Making Violators: Employers and African Workers in Colonial Dakar, 1918–43

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to question the false dilemma of bread (the social and economic rights) or freedom (the civil and political rights), which amounts to a simplified ambivalent vision either for or against “China in Africa”, in the debate over African workers’ rights in Chinese enterprises. The paper, first underscores the importance of the constraining and enabling institutional conditions by deconstructing this normative approach, and then proposes an alternative institutional approach to address issues pertaining to employment relations.Design/methodology/approachIn the tradition of deconstructive techniques, the paper draws three lines of institutional resistance to move the “China in Africa” controversy in employment relations beyond its normative approach. These lines of demarcation are an African ethnology as opposed to a Western modernist reference, a postcolonial analysis of power in lieu of liberal hegemony and informality as a legitimate source of legality.FindingsThe paper suggests the Chinese corporate strategy as implemented by managers notably through human resource management practices, the African institutional contexts where the protagonists’ power resources are deployed and the paramount importance of informality in discussing the impacts of Chinese investments on workers’ rights in sub-Saharan Africa.Originality/valueThe paper shows that the disconnect between “good investment” that should improve social and economic rights and “bad employment” that downplays civil and political rights is not a “foreign” (Western or Chinese) issue per se, but a challenge for innovative employment relations that support investment and mind the workplace institutional context.

This article explores domestic workers’ experiences of ‘lockdown work’, which refers to working conditions during the level 5 to level 3 lockdown period in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on in-depth interviews with female black African South African and African migrant domestic workers from Zimbabwe and Malawi, the article provides crucial insights into how the pandemic altered existing working conditions and employment relationships. We use the sociological concept ‘boundary work’ to illustrate the relational dynamic and consequence of social and physical distancing during the pandemic. We argue that social and physical distancing deepened the public-private divide in employers’ private households and domestic workers’ intimate workplaces. The findings show that domestic workers experienced limited or no control over decisions regarding Covid-19-related protocols in their workplace, intensified workloads without additional remuneration, and felt voiceless regarding working conditions because they feared losing their jobs. The experience of lockdown work highlighted domestic workers’ vulnerability because of the asymmetrical and intimate nature of domestic work under new management imperatives that positioned most domestic workers as a high-risk group or perceived carriers of Covid-19. We conclude that the experience of personalism/maternalism and distant hierarchy as forms of boundary work undermined domestic workers’ sense of dignity and employment rights.

This article examines how paid domestic workers in India fight to reproduce themselves by attaining recognition for their employment relationship and struggling to advance their labor rights. We find a striking convergence toward female-dominated unions that articulate the recipient of domestic services as “employers,” their employment relationship as an exploitative one in terms of time and dignity, and the household as a place of work and profit. To ensure a focus on women members and leaders, domestic workers’ have developed different union types including politically-affiliated and independent unions, as well as unions affiliated to NGOs, faith-based institutions, and cooperatives. Domestic workers’ direct, one-to-one employment relationship has led organizations to empower workers to confront employers’ daily control of workers’ associations (even outside the workplace), citizenship rights, worth, and dignity. However, because domestic workers’ employment relationship is still not recognized by Indian law, domestic workers avoid confronting employers and instead target the state when demanding material concessions to de-commodify their labor. These findings offer important insights into the limits and potential of domestic workers’ struggles.

African countries account for a greater percentage of domestic workers who migrate to the Middle East in search of greener economic pastures. Interestingly, Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently observed that most of the unskilled workers are often exploited and abused. This is reflected in wages deduction, violation of contractual agreements and degrading treatments. Women labourers also report sexual assault. In worst cases, the workers are ferried back in caskets to their countries of origin. Some workers have also been reported to disappear ‘miraculously’, in the said countries. This paper suggests that someone must be held accountable. Ironically, the government of Kenya has been playing the ‘innocent lamb’ role while the Middle East countries play Pharaoh’s role and walks scot free. Victims have always been vulnerably left at the middle. Through pressure exerted by local and international civil societies, Kenya in June 2012 banned emigration of domestic worker to Middle East. Nonetheless, in November 2013 this policy ban was lifted. In 2014, the government revoked some 930 licenses of recruiting agencies. Though a move towards the right direction, significantly, domestic abuse has remained unshaken. The International Labour Organisation Declarations on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted in 1998 provides a positive duty for all member states to respect and promote worker’s rights in respect of employment. Yet, in implementation we limp. In Kenya for instance, the Employment Act of 2007 does not provide for mechanisms to compensate migrants who suffer from abuse in their host countries. In short, nationally and internationally, we lack a legal framework to protect migrant workers. It is time to take the bull by its horns through signing bilateral agreements on migrant workers. Suffice to say that, in absence of bilateral agreements with host states, African workers shall remain slaves of their ‘godfathers’. The time is ripe for us to revise and supplement our national as well as international labour laws to protect migrant workers. With the outrageous human rights violation on African migrant workers, who do we blame?

The nature of work and employment relations of small Chinese migrant businesses in South Africa remains largely under-researched, despite the significant growth of these businesses since the 2000s. Based on 90 interviews with Chinese business owners and their African workers, we found that, although employment relations were largely transactional and adversarial, they sometimes also incorporated symbiotic accommodations with third-country undocumented immigrant workers and pockets of de facto responsible autonomy. Material imbalances of power were notably alleviated through workers’ superior local language skills and cultural familiarity, enabling them to carve out space as intermediaries with customers and other local stakeholders to counter the power of employers. However, this autonomy is relatively small in scope, in large part due to the precarious nature of the employment and the workers’ immigration status.

The re-enactment of the context and the purposes of past laws obviates the resort to “principled forgetfulness”, since South African law is recalled in manner that is connected to its morality. The discussion of officially recorded policy vis-à-vis Africans at the mines and other relevant spaces reveals that from its formation the Chamber of Mines had a strict policy of keeping African wages particularly low. Sanctioned policy and practices facilitated this outlook in the implementation of labour law. Additionally, unsatisfactory employment conditions routinely short-changed workers of the amounts due. This evaluation demonstrates how the prohibiting of Africans from reaping monetary advancement, from the profits of mining, was the cornerstone of economic development and attainment of prosperity by white society in South Africa. The Industrial Conciliation Act is notable for banishing Africans from recognition as employees who could engage in collective bargaining, and served to further impair the already precarious position of African workers. Ironically, though Africans could not bargain, the determinations of industrial councils were permitted to change their employment conditions, in order to maintain the priviledge of white workers. Under this regime African wages remained extremely low, in line with supposed tribal needs, while the “civilised” community reaped far greater benefits. The effects of this were evident in the heightened economic pressure experienced by African workers and their dependants. By 1944 there had been hardly any increase in the wages of African mineworkers, but the working conditions had become more onerous. Invariably the rationale was that an improvement in the wages of African workers would have the effect of dislocating established economy processes, thereby impeding the welfare of the colony. This was the rationale despite evidence clearly showing that the wages of Africans were so inadequate that they resulted in the widespread hardship and worsening impoverishment of African communities. This retelling of the historical law coupled with prevailing attitudes, that presented African workers as peripheral in the larger tale of productivity, has the objective and effect of rearranging the narrative somewhat. Undoubtedly the story of Africans is still being told through the colonial blueprint of labour and its management, but by reading the law focusing on Africans, rather than the community it was intended to serve, the noticeable spillage of vexed African presence disturbs the integrity of the law. A shift in consciousness is likely to occur as the counter-narrative, hidden within the hegemony, animates.

The re-enactment of the context and the purposes of past laws obviates the resort to “principled forgetfulness”, since South African law is recalled in manner that is connected to its morality. The discussion of officially recorded policy vis-à-vis Africans at the mines and other relevant spaces reveals that from its formation the Chamber of Mines had a strict policy of keeping African wages particularly low. Sanctioned policy and practices facilitated this outlook in the implementation of labour law. Additionally, unsatisfactory employment conditions routinely short-changed workers of the amounts due. This evaluation demonstrates how the prohibiting of Africans from reaping monetary advancement, from the profits of mining, was the cornerstone of economic development and attainment of prosperity by white society in South Africa. The Industrial Conciliation Act is notable for banishing Africans from recognition as employees who could engage in collective bargaining, and served to further impair the already precarious position of African workers. Ironically, though Africans could not bargain, the determinations of industrial councils were permitted to change their employment conditions, in order to maintain the priviledge of white workers. Under this regime African wages remained extremely low, in line with supposed tribal needs, while the “civilised” community reaped far greater benefits. The effects of this were evident in the heightened economic pressure experienced by African workers and their dependants. By 1944 there had been hardly any increase in the wages of African mineworkers, but the working conditions had become more onerous. Invariably the rationale was that an improvement in the wages of African workers would have the effect of dislocating established economy processes, thereby impeding the welfare of the colony. This was the rationale despite evidence clearly showing that the wages of Africans were so inadequate that they resulted in the widespread hardship and worsening impoverishment of African communities. This retelling of the historical law coupled with prevailing attitudes, that presented African workers as peripheral in the larger tale of productivity, has the objective and effect of rearranging the narrative somewhat. Undoubtedly the story of Africans is still being told through the colonial blueprint of labour and its management, but by reading the law focusing on Africans, rather than the community it was intended to serve, the noticeable spillage of vexed African presence disturbs the integrity of the law. A shift in consciousness is likely to occur as the counter-narrative, hidden within the hegemony, animates.

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 22 Volume 22 Issue 4 2015 REPORT ❐ LEBANON The kafala is a ‘system of control’ through which the governments delegate responsibility for migrants to private citizens or companies to organise domestic workers was compelled and supported by the ILO Bureau of Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) in Beirut and in cooperation with other local NGOs. FENASOL’s involvement in assisting the organising of domestic workers involves standard trade-union concerns, such as collective bargaining to ensure the domestic workers’ rights for a day off, formal recognition of domestic work under the labour law, minimum wage, and ending the kafala system. These are concerns that emanate from the socio-economic injustices that the migrant domestic worker faces. The kafala The kafala, which is not limited to migrant domestic workers, but include all migrant workers, is a ‘system of control’, according to Motaparthy, through which the governments delegate responsibility for migrants to private citizens or companies. The system gives sponsors a set of legal abilities to control workers. ‘Workers whose employers cancel their residency visas often have to leave the country through deportation proceedings , and many have to spend time behind bars’ (Motaparthy, 2015). In addition to the precariousness created by the kafala system, the labour law explicitly excludes domestic workers from its protection and denies migrant workers the right to establish a trade union. The fragile conditions of migrant domestic workers are further exacerbated with the discrimination they face as poor migrant women who work in a profession that lacks social and formal recognition. The union organisational process focused on livelihood and common experiences of exploitation , lack of social and formal recognition of the value of domestic work, and its exemption from legislation regulating workers in the formal sectors , which revealed a form of labour politics that seeks to forge an understanding of shared working experiences of domestic work. These concerns acted as a gravitational pull necessary to bring the domestic workers together from different nationalities. However, prior to the union, Asian and African workers in Lebanon used to organise by forming migrant communities. These communities sought to forge solidarity among community members and to forge new modes of sociality and social interactions and being in a community. These community spaces were the first instances of politicisation for many migrant domestic workers who became later union militants. These communities also created, and continue, new avenues of access and mobilisation and definitely provide the ground for new political subjects to emerge. A lmost a year ago, on the occasion of International Workers’ Day, hundreds of domestic workers, predominantly migrants, and their allies in Lebanon, took to the streets that their union be formally recognised by the Lebanese government. The union has been denounced by the Labour Minister as ‘illegal’, arguing that it will only ‘generate problems’ instead of solving them. The Minister suggested that the ‘protection’ for domestic workers is best guaranteed through ‘new laws’, not through union organising. In other words, rights are unequivocally the ‘governor’s grant’, not to be claimed for or bargained. He added: ‘protection takes place through procedures, not through the introduction of the domestic workers into political and class games’. The Minister’s last statement blatantly expresses the state of fear from workers organising, migrants in particular, who through their attempt are putting a foot out of the ‘zone of exception’ into the political and the social space of the nation. Since the 1990, with the end of the civil war and the beginning of the so called ‘reconstruction era’, Lebanon has increasingly become a receiving country of both Arab and non- Arab migration . Palestinian refugees and migrants from different ethnic belongings from Syria and Iraq came to Lebanon long before 1990 and have settled in the country. Furthermore, there are large numbers of migrant workers from Asia and Africa employed as domestic workers. A 2011 World Bank report states that migrant workers represent 760 thousand of a total workforce in Lebanon of 1.2 million (for a population of around 4.2 million ) who are predominantly condensed in the informal sector. That means that migrants constitute almost half of the workforce and 17.8 percent of the population. These figures preceded the large...

People who work as wage earners from employers often face problems in employment relations due to differences in interpretation and implementation of employment agreements between employers and workers. The implementation of community service activities with the theme of companies and employment relations aims to provide education to workers regarding employment relations and the rights and obligations of workers on the one hand and employers on the other, and aims to ensure that workers know how to resolve employment disputes. The method used and implementing this community service activity is through counseling to the community (workers) using radio media with a 2 (two) way model, namely a resource person on the radio with listeners in another position, and the activity is carried out interactively directly. While the results obtained from this activity are the understanding of the community, especially workers, regarding the rights and obligations of workers on the one hand and the rights and obligations of employers on the other, as well as the steps and procedures for resolving employment disputes. In addition, the community also understands the role of the government and supervises employment relations.

Orientation: Domestic work remains a main source of employment for many South African women. Despite legislation directed at protecting the rights of South African domestic workers, research indicates that many still experience marginalisation and a sense of powerlessness. This prompts a need to understand the factors that could enhance a positive work experience for domestic workers.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to a positive work experience for domestic workers in South Africa.Motivation: Because of limited work opportunities and a lack of access to finance and education in South Africa, domestic work will continue to provide a source of employment in the future. It is thus important to implement strategies to enhance the positive nature of the domestic work experience.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative design, utilising a semi-structured interview format for data collection purposes, was utilised. The sample comprised seven domestic workers and seven employers of domestic workers.Main findings: Thematic analyses extracted job security, wages, working conditions and the relationship with employer as the most important considerations for domestic workers. Employers of domestic workers highlighted compliance with legislation, perceiving the employee as part of the family, retirement planning and respect as important factors.Practical/managerial implications: It is proposed that employers purposefully comply with the relevant legislation to promote feelings of job security, and that domestic workers are educated in the legal requirements surrounding domestic work. Employers are further encouraged to establish open and trust-based relationships characterised by respect and consider the need for post-retirement provision. The importance of education and training in professionalising the domestic work sector is raised.Contribution/value-add: The results of this study contribute to promoting the value and status of domestic work by providing a voice for marginalised employees and promoting a humanistic and positive work experience.

An employment relationship is the legal relationship created through the conclusion of a contract of employment between an employer and employee. Thus, it is assumed that determining the validity of employment contracts of domestic workers is an important matter for explaining the employment relationship in the current study. The target population in this study comprises domestic workers in the area of Vanderbijlark in southern Gauteng. The areas covered include: South-west 1; South-west 2; South-east 3; South-west 5; and South-west 5x1. Questionnaires were administered and interviews were conducted with the domestic workers who happened to be at the particular shopping centre or bus stop, at the particular time when the researcher was present for such purposes. Accidental sampling was chosen, because of its convenience. It can be concluded that a contract of employment should play an important role in clarifying what is to be expected from each party. The greater the clarity as to what is expected from each contractual party, the less the chance there is of misunderstandings in the relationship. Thus, no matter how widely domestic workers are covered by labour laws in the new South Africa, and no matter the efficiency of South African labour legislation, domestic workers will continue to be disadvantaged and exploited by their employers if they continue to form employment relationships in the absence of valid contracts of employment. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n3p86

The Caring Majority: Building a Coalition Around Domestic Workers' Rights

Labor Organizer Nannie Helen Burroughs and Her National Training School for Women and Girls

In democratic South Africa, many Black African women are still subjugated by being employed as domestic workers. Increasing evidence emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic revealing unmistakable signs of modern-day slavery among South African Black domestic workers. This paper proposes a clinical model which examines how gender, class, and race intersections affect the ways in which specifically identified change agents offer new, transforming interventions via clinical intervention. Adopting a clinical approach augments identification of a specific social problem from a scientifically systematic applied approach built on applied theory. We report on the conditions facing vulnerable Black African women using a bricolage research approach. The resulting model explicitly identifies systemic inequalities and indicates how to reduce exploitation and protect workers. The bricolage approach aided the secondary qualitative analysis of complex bonded-labour intersections. The problem of Black African women living as bonded domestic labour is augmented by the girl children’s primary socialisation, Western patriarchal re-socialisation which sustains apartheid, and race, class, occupational, and gender inequalities.

This article uses Leith Mullings’s intersectional approach to health disparities combined with a novel focus on the impact of direct care jobs on workers’ bodies in order to illuminate the everyday experiences of African immigrant direct health care workers in the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The research for this article is based on thirty interviews with African immigrant direct care workers conducted in 2014. Specifically, by examining direct care workers’ experiences of being physically and verbally abused by patients, and by exploring the impact of extremely high rates of physical injury on the job, this article aims to show the bodily burdens, the physical embodied costs, that direct care workers bear and carry for the larger society related to caring for the elderly and cognitively and physically disabled patients. A focus on the body shows how American labor sectors, including direct care, are shaped by racialized and gendered social orders that immigrants must face after their arrival in the United States.