Trade union rights in the Middle East are poorly respected, and 2010 saw little improvement to the situation. Some of the world’s most restrictive labour laws can be found in the region, and legal strikes are often prohibitively difficult to call. Migrant workers and domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to harassment and abuse.
Some of the most worrisome trade union news in 2010 emerged from Iran, where Farzad Kamangar, a member of the Teachers’ Trade Association of Kurdistan, was hanged in secret after a sham trial that only lasted five minutes. The situation also remains dire for Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, President and Vice-President, respectively, of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company trade union (Vahed), who are both serving long prison sentences for defending workers’ rights.
Elsewhere in Iran, the government again relied on “security laws” to suppress trade union activity and any form of dissent. In 2010 a number of union activists were sentenced to prison on charges of “propaganda against the state”, “disrupting public order”, “spreading lies” and the like, including four members of the independent sugar workers’ union (Haft Tapeh).
In neighbouring Iraq, the President of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, Moaid Al-Lami, survived a second assassination attempt. In 2008, he had been first attacked only two months after his election, which followed the murder of his predecessor Shibab Al-Tamimi. In another disturbing turn of events, the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity ordered the police to shut down the Electricity Workers’ Union and take control of the union’s assets. Public sector unions are essentially banned in Iraq, whose labour laws date back to the era of Saddam Hussein. A draft labour law was introduced in 2007, has not yet materialised.
Public sector workers are also barred from forming and joining unions in Kuwait, and government employees do not enjoy freedom of association
freedom of association
The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
in Lebanon, Oman and Qatar. Furthermore, the labour laws in a majority of the countries in the region prescribe a single trade union system, allowing the government to effectively control union activity in the country. This is the case for Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Syria and Yemen. What is more, the labour laws in Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates prevent the establishment of genuine trade unions.
As a consequence of the limitations on freedom of association
freedom of association
The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
, both the right to bargain collectively and the right to strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
are severely restricted in the region. In the countries where collective bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
is allowed, the right is often limited or the thresholds for bargaining are high.
Lawful strikes are often difficult to call: in Jordan and Yemen prior permission from the authorities is needed to organise a strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
, and in the United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Israel the authorities can also intervene to end a strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
. Furthermore, in Syria workers who call a strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
can be punished and fined, and in Lebanon striking workers must assume full responsibility for damages. In Iran and Saudi Arabia strikes are outright prohibited.
Despite the legal limitations, workers in the Middle East called numerous strikes in 2010; however, they were often met with repression or retaliation. For example, in Kuwait, after a series of strikes the government banned all trade unions from striking; in Iraq several union leaders were transferred to other work places as a result of strikes; in Palestine workers who went on strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
over unsafe working conditions were fired; in the United Arab Emirates and in Yemen, workers were detained by the police after staging protests against salaries and working conditions; and in both Bahrain and Qatar migrant construction workers were deported after striking.
Migrant workers make up a large portion of the labour force in several countries in the region, and in some countries, like Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, they make up 70-80% of the entire population. Migrant workers, who are mostly employed as domestic workers and in construction, often face limitations in the laws with regard to their trade union rights, and they are often subject to discrimination, harassment and abuse. The most common violations include confiscation of their passports, forced labour, and non-payment of wages – sometimes even for months. The sponsorship system, in force in many countries, ties migrant workers to their employers, effectively denying them the right to change employer if abuses arise. In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the employers can even stop migrant workers from leaving the country.
Domestic migrant workers are particularly affected: not only are they often excluded from the protection of labour laws; they are also often victims of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their employers. Excessive working hours, unpaid wages, and lack of leave days are commonplace. Although there have been talks and drafts to include domestic workers in the countries’ labour laws, very little has materialised, with the exception of Jordan, which extended the labour law in 2008 to include domestic workers.