CODEMUH calls for decent work principles and to put an end to impunity!
02 December 2011
In November, the Honduran Women's Collective (CODEMUH), War on Want's long term partner supporting women maquila workers in Honduras, launched a campaign to raise awareness among the Honduran population of the occupational health problems endured by sweatshop workers and to strengthen women workers' organizational skills enabling them to stand up for their rights.
Through this campaign, CODEMUH is calling upon the government to reform its Labour Code, especially in relation to health and safety at work. They also demand ergonomic tests on factories and production lines; better medical treatment; to put a stop to discrimination against women with health problems and to ban pregnancy tests imposed by employers.
For many years, CODEMUH has been exposing at the national and international level the occupational risks women workers face in the maquila industry and denouncing fundamental labour rights violations. Unrealistic and collective production targets, long working days involving the same repetitive movements and flexible shifts of 12 hours have taken their toll on workers and are damaging their health from an early age, with many suffering from occupational diseases. When a worker presents symptoms of a work related disease, the company's doctor does not immediately refer them for adequate treatment, and when they do so the appointment to see a specialist at the Honduran Social Security Institute can take up to three months.In Honduras, labour standards are weak, not enforced or non-existent and the government bodies do not carry out proper inspections of the workplace. Companies can get away with many abuses because of workers' fear of being fired and lack of proper enforcement. The outdated Honduran Labour Code, which was introduced in 1959, was designed to suit the demands of medium and small enterprises, but not the large scale industrialised production of the maquilas. On the top of that, the recently approved National Anti-Crisis Plan, a temporary and part-time employment law, is allowing employers to contract workers by the hour or day denying to workers fundamental rights such as maternity pay and the right to social security.
The absence of effective protection and prevention mean that sweatshop workers continue to be exposed to occupational health risks and fundamental labour rights violations. As a consequence, hundreds of women have suffered from work-related injuries, inflicting permanent damage to bones, muscles, tendons and joints. CODEMUH has presented 300 occupational health cases to legal authorities, of which 47 have been qualified as work related injuries and more than 60 are now being processed by the Honduran Social Security Institute. In addition, collective cases of women workers with occupational diseases working for Hanes HBI and GILDAN have been denounced to government officials (Ministry of Labour) as well as international stakeholder initiatives such as the Fair Labour Association (FLA) without much response.
 CODEMUH statement (in Spanish) | [ ] | 37 Kb |
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