ILO CONVENTION ON HOMEWORK

  After a long and hard struggle the adoption of the ILO-convention on homework became finally true on the 20th of June 1996. For the millions of homebased workers all over the world this means that they are finally recognized as being ordinary workers with the right to ordinary worker rights. To put it in other words, homeworkers are recognized as being inordinary workers in a marginalised position that are in need of special legal protection of their rights. The ILO Convention does not improve the situation of the informal workers overnight, but does hand out a campaigning tool for national and local pressure groups. Besides a tool for campaigning, the Convention can also function as a powerful tool for the organisation of homeworkers, that are still mainly an invisible workforce. Once ratified by a national government the Convention has the force of an international treaty.

  The newest IL0-convention also represents the trend of marginalisation of the most vulnerable segment of the global workforce. The decade of neo-liberalism has put labour worldwide on the offensive and reserves a better position only for a small core of workers. In the clothing industry this trend is embodied by the large (sub)contracting chains of production with homeworkers and sweatshops at the end of those chains, where the most vulnerable workers have no other choice than to work under deplorable conditions.
  Homeworkers are used as a flexible workforce not only in developing countries like India and Thailand but also in the center of New York, in Australia, Canada and the UK. Their work situation is mostly characterised by a lack of health and safety provisions and overtime and minimum wage violations are widespread.

Homeworkers around the World

  In Metro Toronto Canada for example, women sewing clothing for the Northern Group are working 12 hours a day for as little as $4 50 an hour, 65% of the legal minimum wage. Some homeworkers in the UK earn as a little as 50p an hour, working in unsafe and hazardous conditions. Since homeworkers in the UK do not have the same basic employment rights as other workers and the UK voted against the Convention, it will not be likely that the Convention will be ratified in the near future, neither that the situation of the British homeworkers will improve soon. The US department of labour found that contracting shops working for the Guess Company had engaged in massive violations of the law, including child labour and industrial homework, in addition to minimum wage and overtime violations. Guess workers from 16 Los Angeles contracting shops have started a lawsuit against Guess and its contractors, who even have workers perform homework ini the evenings and on weekends in addition to their daily work at the contracting shop.

  The TCFUA (Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia) estimates that 75% of the companies in the industry have the majority of their production carried out in private homes. The Australian industry is even structured around homework. The information campaign by the TCFUA showed evidence of cases of workers working 12 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week for about $2 an hour. Other evidence to their inquiry also shows that companies can well afford to pay minimum awards without affecting retail prices. Outworkers have no enforceable minimum working conditions and proposed agreements and legislation are difficult to make binding on employers. One problem is that employers have many ways to keep outworkers invisible so that it is hard to reach out to them. Since the federal government refused to ratify the new ILO-convention, which calls for minimum wage rates, minimum employment age levels for outworkers, access to maternity and other work related benefits, there is no hope that legislation and agreements that do already exist will be enforced and implemented.

Putting it into Practice

  This brings us to the need of ratification of the Convention by national governments. National governments have to be pressured to ratify the convention and translate its provisions into national law and policy and look after implementation. Without ratification and implementation the ILO convention is just a hollow shell. The adoption of the Convention on international minimum - standards for homeworkers itself is just a first step in the direction of actually realizing regular employer rights for homeworkers in the different national situations. The process of translating the Convention into national law and policy (after ratification), must be used by homeworker associations and other pressure groups to influence the form and contents of national law and policy to make sure that effectiveness in practice is ensured. National law, policy and practice must improve the actual labour situation of homeworkers.

  All different forms of homework taking place in different countries and in different kinds of industries have one major characteristic in common, which is the exploitative working conditions of a weak and marginalised group of workers. To make the Convention effective, the organisation and mobilisation of this vast group of homeworkers will be central. A lot of difficulties will have to be overcome. The organisation of homeworkers is hard because of different factors. Homeworkers are mostly an invisible workforce that has little access to information on their rights and on initiatives of Homeworker Associations that aim to improve their situation. Whereas Homeworker Associations on their turn have difficulties reaching their target group because of their invisibility. The vulnerable position of the workers makes their negotiation power also smaller, especially if the workers are highly dependent on the kind of work and have reasonable fears of loosing their jobs if they start protesting and demanding their rights. The offfical recognition of the employer status of homeworkers by the adoption of the ILO Convention, gives homeworkers the means and powers to demand their working rights and become a visible and organized workforce.

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