Artifacts: Live to work, work to live

Vanessa Moore

Recently it seems that the theme of jobs and workers’ rights has been a hot topic, what with Best Supporting Actress winner Patricia Arquette using her Oscars speech last week to highlight the on-going gender wage gap in American society. “To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen in this nation: We have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality in the U.S.,” the Hollywood doyenne exclaimed to the appreciative hollers of both ladies and gentlemen alike. In the US, the Pew Research Center estimates that women earn 84 per cent of what men earn, while 2012 study from the Center for American Progress found that the average full-time working woman loses more than USD430,000 over her lifetime compared with the average full-time male worker. Obviously these are US figures, but the phenomenon exists pretty much worldwide.
But gender equality hasn’t been the only issue in the headlines as of late. Making jobs fairer entails more than just addressing wage disparity. Domestic helpers including caregivers and nannies – especially in this part of the world – have historically been excluded from most legal protections, and are some of the most vulnerable workers out there. Last Friday a Hong Kong court sentenced the sadistic employer of abused Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih to 6 years in prison for charges including assault, grievous bodily harm, criminal intimidation and failure to pay wages or give time off work. The maid’s story shocked the region last year when photos of her blackened feet, bruises and broken teeth circulated online. “I am so happy because finally my employer is in prison although only for six years. But for me, finally justice is delivered,” Sulistyaningsih told the media through an interpreter. For the maid and those like her, the sentencing is some solace, yet as long as helpers are legally required to live in their employers’ homes, the case has changed nothing and situations like hers will unfortunately continue.
Equally, aside from physical abuse, being tricked into paying agency fees is also another pitfall. The prevalent local practice of having to go through employment agencies that charge would-be migrant workers high fees for finding jobs overseas also leads to gross injustices. So before they’ve even started working, many maids are already saddled with big debts they have to work off. Although helpers aren’t required to live with their employers in Macau, these crooked employment agencies that exist throughout both here and in Hong Kong still fleece them out of thousands before they’ve even started cleaning.
However it’s not only in Hong Kong where brutally deplorable labour practices still exist. In Thailand the seafood industry is similarly almost wholly dependent on cheap migrant labour, with labourers from impoverished neighbouring countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia trafficked to work on vessels, often through trickery and kidnapping. A report by the British non-profit Environmental Justice Foundation released last week found that many workers endure brutal conditions and abuse, and are often trapped for years at a time as slave labourers on fishing boats with trafficked workers enduring 20-hour shifts, regular beatings, torture and execution-style killings.
Yet it’s not only Asia where exploitation is rearing its ugly head. In Europe the economic crisis has resulted in similarly unsavoury working practices. Last week the Associated Press released a feature on how young people from Spain and other struggling southern European countries are finding themselves trapped in jobs in Germany in order to escape the financial crisis back home. Also lured by recruitment agencies, many find themselves locked into contracts until they pay off the language lessons and accommodation their employers initially provided when they arrived.
Obviously most of these unfortunate cases are glaring abuses, but what about some of the small daily violations that most of us face? Common practices such as unpaid overtime, being shouted at by our bosses, facing tense workplace environments, being scheduled to work on a moment’s notice and having to work on weekends and holidays are all sadly tolerated. Although it’s not outright abuse, it can affect everything from a worker’s personal life to family relationships and friendships, permeating everything and causing misery.
Many are trapped in dismal jobs be it for money, lack of experience or simply lack of a better choice. Although I’m no Oscar winner, highlighting some of the more basic daily struggles that millions go through simply to earn a decent wage is the least I can do.