar

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Most of the money earned by Cuban doctors working in Qatar goes to their national government. But while some feel exploited, others tell a different story

Drive west from Doha’s glistening glass towers, past two World Cup stadiums still under construction and out into the desert, and you’ll eventually reach a small hospital surrounded only by sand and shrubs.

At its entrance hang two flags rippling in the scorching breeze: one of Qatar, the other of Cuba.

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Qatar’s workers are at risk of heat stress for half the day during summer, finds UN

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A third of workers in study experienced dangerously high body temperatures, despite working ban during hottest periods

Migrant labourers working outdoors in Qatar face “high” or “extreme” risk of heat stress for more than half the working day during the four hottest months of the year, according to a UN report.

The findings come just weeks after the Guardian revealed that hundreds of workers may be dying due to exposure to Qatar’s intense summer heat.

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Workers making £88 Lululemon leggings claim they are beaten

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Exclusive: Upmarket brand, which has just launched UN partnership, opens investigation as female labourers in Bangladesh factory say they suffer regular abuse

Lululemon, an athleisure brand whose £88 leggings are worn by celebrities and Instagram influencers, are sourcing clothing from a factory where Bangladeshi female factory workers claim they are beaten and physically assaulted.

The Canadian brand recently launched a partnership with the United Nations to reduce stress levels and promote the mental health of aid workers.

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Sudden deaths of hundreds of migrant workers in Qatar not investigated

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Exclusive: in majority of cases, authorities do not perform postmortems, despite recommendations from regime’s lawyers

Qatar is failing to investigate the sudden deaths of hundreds of migrant works, the Guardian can reveal.

Hundreds of labourers in the World Cup host nation die each year, with the majority of the fatalities attributed to heart attacks or “natural causes” by the Qatari authorities. Many are young men who die in their sleep – a phenomenon locally dubbed “sudden death syndrome”.

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Workers at Dubai’s Expo 2020 likely to have suffered dangerous heat stress

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Exclusive: ‘World’s greatest show’ could be linked to cardiorespiratory failures in labourers building infrastructure

Thousands of migrant construction workers employed on huge infrastructure and building projects ahead of next year’s Expo 2020 exhibition in Dubai are likely to have been exposed to dangerous levels of heat stress, a Guardian investigation has found.

Dubai will host the Expo 2020 next year, in which 190 countries will come together to celebrate themes of mobility, innovation and sustainability in a series of bespoke, themed pavilions across a 4.38 sq km site in Dubai South economic zone.

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From Qatar to Vietnam, global heating is making the workplace deadly for millions

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Regular exposure to dangerously high temperatures poses a grave and growing threat to workers around the world

By now, many of us recognise that we are confronting a climate emergency on a vast scale, and that rising temperatures will threaten the lives of millions across the planet. Severe heat waves have already killed many thousands of people over the past decade, but what is less recognised is that rising temperatures are also, slowly but surely, bringing more dangerous heat stress into our daily lives.

Millions of people work outside or in uncooled indoor environments every day. People working in construction, agriculture, fishing, forestry or the military often work intensively in direct sun for extended periods of time. Millions of workers in indoor factories, warehouses and workshops are also exposed to excessive workplace heat. A study of a garment factory in Cambodia predominantly employing young women showed indoor temperatures as high as 37C.

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Dead at 24: did heat kill Doha World Cup worker Rupchandra Rumba? | Pete Pattisson

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The Nepali’s sudden death was attributed to ‘natural causes’ – but like hundreds of other young migrants who die in Qatar each year he worked in extreme temperatures

Revealed: hundreds of migrant workers dying of heat stress in Qatar each year

It is a grim place to die: a bunk bed in a filthy, crowded room, deep within Qatar’s largest labour camp, thousands of miles from home.

As Rupchandra Rumba lay there in the early hours of 23 June, his friends heard him struggle for breath.

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Revealed: hundreds of migrant workers dying of heat stress in Qatar each year

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As construction boom hits its peak ahead of Fifa World Cup, Guardian analysis shows workers toiling in potentially fatal temperatures

Dead at 24: did heat kill Doha World Cup worker Rupchandra Rumba?

Migrant labourers are being worked to death in searing temperatures in Qatar, with hundreds estimated to be dying from heat stress every year, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

This summer, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers toiled in temperatures of up to 45C for up to 10 hours a day as Qatar’s construction boom hit its peak ahead of the Fifa World Cup 2022.

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Amnesty International staff to vote on strike action over redundancies

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Employees urge charity to consider using donations to fund jobs as management say job losses are unavoidable

Staff at Amnesty International are to vote on whether to strike over a dispute about redundancies.

The trade union Unite will ballot its 300 members at the human rights organisation next week.

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Honey project brings sweet success for families in Zambia

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Beehives built out of scrap wood in the country’s virgin forests have reaped rewards for 10,000 local families

A former hedge fund manager has become one of Africa’s most prolific single-source honey producers through a social enterprise that impacts thousands of families.

The Zambia-based organisation, Mama Buci – meaning “Mother Honey” in Bemba, the local language – was started 10 years ago by former trader Martin Zuch and has since grown to provide more than 10,000 families with income.

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Transparency International staff complain of bullying and harassment

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Corruption watchdog accused of promoting ‘toxic’ workplace culture that silenced critical voices

Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International has been accused of promoting a “toxic” internal environment of bullying and harassment, making it the latest high-profile charity to come under fire over its workplace culture.

Seven current and former staff members said the organisation had “failed in its duty of care” to staff. They accused managing director Patricia Moreira of promoting a culture that enabled “bullying”, silenced critical voices, and used “gagging orders” – confidentiality clauses in termination agreements. Leaked internal emails and documents including a staff survey corroborate their accounts.

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Bosses force female workers making jeans for Levis and Wrangler into sex

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Women at factories in Lesotho owned by Taiwanese firm say jobs and promotions in jeopardy if they refuse advances, claims report

Women producing jeans for American brands including Levi Strauss, Wrangler and Lee have been forced to sleep with their managers to keep their jobs or gain promotion, an investigation into sexual harassment and coercion at garment factories in Lesotho has found.

Brands have responded to the “extensive” allegations by the the US-based Worker Rights Consortium by signing enforceable agreements with labour and women’s rights groups to eliminate gender-based violence for more than 10,000 workers at five factories owned by the Taiwanese company Nien Hsing, one of the southern African country’s largest employers.

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