PreCaRIousneSs spells crisIS for young workers everywhere
Do you know if you will be working tomorrow? Are you sure you'll have a job, a place to live, an income to allow yourself to be independent and make decisions about your life? Well, millions of young workers around the world don't really have any certainty about their future. Employment that lasts from between a few hours to a few months, is a daily reality for too many young workers. Is it really too much to ask to have a contract of work that lasts for more than a day or a week? Is it possible to have a social system accessible to all, that protects us from unemployment and insecurity? After all, the UN Declaration of Human Rights tell us that "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment." (Article 23). The young workers we've spoken to would like the chance to have a little more certainty and security in their lives, and for this reason, we've decided to take action.
Where did this plan come from?
For several years, the International YCW (IYCW) has been developing analysis and action in response to the different realities faced by young workers everywhere, in all types of employment: young people working without contracts in the informal economy; young women workers - facing discrimination and insecurity; unemployed and apprentices - facing difficulties to enter the labour force, and young workers in temporary and precarious working conditions, facing limited employment possibilities. These different international experiences of life and work, have been helping us here in Europe to develop our focus for action - our starting point for changing the world!
What we've discovered through our action and collection of testimonies of young workers, is a common key concern: labour precariousness and its influence on young workers' lives. Young workers - as interim labourers, as migrants, unemployed, as temporary workers - live the daily insecurity of not knowing when they might work again, or how to guarantee an income to meet their basic needs.
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"With the qualification I have you can’t go to an interim agency, so you have to rely on your own resources"
Lien Van der Meeren, 25 years, Belgium
"In 2004 I graduated as a pedagogical worker. When I finished school and started to search for a job, I realised that it isn’t because you have a qualification, that it’s easy to find a job. Though we have a good social protection system, you have to wait 9 months until you can get some support from the government.
"So first I had to do some other jobs which didn’t correspond to my qualification. Those were jobs I had to do if I wanted to earn some money and to get integrated in society. The major problem while searching for a job, is that the organisations expect you to have some experience. But if you don’t get the chance to start somewhere, you can’t get any experience.
"After some time I had the luck to find a job that matched my qualification, but still it was just to replace someone who was pregnant. It’s not easy to find a permanent job in the sector I graduated. After that I had again some jobs to fill the gap while I was searching for a job as a pedagogical worker. With the qualification I have you can’t go to an interim agency, they can’t help you there, so you have to rely on your own resources. Now I work for the YCW, so actually for the moment I can’t complain.
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"We need a system that promotes solidarity"
Jack, 26 years, Belgium
"I have been living in Belgium for 18months and I work in a metal factory in Brussels, with a permanent full-time contract. I am originally from Peru and in Peru I worked in many different jobs. One was as a taxi driver for 2 and a half years, more or less 6 days a week, 15 hours per day. It was informal work, and every month for a different salary, sometimes 200 Euro per month, and at other times less.
After that I had an experience of formal work in a hotel where I cleaned rooms for 6months, and worked driving taxis during the weekend. I left the work in the hotel to move to Europe.
"I came to Belgium to work and to study and to help my family because I had the chance to come here.
I decided to come with the thought that the salary I could gain could help me support my family and help pay my studies.
"I searched for work for 6 months in Belgium. It was difficult, because I didn't speak the local language, but I searched through the interim agencies, personally visited workplaces to ask for work, and asked everyone I had met here to see if they could help me to find a job.
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“A basic income should guarantee that people don't have to be alone"
François, 22 years, Belgium
I come from Verviers and have been unemployed for 8 and a half months. I live with my parents, and I am registered with 15 interim agencies - some in Verviers and some in Liège. The agencies help match my qualifications with jobs that are available through a computer search, but usually I'm excluded because I don't have a car, or I don't have enough experience"
My parents receive a family payment for me since I am unemployed, and from them I receive around 75 Euros per month for my personal use.
"Lack of independence is difficult, and lack of income also limits my social life.
I can meet my friends and talk with them, but nothing more. I can't afford to go out because it's too expensive."
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MARCH
8th
International
Women's Day
"Young
Women Workers demand further inclusion in a human and equal society
for all"
For
more than 75 years, the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW)
has rganised and trained young women workers and has considered their
situation as one priority of action. Women are still the victims in
so many different ways of exclusion and marginalisation in our
society. We are excluded as women and as workers.
«My
name is Pattrisiya. I'm 22 years-old and I live in Rajagiriya, near
Colombo, Sri Lanka. In our culture, it is very difficult for young
women to access the world of labour as our mother and family do not
want us to work outside. Therefore I feel bad as I cannot express all
my skills and talents. I'm not allowed to study and can only do
those jobs which are usually assigned to women, i.e. sewing, cooking
and all those activities which men do not want to do. Why is it like
that ? When shall the situation change?
My
name is Nalini Peries. I'm 21 and live in Negombo, in Sri Lanka. I
have two sisters. My mother is a housewife and my father works in the
informal sector. I did some work which is generally considered
"typical women's jobs" ,i.e, sewing or embroidering. I had to
produce 50 pieces a day. I was paid 2 Rs a day, that is 0.01 US$. I
was earning 100 Rs/day (0,50 US$), and worked without any social or
legal protection.
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