About two weeks prior to the Chinese New Year every year, the “chunyun”, or Spring Festival travel season, is a spectacle to behold, as migrant workers return to their rural homes in droves on airplanes, trains, and motorbikes. If you think the Thanksgiving traffic jam in the US is massive, know that the human migration during chunyun is seven times that. Yet, recent years have seen an increasing number of migrant workers staying at their jobs in the city during the Chinese New Year. For some, it is to earn triple their usual pay by working, for others, the trip home is simply unaffordable.
Speaking of workers in colossal numbers, approximately a month prior to the celebration of the Year of the Pig, an estimated 150 million Indian workers went on a two-day strike against the Narendra Modi government for its “anti-labor” policies. Making headlines late last year was the Google walkout across the globe over the company’s (mis)handling of sexual harassment against women employees. Rewind to a year ago, teachers across the US, from West Virginia to Arizona, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Los Angeles, walked out in protest of budget cuts and stagnant pay. As of writing, 600 out the 900 unionized China Airlines pilots have been going on strike for the sixth day, demanding less workload and a pay rise.
Across the world, however, there are workers who are not allowed to unionize, such as workers at Amazon.com, Inc., as well as migrant workers, many of whom are victims of modern slavery. But the future might just be looking a little brighter for migrant workers, with more governments committing to the UN goal of ending modern slavery and forced labor through their public procurement practices, cities like Athens piloting a project that sees the municipality working solely with companies that monitor their supply chain and take actions to prevent modern slavery, and Unilever has recently shared details of suppliers for all its British tea brands to end worker abuse.
Fairly recently, a three-year landmark legal case saw Thailand’s highest court ordering compensation for 14 migrant workers from Myanmar who were forced to work overtime, paid less than the minimum wage, and confiscated of their passports. Happening in Thailand soon is a pilot program by data analytics platform Verifik8 of eMin, a blockchain-based app developed by Diginex and the Mekong Club to reduce the chances of migrant worker exploitation by engaging the private and public sectors. In Bangladesh, a scheme will soon be put in place to compile a list of certified recruitment agents to curb the abuse and trafficking of Bangladeshi migrant workers.
Labor of love
The scheme in Bangladesh is not unlike the founding mission of Migrasia, an FSI portfolio company. Initially a non-profit-making online platform for employers and domestic workers to rate employment agencies in Hong Kong, with the aim to professionalize the migrant labor placement process to ensure fair employment for migrant workers by bringing transparency to agency practices, Migrasia has evolved to foster and incubate solutions relating to migration in Asia. One of its solutions to empower migrant domestic workers in the city is EmpowerU, which provides domestic workers with free lectures, trainings and workshops at The University of Hong Kong every weekend (see photo above). EmpowerU is currently fundraising to provide HK$500 scholarships for 500 domestic workers, which will support six months’ worth of education for domestic workers.
While you’re at it, find out how you can support 24 Hour Race, another of FSI’s portfolio companies, in its goal to end modern slavery. Through its youth-led races held across the globe, 24 Hour Race has fundraised over HK$9 million for charities and projects dedicated to fighting against slavery, and “Operation24” is its recently launched two-year project with the aim of delivering a global blow to human trafficking. There are many ways to get involved, but one of the easiest ways to help 24 Hour Race with its cause is to research the transparency and supply chain of the brands that you buy from, and reduce consumption, according to Daniel Hestevold, COO of 24 Hour Race.
