Workers on the Nowera Nuddy tea estate in northern West Bengal, India and their Progressive Tea Workers Union (PTWU) are as determined as ever to win justice. A contingent of workers, all PTWU members, travelled the 650 kilometers from their plantation to Kolkata on February 4 to press their demands in a rally outside the [...]

    Over 550 tea workers, two-thirds of them women, rallied on the Nowera Nuddy tea estate in West Bengal, India on January 16 to launch a new stage in their campaign for their rights after management failed to respond to a January 15 deadline to meet their long-standing demands. Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate is owned by [...]

The rising number of abuse cases of Indonesian migrant workers has sparked heated debate over whether the government should stop exporting housemaids. However, job seekers here are apparently still looking for the silver lining in every dark cloud of working overseas. Nuryati, a lecturer at Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University’s School of Law in Serang, Banten, [...]

A court in the Saudi city of Medina has sentenced a woman to three years in jail for the severe physical abuse of her Indonesian maid. Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, was admitted to hospital in November with broken bones and burns to her face and body. The case received worldwide attention, and prompted the [...]

The National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi today suggested to the government to bring domestic workers under the purview of a proposed law for protection of women against sexual harassment at workplace.   Voicing concern over the exclusion of domestic workers from the purview of the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace [...]

Domestic workers took out a rally in Bangalore on Jan. 4  demanding dignity and recognition for their work. The rally organised by Karnataka Domestic Workers’ Movement was to underline their long-pending demands, including a day’s holiday in a week. Demands Their other demands, submitted in a memorandum to Labour Minister B.N. Bache Gowda, included recognition of [...]

According to the survey on “Women’s Representation in the Unions” by the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim-Sen) from Turkey, the main reason of women’s under- representation in unions is the “trade union mentality, and the sexist approach that exists in the society and the family.” The survey attempted to find answers to the questions, “Why [...]

Recent revelations of domestic worker abuse may be grotesque and horrifying, but they are only the most visible aspect of the many difficulties faced by these predominantly female workers, activists say. Reports from the Middle East include young girls being burned with hot irons and cut with scissors, or even having two dozen nails driven [...]

The recent tragedies surrounding two Indonesian maids in Saudi Arabia has once again turned the spotlight toward migrant abuse, calling attention to the lack of labour protections for an increasingly transnaitional workforce in the Middle East. In just the span of a few weeks, separate incidents involving domestic workers from Asia have spurred a global [...]

Jakarta. Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa arrived in Saudi Arabia four months ago in search of a better life. Instead, the domestic worker is now in critical condition in the hospital, her body covered with injuries allegedly inflicted by her employers, including serious cuts around her lips and mouth. Sumiati, 23, has been treated at King [...]