{"id":101,"date":"2018-07-11T06:58:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T06:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/populareducation.in\/loksamvad\/?post_type=article&p=101"},"modified":"2018-07-11T06:58:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T06:58:10","slug":"workers-asia-australia-and-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/populareducation.in\/loksamvad\/article\/workers-asia-australia-and-the-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Workers: Asia, Australia and the Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"Asia<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIndia: Rural childcare workers in Mohali to demand teachers\u2019 salaries<\/strong>\r\n\r\nHundreds of rural childcare (anganwadi) workers protested from May 28 until May 31 in Mohali to demand the same pay rates as teachers. The demonstration was in response to a state government directive that children above three years of age be enrolled in pre-primary classes in government schools. Anganwadi workers already act as de facto teachers for the children in the three- to six-year age group.\r\n\r\nThe protesters said the state and central Indian governments had failed to provide adequate equipment to the facilities and that the decision to merge these centres with primary schools was worsening the situation. There are 64,000 anganwadi workers in almost 27,000 centres in Punjab state. They are not paid a proper wage but just receive an honorarium payment.\r\n\r\nAround 35 protesters, all of whom were women, fainted due to heat and fatigue during the protest.\r\n\r\nHundreds of striking nurses arrested in India\u2019s Chhattisgarh state<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSix hundred protesting government nurses were arrested by police in Rajpur, the capital of Chhattisgarh state, on June 2. The nurses had been taking industrial action over the previous two weeks to demand a salary increase.\r\n\r\nTwo days before the arrests, Chhattisgarh\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party state government imposed its draconian Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and outlawed the strike.\r\n\r\nThe government nurses, who only receive 3,500 rupees ($US52) per month, want their wages increased to 4,600 rupees. While other government employees are paid according to 7th pay commission recommendations, the state government nurses receive less than the 6th pay commission.\r\n\r\nNurses called off their strike on June 4, following assurances from the state government that their demands would be met. The Indian media has failed to report what the nurses were charged with or whether they were later released.\r\n\r\nBangladesh coal miners end strike over unpaid wages<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOver 1,000 workers and staff from Barapukuria Coal Mine returned to work on June 2 after walking out on May 13 to demand payment of nine months wages and 12 other claims. Picketing workers blocked management from entering the mine office and seven workers were injured in the first week of the strike when police attacked workers.\r\n\r\nWorkers had given management until April 26 to settle their claims. Residents of 20 nearby villages supported the strikers and also lodged a six-point log of claims.\r\n\r\nThe claims included permanent employment of outsourced workers, introduction of profit and gratuity bonuses, six-hour shifts for underground workers, rehabilitation of families whose homes were damaged due to mine operations and compensation for injured members in the form of jobs with the company.\r\n\r\nWhile no precise details on the return to work are available, the strike ended after negotiations between the company, the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, mine workers and local villagers.\r\n\r\nBangladesh garment workers demand wages<\/strong>\r\n\r\nUp to 250 protesting Ashiana Garments workers in Dhaka blocked the main road between Malibagh and North Badda on May 31 to demand unpaid wages and the Ramadan religious festival allowance. Workers said the company had not paid wages for the past three months or given any indication that they would receive the annual Ramadan allowance.\r\n\r\nThe company, which was hit by a major fire in April this year, had promised to pay outstanding wages by May 31 but when workers arrived at the plant, the doors were sealed shut.\r\n\r\nWorkers ended their protest after assurances from Bangladesh\u2019s department of labour and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association that the factory owners would pay the wages by June 2. According to its website, Ashiana Garments has an annual turnover of $US9 million.\r\n\r\nSri Lankan water supply workers strike for outstanding pay rise<\/strong>\r\n\r\nMore than 12,000 National Water Supply and Drainage Board workers in Sri Lanka have been on strike since June 4 to demand payment of their outstanding triennial salary increments. It followed a half-day walkout late last month.\r\n\r\nApart from water purification, all breakdown repairs, new water supply installations, meter readings and office work have come to a standstill. Water purification and pumping workers will join the industrial action if strikers\u2019 demands are not met.\r\n\r\nThe Water Supply Joint Trade Union Alliance, which called the strike, said that national strike action and protests have been organized for next week. On June 5, about 2000 workers demonstrated outside the Ministry of National Water Supply and Drainage in Colombo.\r\n\r\nThe workers have not received a wage increase due to be paid for January 2018. Although the water authority management agreed to a 25 percent pay increase following industrial action in January and February, the promised payments have not been received.\r\n\r\nTwo-day strike paralyses Sri Lankan postal service<\/strong>\r\n\r\nTwo-day strike action by 4,000 postal workers beginning on midnight June 4 paralysed national postal services this week. The workers want proper recruitment procedures and several other demands.\r\n\r\nWhile workers are determined to fight, the two main unions\u2014the Sri Lanka Postal and Telecommunication Services Union and the Joint Alliance of Postal Unions\u2014are attempting to keep the workers divided while appealing to management for negotiations.\r\n\r\nThe walkout, which seriously impacted on Sri Lanka\u2019s main post offices, including the Colombo central postal exchange, defied the postmaster general\u2019s threats to cancel strikers\u2019 leave and impose punitive measures.\r\n\r\nMigrant workers protest in Taiwan<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAbout 60 migrant workers protested outside Google\u2019s Taipei 101 office in Taiwan last Sunday. The Filipino workers have accused HTC Corp, a consumer electronics company, of illegally docking their pay, including by forging agreements. They are demanding an end to the practice and an improvement of their working conditions.\r\n\r\nThe workers demonstrated outside Google\u2019s premises because in 2017, the tech monopoly bought a large stake in HTC\u2019s operations and smartphone intellectual property.\r\n\r\nEarly this year, HTC\u2019s migrant employees were pressured to sign an agreement terminating their existing contracts. Many signed under the impression that they had no choice. Others have claimed that management forged their signature on the deal.\r\n\r\nThe move has been used to reduce workers\u2019 pay to cover $NT2,500 in monthly expenses per employee, including for food, accommodation and plane tickets. Under the previous contract, these expenses were reportedly covered by the company, without any pay decrease.\r\n

Australia and the Pacific<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nDowner Group workers strike for pay increase<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWorkers at Downer Group\u2019s construction and maintenance division in New South Wales (NSW) Hunter Valley and Illawarra began a three-day strike on Wednesday and have also imposed a month-long ban on overtime for a 3 percent wage rise.\r\n\r\nDowner designs, builds and sustains assets and infrastructure facilities. Around 430 workers, members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), walked off Downer projects on a number of industrial sites including coal mines, steel works, power stations and light rail construction.\r\n\r\nAround 200 of the workers marched in Newcastle on Wednesday and others demonstrated outside BlueScope Steel in Port Kembla on NSW\u2019s South Coast.\r\n\r\nNegotiations between the unions and Downer for a new workplace agreement have been stalled since January. The company is offering a 2.25 percent pay increase and no improvement on current conditions.\r\n\r\nThe last union agreement with Downer imposed a two-year wage freeze and cuts to site allowances and redundancy benefits.\r\n\r\nDowner\u2019s profits are surging on the back of large infrastructure projects with the company paying some of its executives $500,000 in bonuses.\r\n\r\nBureau of Meteorology workers take action over wages<\/strong>\r\n\r\nA protracted campaign of limited industrial action, including rolling stoppages and bans by workers at the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) for a new enterprise work agreement and pay increase, is continuing. The previous agreement expired four years ago.\r\n\r\nBOM management has rejected any pay increase above a government mandated 2 percent pay ceiling and wants to cut allowances for staff working in remote locations and other work conditions. It has also ruled out back-dating any wage rise effectively imposing a four-year pay freeze.\r\n\r\nThis week workers inserted messages in weather forecasts and social media posts on the Bureau\u2019s official weather channels to highlight the dispute. The messages included \u201c#BOMonSTRIKE\u201d and \u201c#5yearpayfreeze\u201d and links to a union petition.\r\n\r\nManagement responded by imposing \u201cadditional quality control,\u201d requiring administrative checks on all social media posts before forecasts are transmitted.\r\n\r\nLast year the Community and Public Sector Union agreed to low pay increases in retrograde work agreements across most of federal government departments.\r\n\r\nHunter Valley mine workers strike over safety<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAbout 250 workers at Mach Energy\u2019s Mount Pleasant coal mine near Muswellbrook in NSW\u2019s Hunter Valley went on strike for three days on Monday after a man was injured in a rigging accident.\r\n\r\nAccording to an Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) spokesman, the worker\u2019s upper-arm muscle was \u201ctorn from the bone\u201d and he had to be taken to hospital for surgery.\r\n\r\nThe strikers were members of the AMWU, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and the Electrical Trades Union and are employed by G&S Engineering, a contracting company.\r\n\r\nOn Wednesday G&S Engineering made an application to the Fair Work Commission, the federal industrial tribunal, seeking to have the strike declared illegal but then dropped the action.\r\n\r\nThe strike has ended but workers will not participate in any \u201chigh risk duties\u201d until G&S establishes basic safety systems, including a first-aid office and an emergency response team.\r\n\r\nNew Zealand: Fast food workers continue Wendy\u2019s strike<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWorkers at the Dunedin branch of fast food restaurant chain Wendy\u2019s took strike action last weekend. It was a continuation of a strike in Wendy\u2019s stores throughout the country the previous weekend.\r\n\r\nThe strike was called after months of negotiations between Unite Union and Wendco broke down over pay and break times. Wendy\u2019s has also failed to compensate workers for days-in-lieu owed to staff for working on public holidays. Last November, Wendy\u2019s staff took the issue to the Employment Relations Authority, which ruled in favour of the workers.\r\n\r\nUnite have limited all strike action. Unite Union organiser Sonja Mitchell told the Otago Times, \u201cIdeally, we would like a living wage for all workers but we think at least the people who are responsible for opening the store and closing the store.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis would leave a majority of staff on or just above the minimum wage. The supposed \u201cliving wage\u201d of $20.55 is only a few dollars above the minimum wage and based on the bare necessities to survive.\r\n\r\nNew Zealand tug boat operators threaten strike<\/strong>\r\n\r\nTug masters and engineers at Port Nelson threatened to strike from yesterday 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Monday. The notice was issued after negotiations around a collective agreement broke down.\r\n\r\nAccording to the Merchant Service Guild, Port Nelson workers are on call 24 hours for 14 continuous days. The union continued negotiations with the Port Nelson company on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent the walkout.\r\n\r\nNew Zealand primary school teachers to discuss pay offer<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAround 50,000 primary school teachers will begin meetings to discuss the latest government pay offer. The ministry of education has offered a pay rise of 2.2 to 2.6 percent for teachers with more than three years\u2019 experience, which is about 86 percent of the workforce, and 4.3 to 4.7 percent for newer teachers. The increases would occur every year for the next three years.\r\n\r\nNew Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) members have demanded a minimum 16 percent increase. If teachers reject the government pay offer they are likely to vote in favour of strike action.\r\n\r\nThe first teachers\u2019 meeting will be on June 18 in Manukau. While the union is calling for teachers to reject the offer, it heavily promoted Labour during the 2017 election and after it formed government, claiming teachers would get better pay.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asia India: Rural childcare workers in Mohali to demand teachers\u2019 salaries Hundreds of rural childcare (anganwadi) workers protested from May 28 until May 31 in Mohali to demand the same pay rates as teachers. 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