OUTSIDE THE U.S.A.: JOBS AND JOBS CONDITION REPORT SEPTEMBER 2007
OUTSIDE THE U.S.A.: JOBS AND JOBS CONDITION REPORT SEPTEMBER 2007
By Kevin Stoda, in Kuwait
As more and more Americans are forced to go abroad to earn proper wages for proper work provided, it behooves all Americans to seek higher international or cross-border standards of pay, performance and work place treatment around the globe.
The first section of this report of mine will focus on some negative workplace and job-hunting conditions outside of the U.S.A. The second part will remind readers of some general standards which are already well-recognized as legally binding in many nations but which are nevertheless not being enforced.
ADVERTISMENTS FOR JOBS
One important caveat is that most of the following examples come from the teaching field which I have worked in for the past 2 ¼ decades. I have worked only about 5 years within the borders of the United States during this same period.
Americans, who not aware of the hard realities of working abroad, may be shocked to discover that the following activities in placing job-ads and hiring employees are in practice in many different regions of the globe.
(1) Many countries in East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East still advertise jobs by gender. This is pervasive. Even in Europe, some companies ask for photos to be attached to a resume or job application. Such a photo, of course, reveals immediately not only one’s age but also one’s gender and/or beauty.
(2) Even advanced nations, such as Japan, advertise job openings with age limits. Moreover, even British companies working in Kuwait or in other booming economies in the Gulf may sometimes enforce national or contractual age limits in hiring, such as “45-years” age limit which I saw posted on a recent advertisement.
Part of this trend can be explained by the fact that forced-retirement exists at certain ages ( such as 50, 55, and 60) in a variety of lands throughout the world. However, even European states, such as Germany, allow firms to put age limits on hires from overseas. I have seen age limits for teachers set as low as 35-years of age in some countries
(3) Pervasive throughout Asia are advertisements for positions arranged proscribed per nationality. For example, nations in the Middle East prefer South Asians or Filipinos as maids, au pair, or nannies. The advertisements in the Middle East and in these Southern Asian national’s homelands make clear to all that only people’s of certain nationalities need apply.
There are even pay scales per race or nationhood for various industries, businesses and job classifications. In some countries this is even considered illegal but is pervasive all the same.
Warning: This does not mean that each and every company in a particular country discriminates about nationality. For example, I know Indian accountants who actually earn just as well as European accountants in the same firm here in Kuwait. However, in some countries or companies, this equality is the result of some Asians holding Western-earned university diplomas, i.e. these degrees from the west do trump race in many countries outside of North America.
(4) It is appropriate to note that other forms of reverse discrimination also exist outside the U.S.A. Companies in Malaysia and in the Middle East find that nationals (citizens)of Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and for most of Malaysia, need to hire according to given quotas—regardless to whether they are private internationally-owned or locally-based firms. This means that private companies are absolutely forced to hire a certain number of unqualified applicants each year. I mention this because even a fairly qualified job seeker may have to wait-in-line for employment due to preferential quotas based on race or nationality.
In Kuwait and in the UAE there are even opportunistic nationals bouncing to, from and in-between several companies’ offices each week while double dipping.
That means these particular nationals simply clock in for a few hours, bide there time, go out for coffee and never come back for the rest of the day. Why? These employees may have to go to a second or third firm that day (or week) and earn their pay by sipping coffee, checking their e-mail, and moving on. Meanwhile, other nationals simply choose “to work” from home.
Simply put--western or Asian employers turn their head at this regional practice and simply write off these quotas in some fashion as just another part of doing business there.
(5) Finally, for most jobs in any foreign country, one has to be prepared to answer medical questions and undertake medical tests—sometimes annually. This makes it fairly hard for people who are handicapped, disabled, or have a chronic or reoccurring illness to work abroad in many lands.
Due to the stringency which some Asian governments apply this medical testing, most Americans and other non-nationals or citizens with disabilities or reoccurring illness need to lie about their medications and health problems. Others have to conceal new or on-going illnesses and heart problems by paying all of their medical expenses out of pocket or by flying to a neighboring country to get treated.
Recently, one former Kuwaiti colleague of mine marveled at the ingenuity used by one Canadian-born worker at his university. She had managed to work for two different educational institutions for several years without anyone discovering that she had had hepatitis. (She would have normally been shipped out of the country on the next plane had any Kuwaiti official or school official found this out in a timely fashion. Just last month, some 15 Egyptians were shipped out for this illness.)
I use this example of hepatitis because I, myself, was once diagnosed with “hepatitis” while living in Nicaragua just over a decade ago.
However, I was never told to leave that particular country. What is more—my body has proven to have the ability to lose all of the anti-bodies associated with hepatitis, including those created by the hepatitis vaccine I had taken several times.
In contrast, other poor souls have bodies which keep viruses, such as hepatitis, from going into full bloom for decades. These people are barred from Kuwait and other countries. One of my best friends from church is married to a woman from India. She can come as a visitor, but Kuwait will never allow her to come, live, and work permanently.
In conclusion, I was fortunate to have not been living in the Middle East or Japan at the time when I had been hepatitis. This is because, even if a disease is recognized as non- communicable by all local physicians, one nevertheless will not be allowed to enter these- or certain other lands around the globe! Moreover, if and when the concealment of an illness is found, one can expect to be expelled almost immediately from some lands.
MIDDLE EAST AND WORKING ABROAD
Muna Al-Fuzai is a local hijab-wearing Kuwaiti columnists who has been taking these issues on in her writings published in various Kuwait periodicals this past year. (She writes for the Kuwait Times, Friday Times and several other newspapers in her home country.) Besides attacking cultural dogmas and the political landscape, Al-Fuzai demonstrates her outrage at both racist and sexist ads.
Last weekend, Al-Fuzai wrote regarding private sector advertisements in her homeland: “Employees Wanted (Males Only) is a common job ad that clearly means that if you were not a male then you are not allowed to apply for this job. The second line usually contains qualifications and required documents for application which also hint that applicants should be males. These are sexist, and sick job announcements are my topic for today.”
Referring to government jobs, Al-Fuzai groaned that she could not think of a single ministry where a “job requires a masculine power” unless it is a body guard. (Al-Fuzai seems to have forgotten that many soldiers around the world are female and could work as body guards if asked to do so.) She also noted that the new destructive labor law in Kuwait regarding women “restricts the maximum working hours for women until midnight.”
Concerning NGO’s employment in the region, Al-Fuzai retorts: “What I can’t figure out is that some places like Islamic charitable organizations…also don’t hire women and I don’t see the reason why.”
Finally, Al-Fuzai points out that the real reason for narrowing advertisements to males only—even if such ads are repugnant to most Kuwaitis—is to keep the few women already working in the government or in the market place from gaining access to any high level or decision-making positions for which they are truly qualified.
What is allowed or disallowed women in various Gulf states is, naturally, uneven or unequal in any case.
For example, in Kuwait currently a 17 year old male can get married legally to a 15-year old male. However, in the UAE the age is 18-years for both.
This early marriage situation in Kuwait substantially limits young women’s access to the job market. In the wake (or the force) of traditional roles of the father and husband figures in Kuwait, the situation of marriage means that a husband can effectively keep his wife from going to work at all!
This is even appears to be true if the women is an ex-patriate or non-citizen.
Related to this fact, most countries, such as Kuwait and others in the Gulf, do not even have specialized courts for “family or personal law”. This means that discrimination in the workplace and in other jurisdictions may be hard for even Kuwaiti’s to access—let alone for foreign born workers to have access.
Moreover, even although officially countries, such as Kuwait, may have recently approved the formation of labor unions to service and protect the needs of the 2.2 million non-Kuwaitis living and working in the country, there are currently no functioning labor unions here. In short, outside of the ministry of labor in Kuwait, there have been no bodies created to protect most any workers rights—for non-Kuwaitis.
An example of how even non-Kuwaiti inspired private actors function and treat labor, I can provide myself as an example. I was hired as of February 2004 to teach in a private university allied with the University of Missouri at St. Louis (UMSL). Even though, theoretically, the State of Missouri’s contract law for university staff and faculty should have functioned at that particular private Kuwaiti university, this was not the real case! Without cause or reason, I was let go from that UMSL-partner university even after working there for a total of 32 months.
Similarly, private contractors of all sorts put American and other laborers from around the world in untenable situations with little or no recourse to local law. I know of one man who resigned his job to go home in early June 2007. (He works for a company owned by a member of the ruling family.) Yet, his company has refused to allow him to return to his homeland and has, instead, told him to continue working.
All this does not mean that non-Kuwaitis don’t have any access to the legal system in the land. For example, three years ago, a colleague from one of the nation’s universities successfully took his job-claim of discrimination against him (based on race, i.e. being a non-Kuwaiti) and started the first part of a successful case against the university. His case was so strong and his Kuwaiti lawyer so effective that the Kuwaiti university officials quickly capitulated and paid this man thousands in lost wages.
Contrast that to a university like Texas A& M University back in the United States, whereby that university hasn’t lost a claim made against it in decades!
On the other hand, my former colleague, who basically won his claim for maltreatment in court here in Kuwait, was of both German and Syrian descent. Moreover, he had a doctorate in Jurisprudence from Europe.
This fact demonstrates three important things to would-be job-seekers around the world who seek their fortune abroad: (1) Know the culture of the land you are looking for a job in, (2) know the language of the land and (2) be as familiar with your rights as possible.
Finally, I should add that workplace safety should be considered an important point of concern as well.
For example, in Qatar alone, one newspaper article indicated that near 100 construction workers from Nepal have died in a variety of accidents in 2007. A similar death rate by Americans on construction sites would certainly lead to war with the United States, but the benefit of being an American abroad is not so bright and shiny as it once was.
American journalists, NGO workers, and even missionaries have been targeted by death squads, suicide bombers, and militias in many corners of the planet. Know your right to any protections before you go abroad! (Know whether your body will ever be transported home, too. I’m donating my remains, so I am not so concerned at this point.)
The world is mostly not a dangerous place but ignorance can lead to death—recall what happened to those NGO workers killed by local tribes in Afghanistan earlier this last spring. Their mistake was simply not to realize that they needed permission to camp on a beautiful piece of ground. In short, lack of language skills and lack of knowledge of the local culture is just not wise.
INTERNATIONAL LAWS CONCERNING WORKER RIGHTS
There are many international conventions concerning emigrant labor rights. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
Article 2: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”
Article 4: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
Article 6: “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.”
Article 7: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”
Article 8: “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.”
Article 9: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”
Article 13: “(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
Article 22: “Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.”
Article 23: “(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
Article 24: “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”
Article 25: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. . . .”
Article 28: “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.”
These articles from the Declaration of Universal Rights are supposedly recognized by every single country that is part of the WTO—and in most any other country on the planet. What is needed is that companies operating in their own countries or overseas follow these rules and encourage local governments to enforce the laws. Further, labor groups need to be organized and recognized as legal bodies in all countries as soon as possible.
Both American businesses and labor groups have failed to support either American or non-American foreign worker rights in many countries. Moreover, the U.S. government in its many forms as military or embassy personnel have done far too little to support native and non-native workers that provide infrastructure or services to them. For example, First Kuwaiti and other subcontractors to the U.S. military and government in Iraq are creating a dismal reputation for promoting suffering to third-national immigrants to the region who are subcontracted out to them.
I recently saw an article on the front page of the Kuwait Times about poor workers for food chains, like Pizza Hut, who had been recruited among the foreign workforce in Asia. Those who have lost limbs on U.S. army bases are now in Kuwaiti hospitals wondering how they will ever be able to take care of their families back in South Asia.
Americans working abroad and Americans in the States need to shout “Foul!” when these rights are not recognized irregardless of the borders many of us recognize to some degree or another.
PROTECTION OF MIGRANTS
In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly passed the “International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.” By 2003, over fifty nations across the planet had ratified, acceded to or seceded to this convention.
However, the nation called the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA was not one of them. Admittedly, no western European powers had signed on either.
Let’s look at what this treaty promised migrants—and don’t forget that OECD countries send 100s of millions of their own citizens abroad to work or serve every single decade. Look (below) at examples what this treat had/has promised!
Please browse through some of the protections from that un-fully ratified convention, which millions and millions of U.S. citizens - and other migrant workers are likely to continue to miss out on in the coming decade—. This is especially important as the U.S. job market and America’s heavy debt scenarios draw daily more and more Americans (and other OECD nationals) to either join the military or find a private firm or public company abroad to work for, especially here in the Middle East where America’s petrodollar debt is being circulated.
Article 7
States Parties undertake, in accordance with the international instruments concerning human rights, to respect and to ensure to all migrant workers and members of their families within their territory or subject to their jurisdiction the rights provided for in the present Convention without distinction of any kind such as to sex, race, colour, language, religion or conviction, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, nationality, age, economic position, property, marital status, birth or other status.
Article 8
1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall be free to leave any State, including their State of origin. This right shall not be subject to any restrictions except those that are provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present part of the Convention.
2. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right at any time to enter and remain in their State of origin.
Article 9
The right to life of migrant workers and members of their families shall be protected by law.
Article 10
No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 11
1. No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be held in slavery or servitude.
2. No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.
3. Paragraph 2 of the present article shall not be held to preclude, in States where imprisonment with hard labour may be imposed as a punishment for a crime, the performance of hard labour in pursuance of a sentence to such punishment by a competent court.
4. For the purpose of the present article the term "forced or compulsory labour" shall not include:
(a) Any work or service not referred to in paragraph 3 of the present article normally required of a person who is under detention in consequence of a lawful order of a court or of a person during conditional release from such detention;
(b) Any service exacted in cases of emergency or clamity threatening the life or well-being of the community;
(c) Any work or service that forms part of normal civil obligations so far as it is imposed also on citizens of the State concerned.
Article 12
1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of their choice and freedom either individually or in community with others and in public or private to manifest their religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
2. Migrant workers and members of their families shall not be subject to coercion that would impair their freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of their choice.
3. Freedom to manifest one's religion or belief may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
4. States Parties to the present Convention undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents, at least one of whom is a migrant worker, and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.
Article 13
1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
2. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of their choice.
3. The exercise of the right provided for in paragraph 2 of the present article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputation of others;
(b) For the protection of the national security of the States concerned or of public order (ordre public) or of public health or morals;
(c) For the purpose of preventing any propaganda for war;
(d) For the purpose of preventing any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.
Article 14
No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home, correspondence or other communications, or to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation. Each migrant worker and member of his or her family shall have the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
NOTES
Al-Fuzai, Muna, “Racist Ads Must Stop”, http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NTI5NDkxNTg5
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/cmw.htm
“Poor Workers out on a Limb in Iraq”, http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NTk1MTM2NjA5
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
By Kevin Stoda, in Kuwait
As more and more Americans are forced to go abroad to earn proper wages for proper work provided, it behooves all Americans to seek higher international or cross-border standards of pay, performance and work place treatment around the globe.
The first section of this report of mine will focus on some negative workplace and job-hunting conditions outside of the U.S.A. The second part will remind readers of some general standards which are already well-recognized as legally binding in many nations but which are nevertheless not being enforced.
ADVERTISMENTS FOR JOBS
One important caveat is that most of the following examples come from the teaching field which I have worked in for the past 2 ¼ decades. I have worked only about 5 years within the borders of the United States during this same period.
Americans, who not aware of the hard realities of working abroad, may be shocked to discover that the following activities in placing job-ads and hiring employees are in practice in many different regions of the globe.
(1) Many countries in East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East still advertise jobs by gender. This is pervasive. Even in Europe, some companies ask for photos to be attached to a resume or job application. Such a photo, of course, reveals immediately not only one’s age but also one’s gender and/or beauty.
(2) Even advanced nations, such as Japan, advertise job openings with age limits. Moreover, even British companies working in Kuwait or in other booming economies in the Gulf may sometimes enforce national or contractual age limits in hiring, such as “45-years” age limit which I saw posted on a recent advertisement.
Part of this trend can be explained by the fact that forced-retirement exists at certain ages ( such as 50, 55, and 60) in a variety of lands throughout the world. However, even European states, such as Germany, allow firms to put age limits on hires from overseas. I have seen age limits for teachers set as low as 35-years of age in some countries
(3) Pervasive throughout Asia are advertisements for positions arranged proscribed per nationality. For example, nations in the Middle East prefer South Asians or Filipinos as maids, au pair, or nannies. The advertisements in the Middle East and in these Southern Asian national’s homelands make clear to all that only people’s of certain nationalities need apply.
There are even pay scales per race or nationhood for various industries, businesses and job classifications. In some countries this is even considered illegal but is pervasive all the same.
Warning: This does not mean that each and every company in a particular country discriminates about nationality. For example, I know Indian accountants who actually earn just as well as European accountants in the same firm here in Kuwait. However, in some countries or companies, this equality is the result of some Asians holding Western-earned university diplomas, i.e. these degrees from the west do trump race in many countries outside of North America.
(4) It is appropriate to note that other forms of reverse discrimination also exist outside the U.S.A. Companies in Malaysia and in the Middle East find that nationals (citizens)of Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and for most of Malaysia, need to hire according to given quotas—regardless to whether they are private internationally-owned or locally-based firms. This means that private companies are absolutely forced to hire a certain number of unqualified applicants each year. I mention this because even a fairly qualified job seeker may have to wait-in-line for employment due to preferential quotas based on race or nationality.
In Kuwait and in the UAE there are even opportunistic nationals bouncing to, from and in-between several companies’ offices each week while double dipping.
That means these particular nationals simply clock in for a few hours, bide there time, go out for coffee and never come back for the rest of the day. Why? These employees may have to go to a second or third firm that day (or week) and earn their pay by sipping coffee, checking their e-mail, and moving on. Meanwhile, other nationals simply choose “to work” from home.
Simply put--western or Asian employers turn their head at this regional practice and simply write off these quotas in some fashion as just another part of doing business there.
(5) Finally, for most jobs in any foreign country, one has to be prepared to answer medical questions and undertake medical tests—sometimes annually. This makes it fairly hard for people who are handicapped, disabled, or have a chronic or reoccurring illness to work abroad in many lands.
Due to the stringency which some Asian governments apply this medical testing, most Americans and other non-nationals or citizens with disabilities or reoccurring illness need to lie about their medications and health problems. Others have to conceal new or on-going illnesses and heart problems by paying all of their medical expenses out of pocket or by flying to a neighboring country to get treated.
Recently, one former Kuwaiti colleague of mine marveled at the ingenuity used by one Canadian-born worker at his university. She had managed to work for two different educational institutions for several years without anyone discovering that she had had hepatitis. (She would have normally been shipped out of the country on the next plane had any Kuwaiti official or school official found this out in a timely fashion. Just last month, some 15 Egyptians were shipped out for this illness.)
I use this example of hepatitis because I, myself, was once diagnosed with “hepatitis” while living in Nicaragua just over a decade ago.
However, I was never told to leave that particular country. What is more—my body has proven to have the ability to lose all of the anti-bodies associated with hepatitis, including those created by the hepatitis vaccine I had taken several times.
In contrast, other poor souls have bodies which keep viruses, such as hepatitis, from going into full bloom for decades. These people are barred from Kuwait and other countries. One of my best friends from church is married to a woman from India. She can come as a visitor, but Kuwait will never allow her to come, live, and work permanently.
In conclusion, I was fortunate to have not been living in the Middle East or Japan at the time when I had been hepatitis. This is because, even if a disease is recognized as non- communicable by all local physicians, one nevertheless will not be allowed to enter these- or certain other lands around the globe! Moreover, if and when the concealment of an illness is found, one can expect to be expelled almost immediately from some lands.
MIDDLE EAST AND WORKING ABROAD
Muna Al-Fuzai is a local hijab-wearing Kuwaiti columnists who has been taking these issues on in her writings published in various Kuwait periodicals this past year. (She writes for the Kuwait Times, Friday Times and several other newspapers in her home country.) Besides attacking cultural dogmas and the political landscape, Al-Fuzai demonstrates her outrage at both racist and sexist ads.
Last weekend, Al-Fuzai wrote regarding private sector advertisements in her homeland: “Employees Wanted (Males Only) is a common job ad that clearly means that if you were not a male then you are not allowed to apply for this job. The second line usually contains qualifications and required documents for application which also hint that applicants should be males. These are sexist, and sick job announcements are my topic for today.”
Referring to government jobs, Al-Fuzai groaned that she could not think of a single ministry where a “job requires a masculine power” unless it is a body guard. (Al-Fuzai seems to have forgotten that many soldiers around the world are female and could work as body guards if asked to do so.) She also noted that the new destructive labor law in Kuwait regarding women “restricts the maximum working hours for women until midnight.”
Concerning NGO’s employment in the region, Al-Fuzai retorts: “What I can’t figure out is that some places like Islamic charitable organizations…also don’t hire women and I don’t see the reason why.”
Finally, Al-Fuzai points out that the real reason for narrowing advertisements to males only—even if such ads are repugnant to most Kuwaitis—is to keep the few women already working in the government or in the market place from gaining access to any high level or decision-making positions for which they are truly qualified.
What is allowed or disallowed women in various Gulf states is, naturally, uneven or unequal in any case.
For example, in Kuwait currently a 17 year old male can get married legally to a 15-year old male. However, in the UAE the age is 18-years for both.
This early marriage situation in Kuwait substantially limits young women’s access to the job market. In the wake (or the force) of traditional roles of the father and husband figures in Kuwait, the situation of marriage means that a husband can effectively keep his wife from going to work at all!
This is even appears to be true if the women is an ex-patriate or non-citizen.
Related to this fact, most countries, such as Kuwait and others in the Gulf, do not even have specialized courts for “family or personal law”. This means that discrimination in the workplace and in other jurisdictions may be hard for even Kuwaiti’s to access—let alone for foreign born workers to have access.
Moreover, even although officially countries, such as Kuwait, may have recently approved the formation of labor unions to service and protect the needs of the 2.2 million non-Kuwaitis living and working in the country, there are currently no functioning labor unions here. In short, outside of the ministry of labor in Kuwait, there have been no bodies created to protect most any workers rights—for non-Kuwaitis.
An example of how even non-Kuwaiti inspired private actors function and treat labor, I can provide myself as an example. I was hired as of February 2004 to teach in a private university allied with the University of Missouri at St. Louis (UMSL). Even though, theoretically, the State of Missouri’s contract law for university staff and faculty should have functioned at that particular private Kuwaiti university, this was not the real case! Without cause or reason, I was let go from that UMSL-partner university even after working there for a total of 32 months.
Similarly, private contractors of all sorts put American and other laborers from around the world in untenable situations with little or no recourse to local law. I know of one man who resigned his job to go home in early June 2007. (He works for a company owned by a member of the ruling family.) Yet, his company has refused to allow him to return to his homeland and has, instead, told him to continue working.
All this does not mean that non-Kuwaitis don’t have any access to the legal system in the land. For example, three years ago, a colleague from one of the nation’s universities successfully took his job-claim of discrimination against him (based on race, i.e. being a non-Kuwaiti) and started the first part of a successful case against the university. His case was so strong and his Kuwaiti lawyer so effective that the Kuwaiti university officials quickly capitulated and paid this man thousands in lost wages.
Contrast that to a university like Texas A& M University back in the United States, whereby that university hasn’t lost a claim made against it in decades!
On the other hand, my former colleague, who basically won his claim for maltreatment in court here in Kuwait, was of both German and Syrian descent. Moreover, he had a doctorate in Jurisprudence from Europe.
This fact demonstrates three important things to would-be job-seekers around the world who seek their fortune abroad: (1) Know the culture of the land you are looking for a job in, (2) know the language of the land and (2) be as familiar with your rights as possible.
Finally, I should add that workplace safety should be considered an important point of concern as well.
For example, in Qatar alone, one newspaper article indicated that near 100 construction workers from Nepal have died in a variety of accidents in 2007. A similar death rate by Americans on construction sites would certainly lead to war with the United States, but the benefit of being an American abroad is not so bright and shiny as it once was.
American journalists, NGO workers, and even missionaries have been targeted by death squads, suicide bombers, and militias in many corners of the planet. Know your right to any protections before you go abroad! (Know whether your body will ever be transported home, too. I’m donating my remains, so I am not so concerned at this point.)
The world is mostly not a dangerous place but ignorance can lead to death—recall what happened to those NGO workers killed by local tribes in Afghanistan earlier this last spring. Their mistake was simply not to realize that they needed permission to camp on a beautiful piece of ground. In short, lack of language skills and lack of knowledge of the local culture is just not wise.
INTERNATIONAL LAWS CONCERNING WORKER RIGHTS
There are many international conventions concerning emigrant labor rights. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
Article 2: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”
Article 4: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
Article 6: “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.”
Article 7: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”
Article 8: “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.”
Article 9: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”
Article 13: “(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
Article 22: “Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.”
Article 23: “(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
Article 24: “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”
Article 25: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. . . .”
Article 28: “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.”
These articles from the Declaration of Universal Rights are supposedly recognized by every single country that is part of the WTO—and in most any other country on the planet. What is needed is that companies operating in their own countries or overseas follow these rules and encourage local governments to enforce the laws. Further, labor groups need to be organized and recognized as legal bodies in all countries as soon as possible.
Both American businesses and labor groups have failed to support either American or non-American foreign worker rights in many countries. Moreover, the U.S. government in its many forms as military or embassy personnel have done far too little to support native and non-native workers that provide infrastructure or services to them. For example, First Kuwaiti and other subcontractors to the U.S. military and government in Iraq are creating a dismal reputation for promoting suffering to third-national immigrants to the region who are subcontracted out to them.
I recently saw an article on the front page of the Kuwait Times about poor workers for food chains, like Pizza Hut, who had been recruited among the foreign workforce in Asia. Those who have lost limbs on U.S. army bases are now in Kuwaiti hospitals wondering how they will ever be able to take care of their families back in South Asia.
Americans working abroad and Americans in the States need to shout “Foul!” when these rights are not recognized irregardless of the borders many of us recognize to some degree or another.
PROTECTION OF MIGRANTS
In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly passed the “International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.” By 2003, over fifty nations across the planet had ratified, acceded to or seceded to this convention.
However, the nation called the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA was not one of them. Admittedly, no western European powers had signed on either.
Let’s look at what this treaty promised migrants—and don’t forget that OECD countries send 100s of millions of their own citizens abroad to work or serve every single decade. Look (below) at examples what this treat had/has promised!
Please browse through some of the protections from that un-fully ratified convention, which millions and millions of U.S. citizens - and other migrant workers are likely to continue to miss out on in the coming decade—. This is especially important as the U.S. job market and America’s heavy debt scenarios draw daily more and more Americans (and other OECD nationals) to either join the military or find a private firm or public company abroad to work for, especially here in the Middle East where America’s petrodollar debt is being circulated.
Article 7
States Parties undertake, in accordance with the international instruments concerning human rights, to respect and to ensure to all migrant workers and members of their families within their territory or subject to their jurisdiction the rights provided for in the present Convention without distinction of any kind such as to sex, race, colour, language, religion or conviction, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, nationality, age, economic position, property, marital status, birth or other status.
Article 8
1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall be free to leave any State, including their State of origin. This right shall not be subject to any restrictions except those that are provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present part of the Convention.
2. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right at any time to enter and remain in their State of origin.
Article 9
The right to life of migrant workers and members of their families shall be protected by law.
Article 10
No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 11
1. No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be held in slavery or servitude.
2. No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.
3. Paragraph 2 of the present article shall not be held to preclude, in States where imprisonment with hard labour may be imposed as a punishment for a crime, the performance of hard labour in pursuance of a sentence to such punishment by a competent court.
4. For the purpose of the present article the term "forced or compulsory labour" shall not include:
(a) Any work or service not referred to in paragraph 3 of the present article normally required of a person who is under detention in consequence of a lawful order of a court or of a person during conditional release from such detention;
(b) Any service exacted in cases of emergency or clamity threatening the life or well-being of the community;
(c) Any work or service that forms part of normal civil obligations so far as it is imposed also on citizens of the State concerned.
Article 12
1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of their choice and freedom either individually or in community with others and in public or private to manifest their religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
2. Migrant workers and members of their families shall not be subject to coercion that would impair their freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of their choice.
3. Freedom to manifest one's religion or belief may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
4. States Parties to the present Convention undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents, at least one of whom is a migrant worker, and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.
Article 13
1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
2. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of their choice.
3. The exercise of the right provided for in paragraph 2 of the present article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputation of others;
(b) For the protection of the national security of the States concerned or of public order (ordre public) or of public health or morals;
(c) For the purpose of preventing any propaganda for war;
(d) For the purpose of preventing any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.
Article 14
No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home, correspondence or other communications, or to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation. Each migrant worker and member of his or her family shall have the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
NOTES
Al-Fuzai, Muna, “Racist Ads Must Stop”, http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NTI5NDkxNTg5
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/cmw.htm
“Poor Workers out on a Limb in Iraq”, http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NTk1MTM2NjA5
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 10:08 AM
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