Daily Archives: May 20, 2017

ALondon-based Nigerian couple were yesterday convicted by a Southwark Crown Court in London for trafficking a slave nanny into the UK from Nigeria.

Judge Martin Beddoe warned that Ayodeji Adewakun, a 44-year-old medical doctor and wife, Abimbola Adewakun, a 48-year-old nurse, face a significant sentence of immediate imprisonment.

They were granted bail until June 16 when they will be sentenced.

Husband and wife had lured the woman to the UK from Nigeria with promises of a salary of 500 per month.

The couple confiscated her passport as soon as she arrived in February 2007 and subjected her to constant demands and verbal abuse.

She managed to escape two years later after finally receiving just 350 the equivalent of a wage of 15 a month.

Jurors were unable to reach a verdict in relation to Dr Adewakun on a charge of trafficking a second alleged victim. Her husband was cleared of that charge.

The couple were said to have persuaded the woman to come and care for their two children in Erith, south-east London, years earlier in 2005.

The 37-year-old victim told Southwark Crown Court she was later forced to work all day cleaning the house, cook for the family and was even woken if the doctor got home late and wanted a snack.

She met the Adewakuns during their visits back to Nigeria where her father was employed in a similar role by Adewakuns parents.

The jury heard she was promised 500 per month in a similar arrangement before she too was subject to constant demands and verbal abuse from Mrs Adewakun.

She described a typical working day involving cleaning the house, cooking for the family, preparing the children for school, running errands and sometimes working through to midnight before being allowed to finally go to bed.

After being threatened, she was lucky not to be beaten like the last girl, she finally demanded payment in February 2009 after two years without receiving any money.

A bank account was then opened with a 50 deposit followed by further payments of 100, prompting her to flee the home.

When she finally managed to get her passport back, she sought help from a charity and an investigation was opened into the Adewakuns.

Dr Adewakun, based at the Abbey Wood surgery, told the court the woman was brought to the UK from Nigeria for a better life.

The GP insisted she paid each the same wages as she did to her previous European au-pair, who was hired from a website.

She claimed to have used contract template from Google and denied the suggestion the maid was used because no European woman would take (her) physical and verbal abuse.

The couple, both of Erith, denied two counts of trafficking a person into the UK for exploitation. Both were convicted of one count.

Investigating Officer Detective Sergeant Nick Goldwater said: This couple deceived the victim by promising her a regular wage, which was far higher than her earnings in Nigeria. She hoped that she would be able to send money home and improve her familys standard of living.

In reality, she was made to work day and night and barely paid anything. She was subject to intimidating behaviour by Dr Adewakun, who exerted control over her by keeping her socially isolated and withholding her passport.

Here is the original post:

Nigerian couple convicted in London for 'slavery' - The Nation Newspaper

Saturday, 20 May 2017, 12:51 pm Press Release: ITUC

Jobs, Wages, Refugees and Workers Rights in Global Supply Chains top G20 Labour Ministers agenda: G20 leaders must drive action

Brussels, 19 May 2017 (ITUC OnLine): The L20 (Labour 20) has welcomed commitments from the G20 Labour Ministers, meeting in Bad Neuenahr this week, to clean up global supply chains, provide decent work, ensure living wages and integrate migrants, women, refugees and young people into the workplace.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said labour markets need to work for working people, and the Ministerial Declaration is a basis for a global economy that works for everyone. Global supply chains are based on a model of low wages, insecure and unsafe work with increasing informal work and modern slavery. We would like to see every country mandate the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights for workers in global supply chains, with due diligence and grievance procedures that enable remedy against exploitation for the millions of workers on whom multinationals rely on for their products and services.

Legislation in France to hold companies accountable for treatment of workers in their supply chains and the Dutch Compact in the Netherlands demonstrate leading actions by national governments. The non-judicial complaints mechanism of the OECD Guidelines must be strengthened with consequences for companies that refuse mediation, and in every country there must be a minimum living wage as the floor that allows families to live with dignity, she added.

Globalisation is failing people with 80 percent of people in the ITUC Global Poll saying that the economic system favours the wealthy rather than being fair to most people, and 85 percent saying its time to rewrite the rules of the global economy.

The commitment from G20 Labour Ministers, who account for 80 percent of worldwide trade, that violations of human and labour rights are not part of competition between businesses in global trade underscores the need to bring a stop to the system of labour arbitrage in supply chains.

Globalisation is in trouble because the worlds workforce is in trouble. G20 leaders must endorse commitments to taking exploitation out of competition and mandate due diligence for major corporations. Thats how we will see that globalisation works for all working people, said Ms Burrow.

John Evans, General Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD, welcomed the Ministers recognition that the rights of workers including collective bargaining need to be protected in new employment relationships in the digital economy.

We need a Future of Work where the value of work is not diminished. We are facing persistent issues in the real economy that need to be resolved including high job gaps since the 2008 crisis, rising levels of income inequality and 60 percent of the global workforce in non-standard work. The G20 needs to take steps now to ensure that the digitally driven economy of the future builds on quality employment, universal social protection and effective training programmes for all age and social groups. Some of todays online platform businesses ignore international labour standards and employment relationships. Here, governments need to step in with regulatory measures to put the brakes on practices that rely on lowering labour costs and increase the number of precarious work, he added.

G20 Labour Ministers made commitments to:

Clean up global supply chains: - We reaffirm our commitment to international guidelines and frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN Guiding Principles). (Paragraph 22) - We will encourage initiatives to improve occupational safety and health across global supply chains. (Paragraph 25) - We emphasise that wages should take into account the needs of workers and their families, the cost of living and economic factors. In this respect, minimum wage legislation and collective bargaining in particular can set income floors to reduce income inequality, eliminate poverty wages and achieve sustainable wage growth. (Paragraph 27) - We underline the importance of providing access to remedy. (Paragraph 28)

Eradicate modern slavery and forced labour:

- We also commit to take immediate and effective measures, as called for by SDG 8.7, both in our own countries and globally, towards eradicating modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms. (Paragraph 23)

Fundamental rights at work:

- The inclusion of fundamental principles and rights at work and decent working conditions in trade agreements. (Paragraph 24 b)

Decent Wages:

- We emphasise that wages should take into account the needs of workers and their families, the cost of living and economic factors. In this respect, minimum wage legislation and collective bargaining in particular can set income floors to reduce income inequality, eliminate poverty wages and achieve sustainable wage growth. (Paragraph 26)

Future of Work: - Priorities on the future of work (ii) promoting adequate social protection and social security coverage for all workers (iii) respect for fundamental principles and rights at work is a foundation for social dialogue and collective bargaining in a changing world of work. (Annex)

G20 leaders meeting at the Hamburg summit in July must endorse the commitments of labour minsters and implement national action plans on due diligence and grievance procedures for remedy against violations of workers rights in global supply chains in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The ITUC represents 181 million workers in 163 countries and territories and has 340 national affiliates.

Scoop Media

The rest is here:

Jobs, Wages, Refugees and Workers' Rights - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

So the pope, the president, a Muslim and a Jew walk into a bar.

Surely, Im not the only one to tighten the frame around President Trumps wildly ironic and ambitious foreign odyssey to promote tolerance. Which, lets face it, would seem to be the joke. The most candidly intolerant president in history set out Friday on a Napoleonic expedition not to conquer the world but to advance a cause he apparently embraced yesterday.

Meanwhile, the many possible outcomes from monstrous, Earth-tilting gaffes to World Peace In Our Time (and lots in between) are riveting to consider. And, all hinges on the performance of the most unpredictable, unlikely emissary ever to cross the threshold of Air Force One.

Thats my inner cynic speaking. My inner Pollyanna has a different take: Maybe he has had a Damascus moment and fallen from his high horse. He had a brutal week, to be sure. Maybe he has received grace, discovered humility, found the key to his cloistered empathy and is embarking upon a historic pilgrimage of repentance and reconciliation.

While these two forces wage war in my head and the media take bets on Trumps first faux pas, Ill give the presidents advisers this: brilliant idea. During his nine-day trip, Trump is touching base with three of the worlds largest religions, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and Vatican City. Hes also scheduled to attend a NATO meeting in Brussels and a G-7 conference in Sicily. His itinerary is almost too large to grasp, but grandiosity demands grand plans. And, really, what could possibly go wrong?

The presidents mission includes advancing religious unity and beseeching other nations to join the United States in ending religious persecution and human trafficking, as well as putting an end to the Islamic State. The agenda is complicated by more than a few confounding factors. Trump meets with NATO after having questioned its legitimacy. And Saudi Arabia, ostensibly our ally, is a chief funding source and exporter of Wahhabism, Islams most virulent and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. Speaking around such inconsistencies is tough turf even for the most experienced diplomats.

Most fascinating and compelling, to me at least, is the slated May 24 meeting between Trump and Pope Francis, the figureheads of the secular and spiritual worlds. The two men have been exchanging potshots since before Trumps election, with Francis criticizing Trumps immigration policy, his attempted travel ban and The Wall. He also suggested that Trump isnt very Christian, which prompted Trump to fire back that no one should question anothers religious belief.

With their meeting on the horizon, Francis has said he always tries to find doors that are at least a little bit open. Maybe if Trump sticks to script, hell be on solid ground with the topics he intends to discuss.

The U.S. has long recognized that where religious freedom is restricted, terrorism and extremism flourish and minorities suffer. And Francis has made human trafficking, which he has called a plague on the body of contemporary humanity, one of his key issues. There are today more people living in slavery than at any other time in history, with estimates as high as 27 million.

Trump can make the case that not only is slavery evil in its own right but human trafficking is intricately interwoven with terrorism and religious persecution. This overlap can be seen in the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East, such as the Islamic States Palm Sunday slaughter of more than 40 Coptic Christians in Egypt during worship services. Other intersections are seen in the theology of rape practiced by members of the Islamic State, who, in between prayers, have sexually assaulted women and young girls from the Yazidi community as religious ritual.

In other examples of slavery, just from Myanmar: Ethnic Rakhine civilians have been forced by the army to dig graves, porter guns and perform other manual labor. Child soldiers are drafted in to military and forced labor. Ethnic Kachin women are trafficked to China, where theyre forced into marriage or work.

One neednt be aligned with Catholic theology to recognize the inherent evil of such practices. One only needs to be human. Out of respect for the purposes of Trumps trip, we should only wish the president godspeed and, if you believe in a higher power, lend him your prayers.

And may your cynic and your Pollyanna make peace.

Kathleen Parker is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.

Published May 20, 2017, midnight in: Donald Trump, Israel, nine days, religion, Saudi Arabia, vatican

Read the rest here:

Godspeed, Mr. President, on your world tour - The Spokesman-Review

Its sheer slavery By our reporters 19 May 2017

As the Amazon corporation grows exponentially, its distribution centres around the world have mushroomed in order to meet demand.

By the end of this year Amazon, with a market capitalisation of US $430 billion, will have opened a further four distribution warehouses in the UK, bringing the total to 16. There are currently nine in England, two in Scotland and one in Wales.

Amazons warehousing operations have become a byword internationally for ultra-high levels of exploitation. Its largely minimum wage workforce endures demanding physical work.

A worker at Amazons Manchester operation spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the sweatshop conditions at the site. He spoke anonymously, due to the likelihood of reprisals from Amazon management:

The wages are pathetic7.65 an hour and if you last out a year you get a pay increase of 10p an hour. Amazon could easily pay a half-decent wage to its workforce, because of the huge profits they make. The chief CEO [Jeff] Bezos earns billions. Why would anyone need billions? This kind of exploitation has been going on for decades by Nike and Adidas in Thailand, with their sweatshops.

Last Christmas, the companys UK operations attracted public outrage after revelations that Amazon workers at Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland were sleeping in tents near the facility. They told reporters they could not afford the travel costs from home to work.

The Dunfermline fulfilment centre is Amazons largest single site in the UK, the size of around 14 football pitches. Throughout the year, 1,500 staff work there up to 60 hours a week on the minimum wage4,000 extra temporary workers are hired during the busy Christmas/New Year period.

The Amazon worker said, At peak times, from halfway through November to January, overtime is compulsory, which means an eleven-and-a-half hour day, five days a week.

During peak periods, some poor devils who arent working hard enough just disappear. The job is very tiring; I keep falling asleep on my way home. I got carpal tunnel syndrome in my hand due to repetitive strain injury from the workwe just do the jobs the robots cant doits sheer slavery.

The worker described dictatorial conditions on the shop floor: Discipline is very strict. If youre sick and dont phone in you get three penalty points, but if youre absent and phone in sick, you get one point. You have to ring in every day of sickness, and youre also penalised for being late.

In September 2016, Amazon opened a new fulfilment centre with over 1 million square feet of space over three floors near Manchester airport. The warehouse is located in a recently established Enterprise Zone, known as Airport City. The Zone offers five million square feet of development over 150 acres, including an advanced manufacturing cluster. Firms including Amazon and DHL employ over 20,000 workers at various sites.

Airport City was established in 2012mainly through 800 million of Chinese investmentfollowing the Conservative governments launch of new Enterprise Zones. China is involved in a joint venture in Airport City, with the Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) taking a 20 percent equity stake in the project. BCEG is backed by the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of Chinathe worlds largest bank.

Others in the joint venture are Carillion PLC and the Greater Manchester Pension Fundwith over 13 billion in assets in 2014. Manchester Airport Group is another investor, part owned by Labour Party-run Manchester City Council.

The council speaks of the development in glowing terms: Airport City is designed to attract national and international enterprises that can take advantage of its location in the heart of the North West and the UK, along with the international connectivity provided by the airport.

Speaking at Airport City on his state visit to the UK in 2015, Chinas President Xi Jinping said, Airport City Manchester is the first project to have materialised since our two countries signed an MoU [memorandum of understanding] on infrastructure cooperation in 2011. It is also the first major infrastructure project in the UK with the involvement of a Chinese company in the form of equity investment.

There are now 24 Enterprise Zones in the UK, with a total of 48 planned. Like their counterparts in India and China, they offer corporations massive concessions, including tax and business rate breaks and the exploitation of a workforce often paid at the minimum wage rate of 7.65 an hour.

The Manchester Enterprise Zone advertises attractive terms for investors, including, an accelerated planning system so that developments can happen quicker. By locating your business at Airport City Manchester, you can claim up to 100% Business Rates relief (worth up to 275,000) over a 5-year period.

Around 1,500 staff work at Amazon in Airport City, with the firm employing up to 3,000 staff at peak times. The work is difficult, long, and closely monitored.

I work a ten-and-a-half hour shift, the worker explained to the WSWS. This includes two paid 15 minute breaks and a half-hour unpaid dinner break. From leaving your workstation however it could take four minutes to get to the break room.

I now do a different job, working in a cage; the pods come to you, then you have to pick the orders. I cant speak to my workmate opposite because it would mean shouting above the noise. And youre not allowed to sit down.To reach your target of 300 picks an hour you have to work fast all day, you cant even daydream. You have two seconds to look at the screen, then you scan the item and pick it, nine seconds in all.

Workers are forced to undergo a humiliating disciplinary program for the slightest infractions:

If you fail to reach your target you undergo a five-step disciplinaryone supportive conversation, two counselling, three warnings, then the sack, the worker said.

Despite these dictatorial policies, the company treats workers like cattle, forcing them to prove they deserve a full-time job with months of temporary work:

When you start work at Amazon you are employed on a temporary basis by one of two agencies, which are housed in the warehouse. To get the job in the first place you have to do a breath test for alcohol and a saliva test for drugs.

The agencies are completely incompetentthey cant sort your wages out. I heard that an agency worker didnt get a days pay in November, and it took a month for them to sort it. They had to involve the shift manager and Human Resources to get it sorted.

After three months probation, you may be made permanent, but if the agency make a mistake, and it wrongly appears youve had time off because theyve missed paying you a day, you have to wait for the next round.

The worker expressed concern over Amazons expansion plans: Amazon will be opening in Londonhow will workers survive there on the wages with high rent costs and travel?

Whats [Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn doing about this? The worker asked. I heard him mention the living wage, but only in a half-hearted way.

Conditions like those faced by this Amazon worker are commonhundreds of thousands labour under the Amazon dictatorship worldwide, in the US, China, Brazil, India, Germany, Japan, Mexico, France, and elsewhere.

In the UK, Amazon and a long list of major corporations can impose such conditions only due to the active collusion of the trade unions and Labour Party in destroying workers rights.

At the same time, successive governments have handed massive tax breaks and other concessions to big business. Amazon received 3.6 million in subsidies from the Scottish National Party government since 2007. It set up in Fife after being handed a taxpayer-funded grant from Scottish Enterprise, Scotlands main economic development agency.

To all intents and purposes, Amazon operates as a law unto itself in the UK. In 2014, it paid just 9.8 million in tax on UK profitsdespite its sales in Britain totalling 6.3 billion.

The author also recommends:

Amazon workers denounce working conditions [17 April 2017]

Amazon CEO makes $3.3 billion in a few hours [6 May 2017]

Amazon worker attempts suicide at Seattle headquarters [30 November 2016]

View original post here:

Amazon warehouse worker in Manchester UK enterprise zone ... - World Socialist Web Site