January 12, 2009
Denmark Peter Rasmussen, freelance journalist Rules and conditions at the Maersk Container factory in Dongguan are violating ILO-conventions and Chinese labour law. This is the message from the global union movements office in Hong Kong, Dominique Muller.
She has studied parts of the "employee handbook", written by Maersk Container Industry Dongguan. The handbook contains 73 rules. According to some rules strikes and go slow are banned. “The rules contravene not only the letter of the ILO conventions but also their fundamental principles. The right to strike for example is enshrined as a basic right in ILO core conventions,” Dominique Muller of IHLO, the Hong Kong Liaison Office of the international trade union movement.
According to workers from the factory, the rules are used by middle management to harass and punish workers, who complain about their conditions. The factory suffered from two strikes in 2008. Dominique Muller strongly urges Maersk to change the conditions: “Maersk must start to get its act together in China. It cannot continue using a stick to keep its workers in place. The string of recent protests and dismissals show how bad the situation is and it can only get worse in this economic climate. It must scrap these illegal and oppressive factory rules before more protests occur,” said Dominique Muller. She addresses the fact that the owner of the factory, A.P. Moller-Maersk, is right now considering joining the UN Global Compact: “If Maersk is in any way serious about joining the Global Compact it must change the situation on the ground in China.
Otherwise their admission to the Compact will undermine the Compact's reputation,” Dominique Muller said. The Danish trade union congress, LO, also criticizes the regulations at the Maersk plant: “It is totally unacceptable that Maersk set up rules like these for its workers in China. I am appalled by the conditions. There is no doubt that they are violating ILO conventions on labour rights.” It would suit a big Danish multinational company to comply with these rules, Anette Berentzen, head of the International department of LO said. The Hong Kong-based human rights NGO, Globalization Monitor, published a report about conditions at the factory on January 12. The NGO concludes that the workers rights are violated at the plant. Managing Director Irving Hultengren disagree. He said to news agency Ritzau, that Maersk was not confronted with the report before it was published and he questions the credibility of the report. Dominique Muller from the IHLO in Hong Kong is more confident. She said: “GM is a well known NGO here in HK. Although it is small it is respected.”