FREEPIK
In the first edition of the “ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the World of Work” released in March 2020, the International Labor Organization (ILO) suggested that in determining the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on labor, the following be examined: health impact, quantity of jobs (both unemployment and underemployment), quality of jobs (wages and social protection) and specific vulnerable groups. In this thinkpiece, I examine the plight of women Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) as a specific vulnerable group and present some facts and musings regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their health, jobs and wages.
I decided to focus on women OFWs for three reasons. Firstly, it’s International Women’s Month and it is thus an opportune time to push women’s concerns into the heart of public discourse.
Outside of the Ethiopian embassy in Beirut, June 2020. Credit: This is Lebanon
KESERWAN, Lebanon , Jul 10 2020 (IPS) - They were promised the world but ended up in a Lebanese household. This is the story of many domestic workers in Lebanon. With a 70-year-old sponsor system still in place, domestic workers are tied to their employers with little or no basic rights. The ‘Kafala’ system is the major problem behind what we have been seeing in Beirut in the last months.
Dumped outside of their embassies, many domestic workers were left without money, belongings, or their passports. In June 2020, when Lebanon witnessed a new wave of economic crisis, many of the Ethiopian domestic workers were left abandoned at their embassy doors in Beirut. With recent events that escalated the country’s economic situation, Lebanese people started losing the value of their national currency. And, since all domestic workers are paid in foreign currency, especially in US dollars, their employers w
Fiscal incentives to encourage worker remittances View(s):
Hondurans take part in a new caravan of migrants, set to head to the United States, as they leave San Pedro Sula, Honduras December 9 2020. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Several countries are using fiscal incentives (like Sri Lanka) rather that directives to encourage migrant workers to repatriate their earnings, an international webinar on unpaid wages of migrant workers was informed on Wednesday.
The discussion titled “Unpaid Wages and Remittances: Deconstructing the Impact of COVID-19 and Ways Forward” was organised by the Philippines-based Migrant Forum in Asia. It addressed the question of how a steady flow of remittances can be maintained by ensuring that migrant workers are compensated for their work in countries of destination.