International Treaties and Protocols

• Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization The Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization seeks to establish better conditions for workers in Azerbaijan’s oil sector, of which it has been said there has been massive human rights abuses.
• U.S. Government Human Rights Report 2010 In regard to workers’ rights, reporters in  Azerbaijan have reported cases that exempted workers from many of their rights, the seizure of union dues, the lack of freedom to bargain collectively over wages and working conditions, and the inability of workers to remove themselves from situations they deemed unsafe without jeopardizing their employment.
• 2012 Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights Reported by the International Trade Union Confederation, this report summarized the ILO Core Conventions ratified and violations by Azerbaijan.

• Bolivia’s Indigenous Workers
  This PBS documentary focuses on workers’ rights issues faced by indigenous workers in Bolivia, such as in the coca farming industry.
• Child Workers of Bolivia, Unite!
  The movement of child workers in Bolivia toward unionizing is intended to improve working conditions in a country that has over one million children working for remuneration.
• 2012 Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights-Bolivia
  The International Trade Union Confederation has compiled this summary of ratified ILO Core Conventions by Bolivia and the state of workers’ rights within the country.
• Sex workers call for legalization of sex work in Bolivia
  Some Bolivian women are fighting for legalization of sex work and retirement benefits and health insurance for such workers.

• When You Build a Small Roof for the Dog” by Julia Wallace
  This article focuses on the dangers and abuses occurring in Cambodia’s garment sector including building safety, short contract employment to avoid benefits, and union busting.
• Solidarity Center-Cambodia 
  The Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO partners with unions and other interested groups in Cambodia with an aim towards better workers’ rights in the country. Here, especially, decades of war and strife have left Cambodia and it people in economic distress.
• The UN Refugee Agency- The Global State of Workers’ Rights: Cambodia
  This 2010 report suggests that the state of workers’ rights in Cambodia is repressive. Specific examples include poor labor law enforcement, union leader harassment and even murders targeting members of the largest union in the country. Specifically, there is no labor law coverage for teachers.
• Monitoring in the Dark: Improving Factory Working Conditions in Cambodia
  This study focuses on the problems surrounding the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) monitoring program, along with the widening use of the program in other countries. Authors of the final report contemplate how the program may be failing garment workers in several countries.
• War on Want- Restricted Rights: Migrant Women Workers in Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia
  This report provides insight on the appalling conditions women face in Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia, forced to migrate due to both poverty and political oppression.

• Labour Law Regulations Valid in the Czech Republic 
  See this article for brief summaries of the main labor law regulations in the Czech Republic.
• The UN Refugee Agency- The Global State of Workers’ Rights: Czech Republic
  This UN agency offers a summary of the state of workers’ rights in the Czech Republic. It states that the Czech Republic’s labor laws are some of the strictest in Europe, that they allow trade unionization and workers may assemble peacefully.
• March for Migrants’ Rights in the Czech Republic This short video provides footage on the first march for the rights of migrant workers in the Czech Republic.

• El Salvador has been categorized as having low standards for workers’ rights. The country is considered to have weak labor laws, low protection for freedom of association, legal loopholes for labor laws combined with a failure of the ministry of labor to enforce labor laws. For workers, there are serious obstacles to judicial enforcement of these laws. 
• The International Labor Rights Forum has found many labor rights violations in El Salvador including the right to associate, the right to bargain collectively, child labor, wages, hours, and working conditions.
• Human Rights Watch reported physical, psychological, and sexual abuses against women and children domestic workers in El Salvador. These include food deprivation, forced confinement, and trafficking into forced labor.
• Child labor continues in the sugarcane industry in El Salvador, a country supplying sugar to companies such as the Coca Cola Company. Children typically suffer greatly in this type of work, with common injuries coming as a result of the use of machetes and knives to cut the sugarcane. 
• The U.S-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was introduced by President George W. Bush in 2004. This agreement lacks commonplace provisions for the protection of workers. As result, El Salvador has been experiencing several negative effects described here by Human Rights Watch.
• The United States Department of Labor has funded projects to support workers in El Salvador.
• El Salvadorian workers typically make extremely low wages in the country’s sweatshops. As an example, women have been paid only eight cents an hour for each $25 NFL shirt that they make in an Ocean Sky sweatshop.
• El Salvadorian indigenous peoples have been denied basic labor rights and, as a result, they are increasingly demanding changes from the government.

• Chinese Workers—In Greenland?
  Greenland is exploiting more of its natural resources and the country’s officials now plan to have more and more Chinese migrant workers move to the island to work at the mining plants.
• The Greenland Working Environment Act
  The Greenland Working Environment Act outlines the law protecting the rights of workers.
• Relaxation of labour rules for large-scale projects in Greenland
  Greenland is lowering labor standards for construction surrounding the mining industry in order to attract foreign investment.

• It has been reported that India both in law and practice does not uphold basic labor rights including the right to collectively bargain and violations of child labor. 
• There is a high prevalence of child labor in the Indian soccer ball industry.
• In 2012, millions of Indian workers went on strike to demand protection of their labor rights and were backed by all 11 major trade unions in the country.
• Unionization in India’s informal sector is much lower than in the formal sector. This leaves 90 percent of India’s workforce at risk greater for exploitation.
• It is common for workers to be paid very low wages. Workers at a General Motors plant were only paid between 47 to 92 cents an hour.
• The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) release a report in June 2013 alleging workers’ rights and trade union rights violations at the Mansear plant of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL). Read the June 28, 2013 article by Immanuel Ness via the Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA).
• Indian sex workers strive to be recognized as full workers and to have their rights as workers upheld.

If You Believe
Documentaries help to educate viewers about the estimated 1.7 million bonded laborers in Pakistan.

Basic Rights for Pakistan’s Domestic Workers: A Signature Away
This article from the Daily Times addresses the issues facing domestic workers, particularly women, in Pakistan.

Pakistan: Historic victory for workers’ rights and democracy 
The Labour Quami Movement (LQM) in the power-loom industry initiated a march demanding that their employers pay the federal minimum wage. Such action spurred government action which resulted in a significant increase in their wages.

U.S. Government Human Rights Report 2010
In relation to workers’ rights, reports have been issued stating difficulties surrounding requirements for labor union formation, union intimidation, and complications in the right to strike. There are also widespread minimum wage violations.

U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement 
The International Labor Rights Forum provides a summary of the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement, including concerns regarding workers’ rights in association with it.

Panama’s Unraveling Democracy: The Social Cost of Martinelli’s Chorizo Law 
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs Research Associate, Alexander Brockwehl, offers insights into the severe suppression of workers’ rights in Panama.

UN Women- Better Working Conditions for Domestic Workers in Paraguay
Domestic workers in Paraguay have faced discriminated against and legally may only receive forty percent of the country’s minimum wage. However, activist groups campaigning around this issue are attempting to raise awareness of the struggles of Paraguay’s domestic workers, many of whom are women living in poverty.

ILO- Paraguay Ratifies the Domestic Workers Convention
On May 7, 2013 Paraguay ratified the Domestic Workers Convention which will legally allow domestic workers additional rights.

UN Refugee Agency- Report on Human Rights Practices in Paraguay for 2012
According to this UN report, women, LGBTA, disabled persons, indigenous persons, people of African descent, and other marginalized groups continue to face workplace discrimination and have extreme trouble finding work.

Employees’ Rights and Employers’ Obligations in Puerto Rico
The Society for Human Resource Management provides a summary of differences between the rights of employees and obligations of employers in Puerto Rico compared to most states in the United States. Some significant differences include aspects related to the termination of employment.

Puerto Rico’s Public Service Workers Win Back Rights 
In May 2011, public service workers were able to win back the right to collectively bargain and negotiate economic aspects of their contracts after such rights were suspended in 2009.

Puerto Rico Workers Protest Privatization 
Here is a summary of the battle against the privatization of public sector electricity that Puerto Ricans face due to the commonwealth’s economic troubles.

SEIU protest surround concern over a similar situation ten years earlier. 

Puerto Rican Farm Workers in Connecticut
A sizable population of Puerto Ricans have immigrated to Connecticut, and they work primarily in the agricultural sector. This article outlines their experiences from the late 19th century through the 1990s.

Puerto Rican Minimum Wage 
This summary states that the Puerto Rican minimum wage is only $4.10/hour, much lower than the federal minimum wage which takes precedent.

Workers’ Rights in South Africa: Does the Ruling ANC Party Represent the People? 
The government of South Africa still does not represent the interest of the people, many argue, but rather those of large multi-national companies investing in the country. Workers struggle to make ends meet as a result.

The South African Labour Guide

The South African Labour guide website provides information regarding labor law in South Africa.

South Africa: Workers’ Rights are Human Rights.

This article reflects the perspective of South Africa’s government officials regarding workers’ rights as well as the value South Africans put on May Day and what it represents.

Ripe with Abuse: Human Rights Conditions in South Africa’s Fruit and Wine Industries
This Human Rights Watch report analyzes the workers’ rights abuses faced by farmers in South Africa producing the country’s renowned wine.

The Northern Mariana Islands

Capital Crimes: Abramoff, Inc.
This article explains that the Northern Mariana Islands, although officially territories of the United States, are exempt from U.S. minimum wage and immigration laws. Nevertheless, imported workers labor under slave-like conditions in Chinese-owned factories while producing products under the “Made in the U.S.A” label.

Made in the U.S.A.? — Hard Labor on a Pacific Island/A special report.; Saipan Sweatshops Are No American Dream
The New York Times reports on the Saipan sweatshops in the Northern Mariana Islands where popular clothing brands also produce under the “Made in the U.S.A.” label.

Former sweatshop worker from Saipan speaks about conditions
This video captures a first-hand account of the sweatshop conditions experience in Saipan factories. 

American Samoa

American Samoa
The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights provides a summary of the horrible labor conditions in U.S. territory the American Samoa.

American Samoa: Abuses Cited at Apparel Plant that Supplied U.S. Retailers
This article by Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times speaks of the terrible labor rights abuses that have occurred at the Korean Daewoosa factory in the American Samoa.

Women Fighting for the Rights of Uzbek Migrant Workers
Uzbek activists, Matabar Tajibaeva and Shakhida Yakub, are fighting for the rights of Uzbek migrant workers who are confronting the possibility of being placed in detention centers in Russia.

“Uzbekistan: Forced Labor Widespread in Cotton Harvest” 
This Human Rights Watch article provides information about Uzbekistan state authorities forcing its citizens, both adults and older children, to pick cotton during its harvest in response to widespread international attention on the use of small children to do so.

Freedom House Lists Uzbekistan Among 17 Worst Countries
Freedom House, a human rights organization, has listed Uzbekistan as one of the 17 least free countries in the world due to its suppression of political dissent and civic activity.

Forced Child Labor in the Cotton Sector
Between 1.5 and 2 million children are forced annually into the cotton fields of Uzbekistan while powerful foreign countries benefit off cotton trading imports.

“Kids Hard at Work in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields” 
See the included video of small children having to work in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields.