The
Conference brought together actors from the above mentioned fields, and aimed
to provide possibilities to exchange points of view, experience, and expertise,
and for networking. A REPORT of the conference will
be available in October 2003.INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON 'UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT WORKERS'
On 26 May 2003 PICUM organised an international conference on undocumented migrant workers, in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Starting
point of the plan of PICUM to work on the issue of ‘labour’, is the
observation that many of the undocumented migrants residing in Europe are
working, and are to a large extent dependent on their work. Many organizations
in the PICUM network are confronted with problems resulting from the unprotected
status of these workers: they often work long hours, in dangerous and/or
unhygienic conditions, many of them do not receive their wages or receive less
than was agreed upon, workers are fired without being given due notice, etc. In
case of an industrial accident, the lack of official proof of employment renders
it complicated and often impossible to have any health care refunded. In the
case of apprehension of illegal labour, the undocumented worker will most of the
time be deported without being able to claim his/her last wages.
Undocumented
workers are themselves often rather unwilling to protest against these bad
conditions, since their main aim is to have work, regardless of the conditions.
They realize that for example, to file a complaint against an employer would
have negative consequences on their chances of employment.
This
situation, in which a certain group of people is on a large scale structurally
prevented from getting out of their
situation of predicament, is a situation of great social injustice. In many
cases, it is the workers’ explicit wish not to denounce, to avoid the risk of
losing their jobs. This fact renders the issue all the more complex and
delicate.
Traditionally
there are several institutions and bodies protecting and monitoring employment
rights, and controlling and regulating working conditions. The organizations in
our network observe how access to most of these established institutions is
problematic in case of a lack of legal status. Trade unions are not unanimously
convinced of the necessity of including undocumented workers, labour legislation
is in many cases not applicable to undocumented migrants.
Therefore PICUM decided to start working on the issue of employment of
undocumented migrants. The main aim of PICUM’s actions in this respect is
to find appropriate ways to protect workers in an undocumented situation.
These actions will be in the first place directed towards PICUM member-organisations, that are mainly NGOs providing assistance to undocumented
migrants. We realize however that to tackle this issue, new coalitions should be
made in field in which the organizations often do not have prior expertise.
Therefore it is a challenge for PICUM to involve different partners from the
beginning, mainly trade unions, employers’ organizations, academia, migrant
worker organizations, social inspection and relevant policy makers.
The
Conference brought together actors from the above mentioned fields, and aimed
to provide possibilities to exchange points of view, experience, and expertise,
and for networking. A REPORT of the conference will
be available in October 2003.