INTERNATIONALLY-RECOGNISED CORE LABOUR STANDARDS IN HAITI

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU) INTERNATIONALLY-RECOGNISED CORE LABOUR STANDARDS IN HAITI REPORT FOR THE WTO GENERAL COUNCIL REVIEW OF TRADE POLICIES OF HAITI (Geneva, 4-6 November 2003) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Haiti has ratified six of the eight core ILO labour conventions. In view of flagrant violations of workers trade union rights, including violence against trade union activists, and serious problems with child labour, including bonded child labour, determined measures are needed to comply with the commitments Haiti accepted at Singapore, Geneva, and Doha in the WTO Ministerial Declarations over , and in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted in June Haiti has ratified both of the core ILO conventions protecting trade union rights. There are however serious restrictions on trade union rights, including freedom of association and the right to strike. Collective bargaining coverage is minimal, and workers and trade union activists face serious intimidation and violence. There is no protection against anti-union discrimination, which occurs on a regular basis. Haiti has ratified both of the core ILO Conventions on discrimination. However, the Constitution does not prohibit discrimination, and there is no effective implementation of laws providing for equal treatment. Discrimination against women is a problem, especially in export processing plants and as concerns the representation of women in senior positions. Haiti has not ratified either of the ILO s two core conventions on child labour. Child labour is a widespread occurrence and access to education is minimal. Haiti has ratified both the core ILO conventions on forced labour, but child forced domestic labour is a widespread and very serious problem.

2 2 INTERNATIONALLY-RECOGNISED CORE LABOUR STANDARDS IN HAITI Introduction This report on the respect of internationally recognised core labour standards in Haiti is one of the series the ICFTU is producing in accordance with the Ministerial Declaration adopted at the first Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (Singapore, 9-13 December 1996) in which the Ministers stated: We renew our commitment to the observance of internationally recognised core labour standards. The fourth WTO Ministerial Conference (Doha, 9-14 November 2001) reaffirmed this commitment. These standards were further upheld in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted by the 174 member countries of the ILO at the International Labour Conference in June Approximately 5 per cent of the workforce is unionised, about half in the industrial sector, among nine primary national trade union organisations. Unions are concentrated in the Port-au-Prince area, in state enterprises and the civil service. Union membership has declined, due to both anti union action and to high unemployment rates. Only around 100,000 workers out of a working population of 4 million are employed in the formal economy. Of those 100,000, some 25,000 are working in the export business, mainly in textiles (80%). The circumstances in textile plants are difficult. Excessive flexibility, high working pace and bad sanitary conditions are common. Trade Policy The manufacturing assembly sub-sector accounts for around 80 percent of all exports, but the industry is stagnating and the production structure is changing in favour of services. Government policy is aimed at expanding assembly and subcontracting industries. 88 % of Haiti s exports are to the US. In agriculture the Government s policy is aimed at increasing the production of food crops and crops for exports. There is little effort to protect the country s industries from the adverse effects of trade liberalization. The statement made by Haiti in Cancún stressed the importance for effective support for LDC s, to increase their production and export capacities, to facilitate diversification of their production and export base, and to build capacity in the field of trade. Such policies, however, needs to be accompanied by a firmer commitment of the Haitian Government to the adherence and implementation of core labour standards, six of which have been ratified by the Government but which are poorly observed, particularly in the export sector. 2

3 3 I. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining Haiti ratified ILO Convention no. 87, the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, in It had already ratified ILO Convention no. 98, the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, in The 1987 Constitution provides for freedom of association and the right to strike in all sectors, but the prevailing Labour Code dates from the previous dictatorship and is far more restrictive. There is to date no legislation protecting the right of public sector workers to organise, as provided for in the Constitution. The Labour Code includes a provision to impose arbitration to end a strike at the request of only one party. Legislation on registration procedures is contradictory, with laws requiring prior governmental approval for any organisation greater than twenty people co-existing with other provisions decreeing that a trade union be recognized through simple registration. There is no legal prohibition of anti-union discrimination, nor any provision for redress in the case of unfair dismissal. The law prohibits interference in the internal affairs of a trade union, but there has never been a single fine levied for such interference. Primarily as a result of political instability, an unemployment rate of more than 60 per cent, and persistent use of violence by both employers and the authorities to repress trade union activists, even those laws that do offer some protection for workers rights are violated with impunity. Collective bargaining coverage is minimal, and the Department of Labour maintains, and exercises, the right to intervene during the process of negotiating collective bargaining agreements. In general collective bargaining does not exist and employers set wages unilaterally. Workers rights are essentially non-existent, and those trying to organise workers are subjected to constant threats and violence. Trade union officials and activists have been murdered, as happened to Elison Merzilus of the COSYNHA trade union at the end of In May 2002, a group of workers belonging to the St. Raphael Guacimal Workers Union supported by Batay Ouvriye union members, gathered to protest against the announcement that the recently unionised workers would no longer be allowed to farm the land in the off-season. A group representing the landowner attacked the workers, injuring many people. Two older members of Batay Ouvriye, who were hiding in a house not willing to participate in the fight, were mutilated with knives and beheaded. In the days that followed, houses of union leaders in the area were burned. Eleven were arrested. The last two of them were not released until December By the end of the year no judicial proceedings had been instituted against the murderers or the landowner. In June 2002 Pepe Jean Getro, General Secretary of the Haitian Teachers Union, was violently attacked. He was falsely accused of attempt to murder and imprisoned for two days, where he was beaten severely. No legal action has been undertaken. In September 2002 during a school meeting with Pepe Jean Getro, two other teachers and 37 pupils, to readmit pupils who had been denied access after protesting against corporal punishment at school, an armed group of local officials, including the school headmaster and the mayor of the town, Cabaret, dragged the teachers outside, 3

4 4 slipped tyres around their necks and set them on fire. The teachers lives were saved but they are now in hiding, as death threats have continued. Just before the last presidential elections, the General Secretary of the Haiti Trade Union Collective (COSYNHA), Jean Mabou, and the leader of the Federation of Electrical Workers Unions (FESTREDH), Jean-Harry Clerveau, were threatened with death owing to their disagreement over changes in the management of the state enterprise Electricité d Haïti. In 2001, a small group linked to the Fanmi Lavalas party assaulted trade unionists from the Confédération Autonome des Travailleurs Haïtiens (CATH) in the middle of a meeting in the commune of Gros-Morne. Ten members of the Gros- Morne Agricultural Workers Federation and the Democratic Association of Haitian Women Workers have had to remain in hiding since that incident. Shortly thereafter, members of Fanmi Lavalas attacked members of the Organisation for new wood, affiliated to the CATH, in the Cité-Soleil district. Since then five of their members have had to live in hiding. Numerous workers have been attacked with automatic weapons, including Jacques Pierre, President of the Konfederasyon Travaye Aysyen (KOTA). He had earlier been trailed by strangers on his way to a union meeting. Five members of the Workers Organisation for the recovery of Anse-à-Foleur (OTRA) were briefly detained, after police had opened fire on demonstrators demanding the installation of the coalition elected in the commune in the local government elections of May In October 2001, security guards at the National Port Authority disrupted the general assembly of the employees trade union (SEAPN), held on the eve of an announced work stoppage aimed at demanding the wage increases that the management had been promising for over four months. On returning home, union members were beaten up by these same guards, in some cases in the presence of the police. The members of the union s executive committee received death threats and some were forced into hiding. After the coup of December 2001, groups linked to the governing party set the office of the Confédération des Travailleurs Haïtiens (CTH) in Jérémie on fire and fifteen journalists, including the General Secretary of the Syndicat national des travailleurs de la presse, had to flee the country after taking refuge in foreign embassies. In June 2001, all the unionised workers at the Habitation Desglereaux plantation were sacked, after the newly-formed union had called a work stoppage to ask the company for negotiations. When the management tried to replace the workers they protested and the plantation controller threatened them with a firearm. One week later the same controller turned up with a lorry full of men to stop the demonstration of the workers, who were meeting in front of the company s office as a sign of protest against their dismissal. In October 2001, members of the union of packers for the World Food Programme (a UN agency) in Cap-Haïtien, Northern Haiti, had their contracts rescinded after complaining about their low wages. Two days later, the Departmental Unit for Maintenance of Order evicted the 24 sacked workers to make way for the arrival of new ones. Despite agreements signed in 1997 on wage adjustments between the government and teachers unions, the teachers demands have still not been met. 4

5 5 Those teachers arbitrarily dismissed from their posts have not been reinstated, and others continue to face intimidation. The Labour Code makes no difference between industries producing for the domestic market or those producing for export. Trade Liberalization in Haiti Haiti has dutifully followed the prescriptions of the IMF and the World Bank, and yet today, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This statement was made in a report by the human rights NGO Global Exchange in a case study on Haiti, where the focus has been on export growth, both in agriculture and in manufacturing. In agriculture the strategy was to focus on coffee and cocoa production, making farmers vulnerable to major fluctuations in market prices. By concentrating on food production for exports, most of the food is now imported, reducing the self-sufficiency of the country. In addition Haiti was convinced to lower tariffs on rice from 50% to 3%, leading to an inflow of cheap subsidized US rice, which now provides 50% of the local rice, and a decrease in local rice cultivation, adding to the rural poverty. A second strategy was to increase manufacturing exports by attracting investors with low wages, a strategy promoted by the IMF. In addition the IMF asked the government to provide incentives to multinational corporations, such as reduced fees for telephone and electricity and reduced customs fees. Hardly any of the profits are reinvested in the Haitian economy; they are instead repatriated to the US. Source: Global Exchange, How the IMF and the World Bank undermine Democracy and Erode Human Rights: Five case studies, 2001 There are no export processing zones in Haiti, but the government is in the process of creating two zones, one in Cabaret and one in Cap-Haïtien. To this end an agreement has been signed with the Dominican Grupo M garment manufacturing company for a new production facility being built in a free trade zone located at Ouanaminthe, Haiti, on the border with the Dominican Republic. The establishment of this facility has been the subject of controversy, given the anti-union record of "Grupo M" which is the largest private sector employer in the Dominican Republic, operating several factories in different export processing zones in the Dominican Republic itself. The new development is expected to involve the recruitment of significant numbers of Haitian workers, in particular in the production of garments. In August 2003, following documentation of serious violations of trade union rights by Grupo M, the ICFTU contacted the World Bank's private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which was being asked by Grupo M to provide a loan of some US$ 23m to help finance the new development. Under pressure from the international trade union movement, the IFC attached conditions to the approximately US$ 20 million loan contract which it approved in October 2003 to the effect that Grupo M was obliged to ensure that freedom of association be respected in the new development, and that all companies operating 5

6 6 within the development be subject to the same obligation. Following this, preliminary information has been provided to the ICFTU that Grupo M has now begun to agree to begin dialogue with trade union organisations in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic. The export processing zones will also be financed through an agreement signed between the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the US, to convert bilateral debt into an investment fund, which will be used to transfer part of the border between the two countries into free trade zones. A process of land clearance is underway, including compulsory purchase orders of fertile agricultural land. Conclusions Trade union rights in Haiti are widely violated and next to nonexistent in practice. There are no protections against acts of anti-union discrimination, which occurs persistently, and workers are consistently victims of violent intimidation. While some rights are enshrined in the Constitution, this often does not translate into practice, and very few legal provisions to protect workers rights are effectively enforced. II. Discrimination and Equal Remuneration Haiti ratified ILO Convention No. 100, Equal Remuneration Convention, in 1958, and ratified ILO Convention No. 111, Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention in The Constitution does not prohibit discrimination, and there is no effective implementation of laws providing for equal treatment. The majority of poor urban women have no employment opportunities other than domestic service or informal selling, often in markets. Women in formal employment, in both the public or private sectors, have very limited opportunities for advancement, and while there have been some women in positions of authority recently, this is the exception. There are no statistics on which to base an assessment of the remuneration gap. The illiteracy rate among women is high, 52.2% for the year The majority of workers in the export assembly sector are women, and many have reported sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of their male supervisors. The Ministry of Women s Affairs has the responsibility for defending women s rights and promoting equality of opportunity, but it lacks resources and has been ineffective in practice. Conclusions Discrimination in employment exists against women, who are underrepresented in positions of responsibility in both the public and private sector. Sexual harassment and abuse exist in the export processing sector. The vast majority of women, both rural and urban, do informal and unprotected work. 6

7 7 III. Child Labour Haiti has ratified neither ILO Convention No. 138, The Minimum Age Convention, nor ILO Convention No. 182, The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention. The government has neither defined the worst forms of child labour, nor hazardous work. The minimum age for employment is 15 years, with the exception of domestic service, for which the minimum age is 12. Education is in theory free and compulsory between the ages of 7 and 13, but this is not at all the case in practice. Only about 40 per cent of children attend primary school. Teaching is done exclusively in French, although this is a language spoken only by the most privileged twenty per cent of the population. Only a small percentage of the country s schools provide free education, with various costs blocking access for many children of poor families, especially poor rural families. Furthermore, children of unwed mothers can be refused admission to school. Child labour is prevalent, especially in rural and urban informal activities and in domestic service. ILO estimates for the year 2000 indicate some 214,000 working children between the age of (25% of this age group). Of these children, 100,000 are girls, and 114,000 are boys. Domestic labour by children, known as Restavek, is very common in Haiti, and generally constitutes forced labour or slavery. (see forced labour section below) The Government does not devote sufficient resources to tackling the problem of child labour, although it requested ILO assistance on the problem of domestic work by children, and joined the ILO s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in A joint project began in early 2000, but the ILO has not yet made public any reports that demonstrate the effectiveness or otherwise of this work. Conclusions Child labour is widespread, including in rural and urban informal activities. Child domestic labour is also widespread, under conditions tantamount to slavery. Access to education is very limited, and school attendance is minimal. The Government does not devote sufficient resources to addressing the child labour problem, although it has begun to work together with the ILO IPEC. IV. Forced Labour Haiti ratified ILO Convention No. 29, the Forced Labour Convention, in 1957, and ratified ILO Convention No. 105, the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention in The Labour Code prohibits forced labour, including by children, however, forced child domestic labour, known as Restavek, is very prevalent. This has been the primary subject of inquiries by the ILO regarding respect in Haiti for ILO Convention 29 on forced labour. 7

8 8 Restavek involves the children of poor, primarily rural, families being sent to live with more affluent families and to perform domestic labour in exchange for room and board. In many cases the poor family receives income from the recipient family, effectively selling their children into slavery. Some estimates suggest nearly Restavek children in Haiti. Very few of the Restavek children receive an education, only twenty per cent attend school at all, and less than one per cent reach secondary school. The legal minimum age for domestice service is twelve, but some children start as young as four years old. 85 per cent are girls, and it is reported that nearly a quarter of female Restaveks are raped by their owners, often resulting in unwanted pregnancies. Laws require that Restaveks of 15 years and older receive at least half of the going wage for hired domestic labour, but this serves to have families throw Restaveks out of the house before they reach 15, to be replaced by younger children. There are also reports of the trafficking of Haitians to work on sugar cane plantations in the Dominican Republic, although it is not clear to what extent the existing employment of Haitians in these plantations constitutes trafficking. The ILO has requested information from the government on this situation. According to UNICEF and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), between 2,000 and 3,000 children are trafficked to the Dominican Republic each year, primarily for labour, but some of them end up in prostitution. Conclusions Forced labour is prohibited, but the forced domestic labour of children, known as Restavek, is a serious problem. Restavek children, some as young as four years old, are often trafficked within the country to serve as domestic slaves to host families, in exchange for room and board. Very few receive any education at all, and many are beaten and raped. The Government has sought the help of the ILO in dealing with the problem, but continues to devote insufficient resources to the plight of these children. * * * * * * * 8

9 9 Conclusions 1. The Government must ratify ILO Conventions No. 138 and 182, and fully implement the six ILO core conventions already ratified. 2. Workers trying to organise a trade union in Haiti are subject to inordinate levels of intimidation and violence, including at the hands of groups linked to the ruling party. This persecution must be brought to an end, and those responsible brought to justice. 3. Multiple pieces of labour legislation are often in contradiction, there are major gaps in the legal protection of workers rights, and virtually no legislation offering protection to workers and trade unionists is adequately enforced. The Government must take urgent steps to bring its legislation into conformity with the requirements of ILO Conventions No 87 and 98, and enforce these laws. 4. Discrimination in employment against women persists, particularly in the export processing sector. The government must bring the sexual harassment of women workers to a halt. 5. Steps must be taken to address the under-representation of women in positions of responsibility in all spheres of the economy. 6. Child labour is rife in Haiti, and goes hand in hand with high levels of poverty and adult unemployment. Access to education is also severely limited. The Government must ensure that all children have access to quality education, and accelerate its ongoing work, including with the ILO, to ensure that child labour, and the factors such as poverty and unemployment that contribute to child labour, are eliminated. 7. Child forced domestic labour, known as Restavek, is a serious problem in Haiti, and the Government must take urgent steps to bring this form of slavery to an end. What is intended to help provide poor children with access to education and a better standard of life too often results in horrific abuse of young children and very widespread forced labour of children. The Government must greatly increase the resources and priority it devotes to eliminating this very damaging practice. 8. As part of increased efforts to improve the education system, particular measures have to be taken by the Government to improve access to education and to improve the rights of teachers to organise, and to protect them against violations of these rights. 9. In line with the commitments accepted by Haiti at the Singapore and Doha WTO Ministerial Conferences and its obligations as a member of the ILO, the Government of Haiti should therefore provide regular reports to the WTO and the ILO on its legislative changes and implementation programmes with regard to all the core labour standards. 10. The WTO should draw to the attention of the authorities of Haiti the commitments they undertook to observe core labour standards at the Singapore and Doha WTO Ministerial Conferences. The WTO should request the ILO to intensify its work with the Government of Haiti in these areas and provide a report to the WTO General Council on the occasion of the next trade policy review. 9

10 10 * * * * * * * References Association of Haitian Women Journalists, Women battling for a change in mentality, Haiti Press Network, Comtex Newswire, Newswire press articles, various dates Education International, EI Barometer, 2001 Global Exchange, How the IMF and the World Bank undermine Democracy and Erode Human Rights: Five case studies, 2001 Global March Against Child Labour, Country-wise Data on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, October 2000 The Guardian, Haiti: Proof of hypocrisy, April 2002 ICFTU, Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights, ICFTU, Trade Union World, various dates ICFTU, Trade Union World, Haiti:spiralling out of control, May 2003 ILO, Report of the Committee of Experts on Application of Conventions and Recommendations, US Department of State, Report on Human Rights Practices, , , WTO, WTO/TPR/G/99, Trade Policy Review Haiti, Report by the Government, 2002 WTO, WT/MIN(03)/ST/122, Haiti,