Helen Kelly: "In many countries, being a trade union activist is risky"
Unions in Asia and the Pacific must use the ILO’s supervisory mechanisms to demand respect of freedom of association and collective bargaining in their countries. This is the opinion of Helen Kelly who chairs the New Zealand Council of Trade Union (NZCTU). In this interview, Ms. Kelly gives her views about the situation of workers' rights in Fiji and Bangladesh. She also underlines the need for New Zealand to ratify several ILO core conventions to respect workers’ rights.
ACTRAV INFO: During this Governing Body Session (March 2014), special focus was placed on the trade union situation in Fiji and Bangladesh. In your view, what are the main violations of workers’ rights in the Asia and the Pacific region?
The region has the lowest number of ratifications of core conventions. There are numerous breaches of trade union rights and in many countries just being a trade union activist is risky.
This Governing Body (GB) discussed the deteriorating situation in Fiji and there was a strong recommendation to get the Fiji Government to accept a Contacts Mission from the ILO in time for a report to the November 2014 GB or face a Commission of Inquiry. We are extremely concerned for the future of unions in Fiji. It probably has the most developed movement in the South Pacific but its officials are harassed and many essential work rights are denied. My concern is that after the elections in Fiji these rights abuses will be further entrenched. The elections will not be free and fair but it appears a number of countries in the region intend to ignore the deficiencies and recognize the result. The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) will continue to offer solidarity to the workers of Fiji and to fight for them to have full protection to collectively bargain and organize.
The situation in Bangladesh also remains very serious and the workers group wants to see more done in the country to build unions to a level where they are at least able to work across the economy for Decent Work. ACTRAV INFO: What can Unions do to end these violations of workers’ rights?
Unions through their regional organizations can support union movements which are being suppressed to campaign and organize. The NZCTU for example runs a Union Aid programme which has a number of initiatives to support union capacity building including in Myanmar, India and Thailand and we are currently considering a project in the Pacific. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is increasing its resources for developing the right to organize in the region and we are part of these developments. We can also act politically in our countries to ensure the human rights abuses including oppression of union rights in countries in our region are publicized and, where possible, raised by our Governments. We can also of course use the ILO supervisory mechanisms to bring these issues visibility at the international level and use the resources of the ILO to support compliance with ILO conventions.
ACTRAV INFO: Finally, what is the status in the process of ratification of ILO Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (No. 87) and the Minimum age convention (No. 138) by New Zealand?
There is no progress on either of these Conventions. The excuse for Convention 87 has been that the Government does not support the right to strike for issues not relating to collective bargaining. But the reality is that the government is currently passing an employment law which moves New Zealand further away from the Convention including removing the duty to promote collective bargaining, effectively making it unlawful to strike in pursuit of a multi-employer agreement and placing strong restrictions on the right to strike.
On the Minimum Age Convention the Government is not prepared to have a minimum age on the basis that many children in New Zealand do light work for pocket money and we have a compulsory education system to age 16. It is our view that many children in New Zealand are working to supplement family income and there are growing numbers of situations where the work is either interfering with a child's education or where the work is not suitable for a young person for health and safety reasons.
