Worker rights abused amid cost-of-living crisis: unions

PARIS — Workers in nine out of 10 countries have seen their right to strike violated over the past year as they battle the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, the International Trade Union Confederation warned Friday.

A decade after launching its first annual Global Rights Index, the ITUC said the results for 2023 provided "a sobering confirmation of its founding purpose".

Eighty-seven percent of the 149 countries reviewed in the index violated the right to strike between April 2022 and March 2023, the union group said.

Seventy-nine percent of countries violated the right to collective bargaining, with companies for instance refusing to comply with collective agreements or rejecting established trade unions, it added.

"As workers have felt the full force of a cost-of-living crisis, governments have cracked down on their rights to collectively negotiate wage rises and take strike action against employer and government indifference to the impacts of spiraling inflation upon working people," the union group said in a report.

Ecuador and Tunisia were highlighted by the IUTC, joining its list of the 10 worst countries for workers in 2023.

Mass protests in Ecuador for democracy and collective rights were brutally repressed, it said.

"In Tunisia, President Kais Saied has continued to tighten his hold on power, undermining workers’ civil liberties and democratic institutions," it added.

Nineteen trade unionists around the world have been murdered, compared to 17 in the previous comparable period.

Luc Triangle, the ITUC's acting general secretary, said this year saw an "urgent need for action" by unions as workers are slammed by rising costs in the aftermath of the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

However, the index shows "a steady attack on workers who dare to demand fair pay for their labour", he said, adding this was seen "across economic and geographical regions".

"Politicians have continued to hold wages down, have refused to honour negotiations with unions, have restricted strike action and have attempted to quash protests claiming that a wage-price spiral must be avoided," Triangle said in the foreword to the index.

Many countries are grappling with cost-of-living crises because wages are not keeping up with inflation prompting central banks to raise interest rates to try to tame the rise in prices.

Agence France-Presse

For some of Japan's lonely workers, COVID-19 brings a homecoming

TOKYO - After four years spent working and living alone, far from his family and friends, Tsuyoshi Tatebayashi packed his bags at the end of March and returned, at last, to his wife and two daughters.

Like hundreds of thousands of other white-collar workers, the 44-year-old IT engineer had been on a solo assignment, known as "tanshin funin", and wasn't expecting to return to his family so soon.

But as the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, his employer, Fujitsu, decided to bring its far-flung workers home, becoming one of Japan's first big firms to make a start in ending the long-established practice.

Solo assignments have been a regular duty for white collar workers since at least Japan's recovery from wartime devastation, becoming a crucial step in career progression despite their unpopularity among many workers.

"If it can be helped, I don't want to have to go on a solo assignment again," Tatebayashi said from his home in Fukuoka, around 1,000 km (600 miles) from his work base near Tokyo. Tatebayashi was one of 4,000 solo workers at the IT consulting and equipment maker.

Manabu Morikawa, a Fujitsu personnel manager, said technology has made remote work possible and ending the unpopular practice may help Fujitsu hire workers.

"There had been discussion in the past about people working away from their families, but COVID-19 provided the impetus for change," Morikawa said.

Snack maker Calbee Inc is another scrapping the practice, last year abolishing most solo assignments.

Solo workers at companies where teleworking has become a norm for all employees are also going home. At some, including Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings and beverage maker Kirin Holdings, that change may be permanent.

"There are cases where employees go back to where their families are," said Russell Roll, a spokesman for Kirin, adding pandemic work-at-home measures were open ended.

Mitsubishi Chemical's new head office in Tokyo will only have enough desks for 60% of employees assigned there.

For the entire system to change, however, banks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, which need to staff extensive branch networks, and major manufacturers such as Toyota Motor Corp, would have to end the practice as well.

"Transfers are a positive step from viewpoint of the outcome by both matching the right person for the right job at the company and the career development of the employee," Toyota spokeswoman, Shiori Hashimoto said.

Toyota is keeping solo assignments but has also expanded work at home for all employees, she added.

An spokesman at MUFG, which is sticking with solo assignments, declined to comment when asked about their merit.

UNPOPULAR

Firms move people every few years to nurture managers with broad experience and also as a way to ensure supplier relationships don't encourage fraud, said Rochelle Kopp, the founder of consulting firm Japan Intercultural.

"Under Japanese labour law, if you are a permanent employee, refusing a job transfer or other job assignment is the same as saying that you are quitting," said Kopp. "It's so commonplace that people just think it's normal."

Many solo workers are middle-aged men who transfer alone to avoid disrupting family life.

Researchers at Ritsumeikan University, using census data and government surveys, estimate there may be as many as 1 million solo workers.

On average, solo workers get an allowance of 47,000 yen ($432) a month to cover housing costs and a trips homes, according to the labour ministry.

But more than two-thirds of 3,131 respondents in a survey published by the Asahi newspaper last February described the assignments as unnecessary. Only 41 people said they were happy with them as they were.

"To get promoted, you have to do solo assignments, although it means missing out on seeing your children grow up," said a YouTuber, who identified himself as Nishigami.

Nishigami, who has been alone in Tokyo for three years working for an IT company, posts videos for first-time solo workers with advice on furnishing small apartments and living frugally.

BACK HOME

During his four year stint in Yokohama, Tatebayashi saw his family once every two months, even less when pandemic lockdowns curbed travel. Most other weekends he worked, hung out with Fujitsu colleagues or played computer games.

He chose to live alone because he had just bought a house in Fukuoka and didn't want to take his daughters, then six and 10, out of school or away from their grandparents nearby.

Japan's government has largely ignored solo workers in recent labour reforms that focus instead on curbing excessive overtime following several deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi".

Tatebayashi reckoned it will take a month or so for family life to return to normal in Fukuoka.

"My kids are happy about it because we can play together, but my wife says she'll find it hard to relax if I am around the house all the time," he said.

He and most other Fujitsu employees welcome the end of solo assignments, but according to personnel manager Morikawa it has posed a problem for a few of Fujitsu's long-term corporate nomads.

"They say that they no longer have rooms at home to go back to." (Reporting by Tim Kelly; additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando, Takashi Umekawa, Maki Shiraki; Editing by David Dolan and Lincoln Feast.)

-reuters-

Nike, Adidas join brands feeling Chinese social media heat over Xinjiang

BEIJING - Nike and Adidas came under attack on Chinese social media on Thursday over past comments the fashion brands have made about labor conditions in Xinjiang, part of a diplomatic row between China and the West.

The sportswear companies were the latest caught up in a backlash prompted by a Chinese government call to stop foreign brands from tainting China's name as internet users found statements they had made in the past on Xinjiang.

Chinese state media had singled out H&M on Wednesday over a statement reported last year where the Swedish fashion retailer said it was deeply concerned by reports of accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang, and that it did not source products from the Chinese region.

Both Nike and Adidas, which have been growing rapidly in China, have said previously that they do not source products or yarn from the Xinjiang region. Adidas declined to comment on Thursday and Nike did not respond to requests for further comment.

Earlier this week, China denied allegations of human rights abuses by its officials in the western region of Xinjiang, home to Muslim Uighurs, after the European Union, United States, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on the officials.

Beijing hit back with retaliatory sanctions on European lawmakers, scholars and institutions.

Some internet users said they would stop buying Nike and will support local brands such as Li Ning and Anta, while others told Adidas to leave China.

The dispute creates a dilemma for Western companies who must balance the desire to expand their business in China against the views of consumers in their home markets.

"Brands must not rescind on their human rights responsibilities in the face of this pressure," said Chloe Cranston of Anti-Slavery International, a member of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uighur Region.

BOYCOTT CALLS

Shares of Anta Sports Products Ltd and Li Ning Co surged, while shares in Adidas, Inditex and H&M fell on Thursday.

State tabloid Global Times said Spain's Inditex, owner of Zara, had "quietly removed" a statement on Xinjiang from its English and Spanish-language websites.

An Inditex webpage stating that the company was highly concerned about reports alleging social and labour malpractice in various supply chains among ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang was live on March 24, a Google cache showed, but now appears to be unavailable.

Inditex did not respond to a request for comment. Inditex has previously said it does not have any commercial relations in Xinjiang.

Chinese internet users also targeted the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a group that promotes sustainable cotton production which said in October it was suspending its approval of cotton sourced from Xinjiang, citing human rights concerns.

BCI members include Nike, Adidas, H&M and Japan's Fast Retailing. The Better Cotton Initiative website also stopped working on Thursday. The organization did not respond to a request for comment.

"If you boycott Xinjiang cotton, we'll boycott you. Either Adidas quits BCI, or get out of China," one internet user wrote.

H&M said on Wednesday it respected Chinese consumers and that it was committed to long-term investment and development in China.

But by Thursday morning, H&M did not exist on some Chinese store locator maps. Searches for H&M stores on Baidu Maps yielded no results. The retailer's official store on Alibaba's Tmall, an e-commerce platform, was inaccessible.

At a daily media briefing at China's foreign ministry, spokeswoman Hua Chunying, when asked about H&M, held up a photograph of Black Americans picking cotton.

"This was in the US when Black slaves were forced to pick cotton in the fields," she said.

Hua then held up a second photograph of cotton fields in Xinjiang.

"More than 40 percent of the cotton in Xinjiang is harvested by machinery, so the alleged forced labour is non-existent."

-reuters-

US suffers biggest job losses in history amid coronavirus

With shops and factories closed nationwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, nearly all of the jobs created in the US economy in the last decade were wiped out in a single month.

An unprecedented 20.5 million jobs were destroyed in April in the world's largest economy, the biggest amount ever recorded, the Labor Department said in a report released Friday, the first to capture the impact of a full month of the lockdowns.

That drove the unemployment rate to 14.7 percent from 4.4 percent in March -- the highest level since the Great Depression of the last century.

The United States is home to the world's largest and deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with more than 75,000 fatalities and 1.2 million cases reported as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The economic damage from the lockdowns to contain the virus has been swift and stunning, despite nearly $3 trillion in financial aid approved by Congress, and there is growing fear that the temporary layoffs will become permanent since some companies won't survive.

Taken together, 21.4 million jobs were destroyed in March and April, nearly equal to the 23 million positions created during the economy's long expansion from February 2010 to February 2020.

All major industry sectors felt the pain.

Leisure and hospitality was the first sector hit and the one bearing the brunt of the impact of the lockdowns, shedding 7.7 million jobs, while manufacturing eliminated 1.3 million positions.

Those two sectors alone added up to more than the 8.6 million total jobs lost in the two years of the global financial crisis.

As bad as the data was, the real picture likely is much worse. The Labor Department noted the unemployment rate would have been closer to 20 percent, but some workers were misclassified as employed when they actually had been laid off because of COVID-19.

- Not a good future -

The pandemic has caused many employees to leave the workforce altogether, while others have been forced from full-time jobs into part-time work.

The measure of the labor force as a share of the total population sunk to 51.3 percent, its lowest in history, meaning nearly half of working-age Americans are not employed.

Minorities were hit particularly hard: African American unemployment spiked to 16.7 percent from 6.7 percent in March, while the rate for Hispanics was 18.9 percent, more than triple last month.

President Donald Trump said Friday the numbers were expected, and promised: "I'll bring it back."

"I think it's going to come back blazing," he told reporters on the economy.

But 57-year-old Sandra Mahesh, who recently lost her job in Maryland and had her unemployment benefits cut off, is not hopeful.

"I don't see a good future with America right now," she told AFP.

While Trump proclaimed on Fox News earlier Friday that "even the Democrats aren't blaming me" for the job losses, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden lambasted him for his handling of the crisis.

"Donald Trump utterly failed to prepare for this pandemic and delayed in taking the necessary steps to safeguard our nation against the near-worst-case economic scenario we are now living," Biden said in a statement.

- Low-wage destruction -

Echoing the fears of many economists over the fates of small businesses, Biden said, "A lot of them won't open again because they do not have a cushion due to three years of Trump's policies that reward the biggest companies."

The report showed average wages rose, but economists say that is merely another sign of catastrophe.

"In April, the job losses were disproportionately concentrated in relatively low-wage sectors like leisure and recreation," Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said in an analysis.

A University of Chicago study based on the huge ADP private payrolls database found that low-wage workers saw employment decline by 35 percent, a rate three times as high as the nine percent decline seen by top earners.

Job losses at the bottom of the wage scale account for one third of the total decline, the authors found.

"The beginning of this likely 'Pandemic Recession' is unprecedented," co-author John Grigsby said on Twitter.

"Labor market declines (are) concentrated among low-income workers and small firms, precisely those that are unlikely to have savings to smooth over shock."

Agence France-Presse

Working in fear, immigrants keep US poultry plants running

Tina says a little prayer every time she heads to work at a Delaware poultry plant, a plea that this will not be the day that the invisible killer picking off her colleagues comes for her.

With the coronavirus shutting down meat plants and threatening the country's food supply, she would rather not be there at all, but President Donald Trump has designated the sector as strategic, and low-paid workers like her as essential. 

The 27-year-old mother works shifts at the Perdue packing plant in Georgetown, a major employer among the thousands of fellow Haitians settled in the area. If she wants to hold on to her job, she feels she has little choice but to clock in for her shifts, despite the risk to her and her family.

"Every day I come, I just pray to God that nothing happens," said Tina -- one of few workers who would agree to speak to a reporters, although even she declined to provide her full name for fear of reprisals.

"I want to go home, I have three kids at home, a baby, but I can't do that," she told AFP, speaking behind a mask. "I have no choice, bills are coming from left to right." 

With no way of knowing who might be carrying the virus, "everyone is afraid of getting sick, people still works close together."

"They don't tell us who has been tested positive. Was that person beside me, talking to me, you never know."

Tina believes too little was done, too late, to protect workers like her.

"I just think that they should close a few weeks so they can clean the whole plant," she said.

The number of coronavirus infections has recently soared in the Delmarva peninsula, which reaches south out of Delaware to eastern Maryland and the northeast of Virginia.

The poultry packing industry has thrived off the cheap labor provided by Haitians and Hispanics, but it also has meant that they have been the first to be cut down by the disease.

Fear of hospitals

The small town of Salisbury, the historic base of Perdue, is home to a community of some 5,000 Haitians, at least 40 percent of whom are infected, according to Habacuc Petion, the owner of Oasis radio, which broadcasts in Creole to an estimated 20,000 listeners in the Delmarva area.

Many work for Perdue, and are refusing to stay home for fear of being sacked.

"Even if they have fever, they take a pill and go to work," said Petion.

"COVID-19 touched home," said the 45-year-old. "My cousin was 44, working at Perdue plant. Beginning of April, he could not breathe, his wife convinced the medics to take him to the hospital. In less than two weeks he died."

The disease's toll has also been boosted by a fear of hospitals and by the language barrier for many Haitians, doctors said.

"When they see people dying in New York hospitals, the lack of material and people put in dumps, they are scared thinking they won't receive the care they need -- and end up dying," said Nadya Julien, a Haitian nurse practitioner in Laurel, Delaware.

Some who speak Creole but little English have trouble explaining their symptoms, she said.

She herself contracted the disease and was hospitalized for six days in April, a story she tells her patients to help them overcome their fears.

'Temptation'

Nurse practitioner Emanie Dorival said she alerted the local authorities very early to the number of cases piling up in her surgery in Seaford, Delaware.

"We are a rural area," she said. "We don't have the capacity in our hospitals if 200 cases show up."

While she agrees the poultry industry is "essential" she says "there is a way to keep it safe for the workers and the community."

Several major US plants where farmers send cattle, pigs and poultry have shut due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 between employees, who are often in close proximity on production lines and on breaks.

Faced with the threat of disruption to the nation's food supply, Trump has ordered meat and poultry plants to remain open during the pandemic that has claimed almost 70,000 lives.

Perdue has said it is doing all it can to ensure workers' safety, taking temperatures, providing protective equipment and practicing social distancing on the production line. Where it is impossible to keep workers a safe distance apart, it said it has installed screens.

It also increased workers' wages -- which Petion described as "a temptation that a lot of people can't resist."

Local health authorities are meanwhile stepping up testing for the virus, with factory workers at the front of the line. In Salisbury, some 1,500 people underwent tests on Friday and Saturday at the town's sports stadium. The results are expected this week.

Agence France-Presse

Ivanka Trump says developing countries must do more to empower women to get US aid

WASHINGTON - Developing countries that want to do business with the United States must do more to empower women and give them better access to the workforce, education and legal protections, White House adviser Ivanka Trump said on Friday.

Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, outlined initiatives to bolster the economic status of women at a panel during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings. She appeared to tie future US development aid and trading relations to improvements on these issues by developing countries.

"We in the United States think about our development assistance through the lens of achieving the goal for countries of self-reliance," she told an audience of hundreds.

"And you cannot achieve self-reliance and the ability of a country to become a trading partner if you are not fully realizing the potential of 50 percent of your population, and in fact have barriers against them to realizing that potential."

Trump in 2017 launched a women's entrepreneurship fund with the World Bank and 13 other countries, followed this year by a $50 million project that aims to reach 50 million women by 2025. It is urging countries to change laws that bar women from owning property, using transportation, accessing legal structures and gaining access to credit.

These efforts come amid criticism by civil rights groups that the Trump administration is disempowering women at home and abroad. The administration has backed curtailing abortion rights for women in the United States and limiting contraception requirements in health insurance, and it refuses to fund agencies globally that even mention abortion.

Trump, the highest ranking US administration official to speak publicly at the annual IMF/World Bank meetings, was joined on stage by Goldman Sachs Chief Executive David Solomon, whose bank has also launched a women's initiative called "10,000 Women" and Ana Botin, executive chairman of Banco Santander.

World Bank President David Malpass, appointed by Trump, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, have pledged to focus more intensely on women's issues as they structure the future work of the two large multilateral institutions, citing the huge potential for economic gains for all countries.

Georgieva on Tuesday vowed to fight for greater gender equality at the IMF and around the world, telling a packed audience: "Buckle up. It's going to come." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Qatar to end controversial migrant worker restrictions

DOHA - Qatar announced plans Wednesday to scrap key aspects of its controversial "kafala" labor rules, including the requirement for some workers to obtain employers' permission to change jobs and exit permits to leave the country.

Qatar has made a series of reforms to its employment regulations since being selected to host the 2022 World Cup, which set motion a vast construction program employing foreign workers.

Rights groups have long said the system fuels abuses.

Last year, the exit visa requirement was dropped for the majority of workers, but the authorities are now extending that to the remainder, including domestic staff and employees of government bodies including Qatar Airways.

"Cabinet has adopted new legislation related to a new law for minimum wage and also a new regulation to facilitate labour transfer to a new employer... and a draft law to abolish exit permits," Labor Minister Yousuf Mohamed al-Othman Fakhroo said.

The proposals will now be drafted formally "within a month or so" and should become law by "around the end of the year", he told AFP.

Just 333,000 of the country's 2.7 million people are Qatari citizens, according to official statistics.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event marking the centenary of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Othman said the new regulations aimed to make Qatar "an attractive place for investors, for skilled workers."

He did not specify the level of the new minimum wage, but the government had set it temporarily at 750 riyals ($206) per month.

'A START'

An Indian worker in the textiles industry, who declined to be named, said Qatar needed to do more but the move was "definitely a start".

"They have labor laws but how many people come forward to complain? People don't come forward because they don't want to lose their jobs," the worker said.

Some two million foreigners work in Qatar, many employed directly or indirectly on vast infrastructure projects for the 2022 World Cup.

In February, the gas-rich Gulf state said it was committed to labour reforms, following an Amnesty International report that it was failing to stop widespread abuse of workers.

Doha said it was on course to deliver "lasting" change after the rights group said it was "running out of time" to implement the reforms before the football contest.

The ILO praised Qatar for the latest "the sweeping reforms" and voiced hope that other countries with similar systems would follow suit.

"With these announcements we can officially announce the abolishment of kafala," said the head of the UN agency's Qatar project office, Houtan Homayounpour.

"It is huge news for the millions of workers who are here and the State of Qatar."

Regional analyst and King's College London assistant professor Andreas Krieg said the reforms "were the final step in liberalising the labour market in Qatar".

"The Qataris feel the pressure from the international media to make changes and they really recognised this since 2017 that they have to make concessions and improvements -- and they have," he said.

gw/par

source: news.abs-cbn.com

iPhone 11 launch marred by claims Foxconn factory broke labor laws

One day before the launch of the iPhone 11, Apple and its Chinese supplier Foxconn have been accused of violating labor laws to produce the new model.

New York-based China Labor Watch (CLW) released a report on Monday detailing a string of alleged violations at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory, in the central province of Henan, mostly relating to the employment conditions of temporary workers.

According to the report, temporary workers – recruited through contracted agencies – now make up half or more of the workforce at the Zhengzhou facility, with workers putting in at least 100 overtime hours a month.

China’s labor laws stipulate that temporary workers “shall not exceed 10 percent of the total workforce” and that “monthly overtime work hours shall not exceed 36 hours”.

The report also found temporary workers allegedly did not receive the same benefits as full-time employees, including paid sick leave, paid holidays and social insurance which provides medical, unemployment and pension coverage.

Chinese labor regulations require temporary workers – who should not be recruited for primary roles – to be paid the same level of salary, insurance and other benefits as permanent staff.

Foxconn started recruiting temporary workers – also known as “dispatch workers” – in 2016 through the use of labor hire companies which typically offer one-off “bonuses” to attract the workers they recruit. The employees have no direct employment relationship with Foxconn until they sign a contract with the factory, usually after working there for three months.

“Apple has done very little to improve the rights of workers in their supplier factories,” CLW said. “Apple claimed they care about every worker on the production line but, in fact, workers are paid wages that are close to or equivalent to the local minimum wage.”

Zhengzhou Foxconn – dubbed Apple’s “iPhone City” – is the biggest iPhone factory in the world and has previously come under fire over working conditions at the 1.4 million square meter (15 million sq ft) facility, where half the world’s iPhones are made. A series of suicides and protests by workers – allegedly over payment and harsh working conditions – have made headlines over the years.

In January 2018, a temporary worker jumped to his death from Zhengzhou Foxconn’s dormitory complex, apparently because he did not receive his bonus. In December, hundreds of temporary workers took to the streets of Zhengzhou claiming they had been cheated by the recruitment agencies out of their $870 bonuses.

Photographs and videos posted online showed groups of workers holding placards which read: “Illegal agents with Foxconn cheated migrant workers. Give me back my money.” One video showed people chanting, “We want our bonus money”. The protests were broken up by police.

CLW said its investigators, who had been employed at the factory for years, found working conditions had remained relatively unchanged. The base wage was still 2,100 yuan (US$295) which was insufficient to sustain a family living in Zhengzhou. Social insurance contributions had increased from 2015 to 2018, but still fell short of legal requirements, CLW said.

Other violations CLW found included recruitment of student workers, a lack of adequate personal protective equipment and safety training, and a failure to report work injuries. Supervisors also commonly used verbal abuse, the report said.

Apple conceded the number of dispatch workers was high, but dismissed most of the report.

“We did find during our investigation that the percentage of dispatch workers exceeded our standards and we are working closely with Foxconn to resolve this issue,” Apple said.

“We looked into the claims by China Labor Watch and most of the allegations are false. We have confirmed all workers are being compensated appropriately, including any overtime wages and bonuses, all overtime work was voluntary and there was no evidence of forced labor.”

Apple also said robust management systems were in place, including training on workplace rights, on-site worker interviews, anonymous grievance channels and ongoing audits.

Foxconn Technology Group confirmed that a recent review of its Zhengzhou operations had identified some workforce compliance issues, but also rejected the bulk of CLW’s claims.

“At no time did we find any evidence of forced labour and we can confirm that this facility currently has no interns working overtime,” Foxconn said.

“We did find evidence that the use of dispatch workers and the number of hours of overtime work carried out by employees, which we have confirmed was always voluntary, was not consistent with company guidelines. We did determine that the affected workers were paid all earned overtime and related bonus payments.”

Foxconn said work continued to address the issues identified at the Zhengzhou facility, which was being closely monitored. “We will not hesitate to take any additional steps that might be required to meet the high standards we set for our operations.”

Foxconn said it worked hard to comply with all relevant laws and regulations. “In all cases, and with all types of workers, we offer an industry-competitive salary and related benefits that significantly exceeds government-mandated levels.”

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thai garment factory investigated by Starbucks after illegal wages exposé

MAE SOT - Garment factories in Thailand that supply to global brands such as coffee giant Starbucks and sports gear maker Bauer Hockey are under investigation after an expose found workers illegally underpaid in a region described as a "black hole".

The Thomson Reuters Foundation interviewed 26 workers - all migrants from neighboring Myanmar - employed at 4 factories in Thailand's western region of Mae Sot who said they were paid less than the daily minimum wage of 310 Thai baht ($10.15).

Located 500 km (310 miles) from the capital Bangkok, Mae Sot is the main entry point into western Thailand and a trade hub home to hundreds of factories and tens of thousands of migrant workers seeking to make money to send back to their families.

Most of the 26 workers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they did not receive wage slips at work yet the MAP Foundation - a non-profit that supports Burmese migrant workers - said it had gathered dozens of their payslips showing illegal underpayment.

Some of the workers said they produced aprons for Starbucks - and provided photos of the garments that can be seen worn by baristas at its cafes in Thailand - while others worked at a factory that makes clothing for the US-based Bauer Hockey.

The expose raises questions about Thailand's ability to inspect garment factories and protect workers across the country - and a senior government official said he was aware many of those working in Mae Sot were being unlawfully underpaid.

Starbucks said it was investigating the findings while Bauer Hockey said it had asked its supplier to look into the matter.

Both companies said they required their suppliers to comply with local laws on issues including compensation for workers.

"The supplier in question has denied these allegations," said a Starbucks spokeswoman. "We take these claims seriously and are conducting a full investigation."

The Starbucks' supplier could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for Bauer Hockey said it had asked the factory in question to investigate and "take all necessary action to immediately bring its compensation practices within compliance".

A representative for the factory in Mae Sot supplying Bauer Hockey said it provided many benefits for workers, such as free housing, and covered half of the cost of their work permit fees.

The government has been planning to send a task force to inspect factories in Mae Sot, said Somboon Trisilanun, deputy director-general of the Department of Labor Protection and Welfare, which implements labor laws and performs inspections.

"We have to admit Mae Sot is a black hole because there are many garment factories that are very hard to inspect," he said.

UNDER THE RADAR

Mae Sot, a district in Thailand's Tak province that borders Myanmar and is also part of a special economic zone (SEZ), has 430 registered factories - 40 percent of which produce garments and textile - employing about 44,500 workers, government data shows.

The Tak Province Office of Labor Protection and Welfare said it aimed to inspect 260 factories this year and so far about 50 owners have been ordered to comply with labor laws or risk fines as high as 20,000 baht and/or up to a year in prison.

Since 2016 - according to its latest available data - the office has filed 26 lawsuits against companies over issues from not paying the minimum wage to compensating fired workers. Most of these companies ended up paying fines, the office said.

But MAP Foundation estimated only half-a-dozen or so of factories in Mae Sot paid minimum wages based on their research and interviews with workers who were reluctant to complain for fear of being fired or factories closing and losing their jobs.

"I see Mae Sot as not part of Thailand," said Sutthisak Rungrueangphasuk, a case manager at MAP Foundation. "It's like an area that is not protected by law."

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) in Mae Sot said all of its 130 members in the region - predominantly medium and large factories - paid their workers the minimum wage.

The introduction of a nationwide daily minimum wage in 2013 has seen wages in Tak almost double from 162 baht.

But the wage hike meant many factories now deducted housing, food and work permit costs from workers' salaries - in violation of labor laws - whereas they previously provided such services for free, said Siwanat Petchsringoen, FTI's manager in Mae Sot.

Most of the factories that have flouted labor laws - which require employers to pay workers their full salary upfront - are small or medium sized and often fly under the radar, he added.

"We are not able to control all (the factories), but we've been communicating about this (issue)," Petchsringoen said.

Kunchit Manowarangkoon, head of the Tak Province Office of Labour Protection and Welfare office, said it was hard to inspect smaller factories operating on a short-term basis and with few workers. But he denied the MAP Foundation's claim that less than 10% of factories in Mae Sot paid the minimum wage.

Three workers from one factory, however, said they received less than the minimum wage before deductions were taken.

At another factory - a Chinese-owned establishment that makes foam mats - three workers said they were forced to sign two payslips - one showing their actual pay of around 4,000 baht a month, and another stating that they earned the minimum wage.

TRAPPED

Seamstress Theingi said she earned about 80 baht for a 15-hour day of making children's clothes and aprons for Starbucks.

The Burmese migrant, who did not give her real name for fear of losing her job, said she and most of her colleagues only had one day off every 45 days. Thai labor laws require workers to be granted one day of leave for each working week.

"I thought Thailand would be better than Myanmar, but when I arrived it was not what I expected," she said at a dormitory near the factory where workers were packed into tiny rooms.

"I have felt unhappy and discouraged, but I have to bear the brunt or else I won't have anything to take back home."

Many Burmese workers in Mae Sot, such as Phyo Oo Naing, feel trapped and powerless to change their situation with migrant workers not allowed to form labor unions to seek higher pay.

He has had to twice borrow money from his family back in Myanmar to survive, does not receive any overtime pay, and last month was only given 15 days of work at his foam mat factory.

"I feel taken advantage of," said the worker, who did not give his real name for fear of reprisals. "I want to go back to Myanmar, but now I don't have enough money to travel home."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon workers strike as 'Prime' shopping frenzy hits

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Amazon workers walked out of a main distribution center in Minnesota on Monday, protesting for improved working conditions during the e-commerce titan's major "Prime" shopping event.

Amazon workers picketed outside the facility, briefly delaying a few trucks and waving signs with messages along the lines of "We're human, not robots."

"We know Prime Day is a big day for Amazon, so we hope this strike will help executives understand how serious we are about wanting real change that will uplift the workers in Amazon's warehouses," striker Safiyo Mohamed said in a release.

"We create a lot of wealth for Amazon, but they aren't treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve."

Organizers did not disclose the number of strikers, who said employees picketed for about an hour in intense heat before cutting the protest short due to the onset of heavy rain.

The strike was part of an ongoing effort to pressure the company on issues including job safety, equal opportunity in the workplace, and concrete action on issues including climate change, according to community organization Awood Center.

US Democratic presidential contenders Kamila Harris and Bernie Sanders were among those who expressed support for the strikers on Twitter.

"I stand in solidarity with the courageous Amazon workers engaging in a work stoppage against unconscionable working conditions in their warehouses," Sanders said in a tweet.

"It is not too much to ask that a company owned by the wealthiest person in the world treat its workers with dignity and respect."

Amazon employees also went on strike at seven locations in Germany, demanding better wages as the US online retail giant launched its two-day global shopping discount extravaganza called Prime Day.

Amazon had said in advance that the strike would not affect deliveries to customers.

Amazon has consistently defended work conditions, contending it is a leader when it comes to paying workers at least $15 hourly and providing benefits.

The company last week announced plans to offer job training to around one-third of its US workforce to help them gain skills to adapt to new technologies.

Amazon has been hustling to offer one-day delivery on a wider array of products as a perk for paying $119 annually to be a member of its "Prime" service, which includes streaming films and television shows.

The work action came on the opening day of a major "Prime" shopping event started in 2015.

Now in 17 countries, the event will span Monday and Tuesday, highlighted by a pre-recorded Taylor Swift video concert and promotions across a range of products and services from the e-commerce leader.

Prime Day sales for Amazon are expected to hit $5 billion this year, up from $3.2 billion in 2018, which at the time represented its biggest ever global shopping event, JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth says in a research note.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

BuzzFeed News joins union wave at digital media outlets

Expertise in the language of the internet is part of what has made BuzzFeed a digital giant. Now members of the website’s news staff are using their fluency in digital culture to pressure their employer to come to the bargaining table.

The BuzzFeed News Union, which came to life four months ago when the staff decided to join the national News Guild, invoked an online trope in the bio of its Twitter account: “Building a stronger newsroom while staying nimble — get you a union who can do both.” The line is a play on the “get you a man who can do both” meme, which BuzzFeed explained in a 2016 piece.

Last week, the account posted a “sign bunny” — a pictogram of a sign-holding rabbit, made from computer symbols — to note that the company had yet to recognize the union.

On Monday, BuzzFeed News staff members took their efforts offline, staging a four-hour walkout at the company’s offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington.

The tools of protest at a rally outside its Manhattan headquarters were decidedly old school: signs, T-shirts, chants, a bullhorn for speeches and an inflated rat to signify a non-union workplace. A Tex-Mex restaurant down the block sent pounds of chips and salsa in solidarity.

“If BuzzFeed is committed to having a news division, they need to keep up the industry labor standards that people fought for for decades,” said Dominic Holden, a political reporter who serves on BuzzFeed’s union organizing committee.

There has been a wave of unionization at online publications, getting its start at Gawker in 2015. Outlets that have followed Gawker’s lead include the original online magazines Slate and Salon; destination sites like Vice Media, HuffPost, Refinery29, The Dodo and Vox; the humor site The Onion; the podcasting company Gimlet Media; the music site Pitchfork; and New York Magazine’s online verticals The Cut, Vulture and Intelligencer.

In joining with unions, reporters and editors at online publications are following in the footsteps of their print predecessors. Now that digital media has matured, digital journalists have dropped the we’re-just-happy-to-be-published attitude that once sustained them.

“People want a career,” said Hamilton Nolan, a staff writer at the website Splinter, who helped lead the Gawker union drive. “They don’t just want to jump every couple years from job to job.”

The ranks have swelled recently at two unions representing writers and editors: the News Guild, which represents the staff at The New York Times, among other media organizations, and the Writers Guild of America East, perhaps best known for its work with television and film writers. Organizers at the two unions estimated that the digital wave has brought them 2,000 new members.

The trend was in evidence on Friday when workers at Vox Media, whose holdings include SB Nation, Eater, The Verge and the namesake news site, ratified a new contract after more than a year of bargaining. In an email to the staff, the chief executive, Jim Bankoff, announced that the company would extend certain features of the union contract — such as a 16-week leave for new parents and a new emphasis on diversity — to all employees.

Amy Plitt, the Curbed NY editor and a member of the Vox bargaining committee, said that after the agreement became public, she noticed posts on Twitter saying Vox Media looked like an attractive place to work.

“I think it will make it easier for companies to bring in talented voices, who ultimately make these brands better,” she added.

Things are more contentious at BuzzFeed. Of the site’s roughly 1,250 employees, it is the 200 or so journalists at BuzzFeed News, the division led by editor Ben Smith, who are taking part in the union drive. Among the sticking points between them and company leaders is how to define which employees would be members of the union.

During a meeting with staff in 2015, BuzzFeed’s chief executive, Jonah Peretti, expressed his opposition to a union at the company he co-founded.

“I don’t think a union is right for BuzzFeed,” Peretti said. He argued that it would put workers and managers at odds and lead to rigid job definitions that would make the company less flexible than Google or Facebook, neither of which has a union.

Nevertheless, Peretti said Monday that an offer to voluntarily recognize the union was “on the table.” The organizing committee has refused to accept that offer because it feels the proposal could unduly restrict the number of staff members who would belong to the union.

Unions are arising in digital media during hard times for the industry. More than 1,000 jobs were lost at digital outlets this year, including a layoff of 15 percent of BuzzFeed’s staff.

In some instances, digital journalists have lost their jobs soon after joining unions. In 2017, days after reporters at the New York City news sites DNAInfo and Gothamist celebrated their affiliation with the Writers Guild of America East, the billionaire owner Joe Ricketts decided to shut the sites down.

Similarly, most of the union staff members at Mic, an online publication for millennials, were laid off just before Bustle Digital Group bought the site last year.

Those who profit from digital media may be reaping a whirlwind they themselves have sown. BuzzFeed, Vox and HuffPost are among the outlets that speak in the language of progressivism, partly in an effort to attract younger and more diverse readers. Lately, the publishers of those sites have been asked to back up the reams of content they have put into the world with the kind of progressive action that predates the advent of wokeness.

As Holden, the BuzzFeed News political reporter, put it: “They need to demonstrate that being socially conscious isn’t just a brand.”


2019 New York Times News Service

source: news.abs-cbn.com

7-Eleven struggling in face of Japan's labor, population woes

Owners of Japan's ubiquitous convenience stores are facing a business model-threatening crisis as they grapple with the nation's demographic and labor challenges.

"I love working under the 7-Eleven logo, and there is no doubt Japanese society needs convenience stores. But, honestly, headquarters has not kept pace with changes in society," said Atsushi Nara, who for 37 years has owned Seven-Eleven stores in Ibaraki Prefecture, east of Tokyo.

As the 58-year-old Nara says, convenience stores, all 58,000 of them nationwide, have increasingly become a part of the Japanese social fabric since the first 7-Eleven Japan Co. store opened in 1974, the services and readily accessible products they provide now integral to people's lives.

But Japan's severe worker shortages and rising labor costs have laid bare the shortcomings of 7-Eleven's upper management, demonstrating how the sole pursuit of revenue in businesses that operate around the clock is a fatal flaw, analysts point out.

It is not just 7-Eleven, however, as Lawson and Family Mart, the second and third biggest convenience store chains in the country, respectively, are also struggling to overcome the same problems.

"(Seven-Eleven management) has found no effective measures to address the shortage of labor that has become a burden on franchise owners, but continue to be bound by the idea that opening new outlets will lead to higher sales," Nara lamented.

"And why would they change, when they are logging strong earnings on the back of royalties collected from the stores?"

Pressure has been mounting on the industry's long-established all day, every day business model, and an intense, high-profile dispute between 7-Eleven and one of its franchisees in Higashiosaka, western Japan, just added fuel to the fire.

In February, the franchise owner began closing his store overnight due to a lack of staff. In response, 7-Eleven reprimanded him for violating his contract.

The fact the dispute made nationwide news shows just how ingrained convenience stores are into the nation's psyche.

In the wake of the dispute, the industry ministry took the rare step in April of urging convenience store operators to formulate plans to address staffing issues after a survey found an increasing number of franchises were struggling to recruit new staff and pay the wages of their increasingly expensive existing workers.

Japan's antitrust watchdog, the Fair Trade Commission, is also set to launch an investigation into whether convenience store operators are abusing a position of power to take advantage of vulnerable franchise owners, sources close to the matter have said.

In response to government requests, the large convenience store chains ostensibly formulated action plans, with features like the adoption of a lenient policy in reviewing business hours and introducing self-checkout machines and other technology.

But they have not answered calls for a review process of contracts they have with franchisees, including addressing royalty payments.

In early June, a group of convenience store owners visited the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to ask the minister to push the franchisors to provide financial support and better terms for workers through a petition signed by nearly 1,600 store owners nationwide.

"The action plan submitted by Seven-Eleven showed that their ideas of business improvements are way off," said Eiji Yoshimura, an owner of a Seven-Eleven outlet in Tokyo. "There is nothing new, just a bunch of steps it has already implemented before."

For example, while 7-Eleven said they would deploy personnel to outlets experiencing staff shortfalls, when an owner actually makes a request, he or she discovers that the hourly wage of the temporary staff is more than double the pay of current staff.

Yoshimura also cast doubt on 7-Eleven's claim that self-checkout machines will lead to reduced working hours as they would still require staff to oversee stores equipped with the technology.

He also criticized Seven-Eleven for a lack of communication with the owners, even though it pledged to do so in the action plan.

"My employees are worried about the situation surrounding the convenience store industry as there seems to be no end, no answer to this," said Nara, welcoming the moves by the government in exerting external pressure to drive change.

As the convenience store industry continues to seek ways to fix its problems, more franchise owners have been turning to foreign, part-time workers to cover shifts.

Nara said the shortage of labor is a painful problem. Even six years ago, when he opened a new 7-Eleven store, only three people came applying for a job. "I sweated it out because before, I could choose 15 to hire from 20 or 30 people who came to apply for work," he said.

"(But now) there is no way we can go on without the help of foreign workers," he said.

Sanefuji Renebel, a 30-year-old mother of two from the Philippines, is currently in her second month working for one of Nara's Seven-Eleven stores.

Still unsure about Japanese kanji, hiragana and katakana characters, she says she needs to study and review how to operate the cash registers even when she is not on shift. She works from around 9 p.m. or 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. four days a week.

"I was surprised that I had been hired," she said. "I know that we are short of labor so I want to try not to cause trouble and learn my job as fast as I can," Renebel said.

She said stores being open all day and all night is good because it allows her to work when her children are sleeping. "At first I was afraid of working late at night but the customers have familiar faces and it was okay."

Her Taiwanese co-worker, Kai Jhen, 54, also said she enjoys working at 7-Eleven despite the complexities, including operating the cash registers, handling utility bills and other public services, processing deliveries, cleaning toilets, restocking items, inspecting goods and taking out the trash.

"It cannot be helped that we are short of staff. We just need to cooperate," Kai said.

Denise Muriel Suriaga Reyes, a 27-year-old Filipino worker at a 7-Eleven store, said she assists foreign customers by explaining food items to them.

"Sometimes we have customers from Pakistan and Nepal. I tell them what kind of meat is used in the products because they cannot read Japanese," she said.

Despite the difficulties, 7-Eleven headquarters appears willing to allow store owners to run convenience stores as they see fit, as long as it does not impact the bottom line.

Ryuichi Isaka, president of 7-Eleven's parent company Seven & i Holdings Co., told a shareholders meeting in May, "We will aim for leniency in operating convenience stores but without risking falls in sales."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Modi kept his job, Indians worry about theirs

NEW DELHI -- Asad Ahmed, one of about 1.2 million young Indians entering the cutthroat job market each month, diligently scribbles notes at a computer class in New Delhi.

While nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a new 5-year term promising to step up his campaign for a "new India", 18-year-old Ahmed is pessimistic about getting a new job.

"There are so many people in Delhi and the competition is intense," said Ahmed, dressed like the other students in a black-and-white uniform at the 3-month community course run in a police station in Old Delhi.

"I know this stint may not be enough for me to get a job but I am trying my best."

Modi came to power in 2014 promising jobs, but delivering on that has been a challenge.

And as soon as the election euphoria settles, Modi's government will have to find ways to boost investment and revive manufacturing to create new jobs.

Like Ahmed, most of the other 60 students at the government-sponsored "skill development" classes at the Old Delhi police station, all from poor families, were also apprehensive. 

Nudrat Akram, 19, signed up for the course because her family could not afford to pay for higher education.

"I want a job in the retail sector where I can earn 10,000 rupees ($143) a month," Akram said, as she practised speaking English with pretend customers.

MORE JOBS, MORE DEBT 

India's conservative prime minister came to power in 2014 on a pro-business platform, promising to create 10 million jobs a year.

The world's fastest-growing major economy has grown about 7 percent a year since, but jobs have been elusive.

The promise was barely mentioned in Modi's triumphant re-election campaign.

Nearly two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion population are of working age, between 15 and 64, but an increasing number are in the unemployed list.

No official data has been released for more than two years but a recent leaked report -- denied by the government -- put the unemployment rate at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent.

The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private research firm, estimates the jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent in April.

"The economy is going to be a huge problem. The government simply cannot create jobs for millions entering the workforce," said political analyst Parsa Venkateshwar Rao.

"Modi will rely on businesses but they are also struggling so he has a real problem on his hands."

'NOT EASY TO SURVIVE' 

Unemployment is particularly dire for women.

A Deloitte consultancy report in March said female labor force participation fell to 26 percent in 2018 from 36 percent in 2005 because of poor education and socio-economic barriers.

The manifesto of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised a $1.4-trillion infrastructure boost to create jobs if it won the election. It offered metro trains for 50 cities and to double the national highway network.

But analysts say the government, which has drastically increased its debt over the past five years, will have to borrow huge new amounts to pay for the works.

In 2015, Modi launched a Skill India program aiming to train 500 million people by 2022. But the results have been mixed.

According to 2018 data, only a quarter of people who joined the scheme found jobs.

"The Skill India mission has not had as much success as say the highway program," said economist Arvind Virmani.

"The real crisis is about job skills and basic education."

India's rural jobs guarantee program offers work to about 70 million people at a minimum wage for 100 days a year, but there is no equivalent for the growing numbers of urban youth.

Experts say the government must consider an urban employment guarantee scheme in order to reap the true benefit of its economic growth.

At the Delhi classes, 18-year-old Sehar, who uses one name, is worried about helping her poor family, including 4 younger sisters.

Her father, who works at a hospital, is the only earner. 

"I am the eldest and I want to help my family, it's not easy to survive in this city." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Former NFL cheerleaders demand better pay, end to exploitation

NEW YORK - A group of former cheerleaders from the Houston Texans suing the NFL delivered a letter to its commissioner Monday, demanding the league end its exploitation of women and pay fairer wages.

Their lawyer Gloria Allred, who filed a case against the Texans on Friday, told the media it was time for cheerleaders to get the respect they deserved and for their salaries to be increased beyond minimum wage.

"Women deserve respect and should be paid for the worth they provide," she said, reading from the letter. "The days when women would accept any crumbs that men would give them are gone -- enough is enough."

Surrounded by four of the five women she is representing, Allred, who previously represented the victims of disgraced TV icon Bill Cosby during his assault trial, said she had given the NFL a week to respond.

In their lawsuit, the women say they were paid just $7.25 an hour for their work and were also subjected to harassment.

It was the latest legal action following similar suits by cheerleaders from two other teams, the New Orleans Saints and the Miami Dolphins.

The issue came to the fore last month after The New York Times reported that said members of the Washington Redskins cheerleading squad who went on a weeklong trip to Costa Rica were pressured into taking topless pictures for a calendar photo shoot -- though the calendar did not feature nude photographs.

Long a staple of American professional sports, some critics have questioned whether the presence of scantily-clad women on the sidelines of games is an anachronism in the #MeToo era.

Allred did not go that far, but suggested that mixed gender cheerleading squads would go a long way toward improving work conditions.

"Usually, when men are in a profession, it brings things up," she said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Women are solution to Japan's labor shortage: head of int'l body

GENEVA - Women are the solution to Japan's expected labor shortage and economic difficulties stemming from a decline in its population, the head of a joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations recently told Kyodo News.

"There is a big potential in Japan to grow the economy with the participation of women in this growth, by putting women in the economy," Arancha Gonzalez, executive director of the International Trade Center said.

The institution is dedicated to supporting the internationalization of small and medium-sized companies, paying special attention to the role of women entrepreneurs.

"I think the position by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to direct one of his 'arrows' towards more participation of women in society and economy is the right one," Gonzalez said, referring to the government's "Abenomics" economic and fiscal policy mix.

In addition to fiscal stimulus and monetary easing -- the first two arrows -- "Abenomics" implies structural reforms. Female empowerment is one component of this third arrow, Abe having announced in September 2013 at the U.N. General Assembly his intention to create "a society in which women shine."

The Abe administration has for example set a goal of raising the proportion of women in leading corporate positions to 30 percent by 2020.

"Since 2003, Japan has lost eight million people in the age bracket between 18 and 65. But it has increased the participation of employees in this age bracket, and this is because women have participated more into the job market," Gonzalez said.

Japan's fertility rate is one of the lowest among industrialized countries, standing at 1.42 in 2014, compared with 1.86 for the United States, 1.98 for France and 1.37 for Italy, according to the Japanese government's Declining Birthrate White Paper.

Japan still faces many challenges in terms of female empowerment, however.

"We have not done enough in ensuring that women are a greater part of our economy. And this is very clearly the case in Japan, where the participation of women in the workforce is well below that of men and where the pay gap between men and women is huge," Gonzalez said.

Japan is constantly ranked low by international reports on female empowerment.

The 2016 edition of the Global Gender Gap Report, compiled by the World Economic Forum, ranked Japan 111th out of a total of 144 countries because of the huge disparity between men and women in terms of political empowerment and economic participation.

"The issue of women empowerment is to a large extent, especially for a country like Japan, about changing mentalities. And in order to change mentalities, the best way is to first have a dialogue," Gonzalez said.

A Cabinet Office survey released in late October found that 54.2 percent of the respondents approved of the idea that women should continue to work after having a baby, up 9.4 percentage points from the previous poll in 2014.

Still, some 8.4 percent said women should leave the job market after having their first child, while 4.7 percent said they should do so after they get married and 3.3 percent responded that women should never work.

Gonzalez will participate in the World Assembly of Women on Dec. 13 and 14 in Tokyo, a conference organized by the Abe administration to promote female empowerment.

"I think this kind of conference is very effective because it is about discussing, conveying, in order to prepare a change in mentalities," Gonzalez said.

==Kyodo

source: news.abs-cbn.com