Category Archives: Workers’ rights

Wells Fargo workers at two US branches of bank launch efforts to unionize

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Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bethel, Alaska, make rare move to organize staff in financial industry

Workers at two Wells Fargo bank branches are planning to launch unionization efforts on Monday in a rare move to organize staff at a financial services company.

Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bethel, Alaska, said they would notify the National Labor Relations Board that they plan to hold elections to decide whether to unionize, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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Bangladesh garment workers fighting for pay face brutal violence and threats

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Workers describe hands and arms being targeted in ‘merciless’ beatings as protests over low wages turn increasingly violent in Dhaka

When Masuma Akhtar arrived at the garment factory where she works on the outskirts of Dhaka on 31 October, she was expecting a normal shift. Instead, she was met with brute violence. “The moment I walked through the factory gates, a group of armed men began beating me with wooden sticks,” says Akhtar. “I fell down on to the ground. Even then they wouldn’t stop beating me.”

Akhtar, 22, is a seamstress at Dekko Knitwears in Mirpur, where she spends long days churning out clothes for western fashion brands, including Marks & Spencer, C&A and PVH Corp, which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.

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Hollywood actors’ union reaches tentative deal with studios to end strike

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Sag-Aftra union hails agreement of ‘extraordinary scope’ with Hollywood producers, bringing to a close historic work stoppage

Hollywood actors are set to end their nearly four-month strike, the Sag-Aftra union announced on Wednesday, bringing to a close a historic work stoppage that had brought the film and television industry to a standstill for months.

Sag-Aftra and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday, ending film and television actors’ longest strike roughly a month after writers signed their new contract. The deal came after parties had resumed talks last week following stalled negotiations in early October.

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Workers for fast fashion brands fear starvation as they fight for higher wages

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Garment workers in Bangladesh making clothes for UK brands say plans to increase their pay to £92 a month is not enough to survive

Garment workers making clothes in Bangladesh for UK high-street brands say they are facing starvation and are having to steal and scavenge food from fields and bins to feed their children, as protests continue over a new minimum wage for the garment workforce of 4 million people.

Over the past week, tens of thousands of workers have taken to the streets in increasingly violent protests that, according to unions and news reports, have left one young garment worker, Rasel Hawlader, dead.

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Motherhood penalty ‘has driven 250,000 women out of jobs’

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Cost and difficulties of balancing work and childcare has led one in 10 to quit, says Fawcett Society

About a quarter of a million mothers with young children have left their jobs because of difficulties with balancing work and childcare, according to a report by an equal rights charity that calls for the end of the “motherhood penalty”.

This juggling act, as well as the punitive cost, has led more than 249,124 working mothers of children aged four or under to leave their employer, according to the Fawcett Society.

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UAE to investigate recruitment of Filipina domestic worker who died

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Inquiry follows Guardian report on Vergie Tamfungan, whose death in the Gulf country has shone a spotlight on ‘cross-country’ employment practices

The UAE government has repatriated the body of a Filipina domestic worker who died last month, and launched an investigation into the findings of a Guardian report on the recruiters that brought her into the country.

When Vergie Tamfungan, 39, died on 25 September, she was being held in her recruiter’s accommodation in the emirate of Sharjah and had not yet been placed in a household to work. Her family said she had gone to the UAE that month after being promised a good salary and bonuses by the agency.

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Peter Mandelson calls for Labour caution in improving workers’ rights

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Peer warns party against over-zealous labour market reforms while dismissing former leaders as ‘weak, weak, weak’

Peter Mandelson has warned Labour not to go too far in bringing in labour market reforms to benefit workers and hit out at Unite’s Sharon Graham, while describing the past decade of party leaders as “weak, weak, weak”.

The Labour peer, a former business secretary and architect of the 1997 election victory, gave a combative speech to a City of London Corporation dinner at the party conference, where he warned against making labour market reforms that swung towards the “other extreme”.

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Ex-wife of Boris Johnson to help Labour protect women from bullying at work

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Marina Wheeler KC to be tasked with strengthening rights to safeguard women who report workplace harassment

A leading barrister and ex-wife of Boris Johnson is set to be appointed as Labour’s new “whistleblowing tsar”, offering advice on proposed protections for women against workplace harassment.

Marina Wheeler KC will help the party with its plans to strengthen employment rights to safeguard women from abusive colleagues, the Independent reported.

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Pakistan welcomes fast-fashion brand Boohoo despite poor staff safety claims

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Call to set up role comes as report alleges retailer uses factories that violate minimum-wage requirements and workers’ rights

Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, has reportedly asked the British fast-fashion brand Boohoo to increase its presence in the country, despite claims that it has failed to tackle poor conditions at its suppliers’ factories there.

In a meeting with Kakar this week, Mahmud Kamani, chairman of Boohoo Group, expressed an interest in establishing long-term buying linkages with Pakistan, according to Radio Pakistan.

Kakar pointed out Pakistan’s pro-investment policies and facilities, and invited Boohoo to open franchises in the country, which is in economic turmoil, with a record inflation rate of 36.4%.

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Unilever to make payments to Kenyan tea pickers over 2007 plantation attacks

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UK law firm Leigh Day says money given to 77 workers for murders and rapes ‘sidesteps’ multinational’s responsibility over attack

Unilever is to make payments to 77 tea pickers who worked on one of its plantations in Kenya that was targeted during post-election violence in 2007.

The UK law firm Leigh Day, representing the workers, said the London-based consumer goods multinational had agreed to make voluntary, or ex-gratia, payments to former workers at its subsidiary Unilever Tea Kenya, who were attacked by armed assailants at its plantation in Kericho.

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Greens want superannuation theft made a crime in Labor’s workplace bill

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Senator Barbara Pocock says unpaid super is costing workers at least $3.3bn a year, while wage theft losses are about $1.3bn

The Greens have urged the Albanese government to make superannuation theft a crime, after failure to pay super was not included in the proposed wage theft offence in Labor’s closing loopholes bill.

The Greens’ employment spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock, has warned that unpaid super is costing workers at least $3.3bn a year, more than double the amount estimated to be lost through wage theft ($1.3bn).

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Keir Starmer: Labour in power would not ‘want to diverge’ from EU

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Party leader says he would not bring in lower environmental and food standards than in Europe or reduce workers’ rights

Keir Starmer has gone further than before in outlining his vision of a future UK relationship with the EU, saying Labour didn’t “want to diverge” – in comments that were immediately seized on by the Conservatives.

The Labour leader was speaking at an event in Canada bringing together liberal and centre-left politicians, where he said that “most of the conflict” since Brexit had arisen because the UK “wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of our EU partners”.

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Thirteen-year wage dispute between NYC and Staten Island ferry workers set to end

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Ferry captains, mates and engineers appear to be reaching deal after more than a decade without a union contract with the city

One of the lengthiest wage disputes in the US is reported to be drawing to an end, as Staten Island ferry captains, mates and engineers appeared to be reaching a deal after 13 years without a union contract with New York City.

A deal between the marine engineers’ beneficial association, which represents some 150 ferry workers, that has eluded negotiators since 2010, was set be announced Monday, according to the Daily News,

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Pret a Manger fined £800,000 after employee trapped in freezer

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Employee, who was stuck in walk-in freezer for more than two hours, was treated in hospital for hypothermia

Pret a Manger has been fined £800,000 after an employee was trapped in one of its freezers for more than two hours, where she tried to use croissant boxes to stave off hypothermia.

The employee was wearing jeans and T-shirt when she was stuck in a walk-in freezer, which typically had its temperature set at -18C, in July 2021, Westminster magistrates court was told.

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‘He was dripping with sweat’: Kroger worker dies in hot work conditions in Memphis

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The union representing workers at the grocery chain had asked the company to allow more breaks and cooler working conditions

A Kroger distribution center employee has died on the job in Memphis amid hot working conditions, adding to a national debate in the US over the risk to workers during heatwaves.

The worker was identified as Tony Rufus, members from his union announced.

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Labour is ‘far from watering down’ employment policy, says Angela Rayner – UK politics live

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Deputy leader says party would legislate to improve workers’ rights within 100 days as reports say it plans to water down previous policy positions

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has said that “far from watering down” the party’s commitments to improve workers’ rights, it will be setting out “in detail how we will implement” changes, and promised the party would legislate to protect rights within 100 days of coming into office.

Her long thread on social media comes off the back of reports today in the FT that the party is planning to water down some of its previous policy positions. Rayner wrote:

Labour’s New Deal for Working People will be the biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights in decades - providing security, treating workers fairly, and paying a decent wage.

We’ll tackle insecure work by banning zero-hours contracts, ending fire and rehire and ending qualifying periods for basic rights, which currently leave working people waiting up to two years for basic protections.

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‘It’s become unbearable’: Texas workers toil through extreme heatwave

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Many employees in Texas have no heat protections and work in intense and prolonged sun exposure, which causes heat illness

Last week as the heat dome scorched Texas, Gloria Machuca arrived for work at a McDonald’s in Houston to find the air conditioning wasn’t working. The temperature inside the restaurant was similar to the temperature outside – at least 90F. It was 7.30am..

Temperatures would rise another 10 degrees that day but already, Machuca said, the intense heat was making her eyes burn. She and five of her co-workers walked out on their jobs.

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Bangladeshi labour leader beaten to death while trying to resolve dispute

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Shahidul Islam died in an assault on Sunday in Dhaka after meeting garment factory employees fighting for unpaid salaries

Police in Bangladesh are investigating the murder of a prominent trade union leader who was fatally beaten while trying to settle a dispute between a garment factory owner and workers over unpaid wages.

Shahidul Islam, 45, a top labour organiser for the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), was attacked on Sunday evening in Gazipur, a major garment industry hub on the outskirts of Dhaka, after intervening on behalf of workers who had gathered to demand back pay.

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Philippine job agencies cheating women with illegal fees and crippling loans

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Migrants NGO finds recruiters making applicants pay for medical fees and training by taking out credit at exorbitant rates of interest

Employment agencies and money-lending companies in the Philippines are cheating women applying for jobs abroad out of thousands of pounds by charging illegal fees paid with high-interest loans, interviews and documents show.

Interviews with hundreds of women and thousands of pages of complaints compiled by a migrant rights organisation showed job agencies charged applicants training and medical fees that are above the legally allowed limit.

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UK strikes laws must conform with international rules, says UN agency

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Intervention by International Labour Organization ‘hugely embarrassing’ for government, says TUC

The UN’s labour standards body has told the UK government it must make changes to highly controversial new strikes laws, which critics say threaten the fundamental rights of British workers.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency, said the UK needed to “ensure that existing and prospective legislation is in conformity” with international rules on freedom of association, and added that the government must seek technical assistance from the agency’s experts.

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