Women Workers

IUF members around the world are calling on the government of Uganda to cancel a plan to promote Uganda's tourist industry with a "Miss Curvy" beauty contest as well as add "sexy" women to official literature listing Uganda's "attractions".

International Women’s Day, celebrated by IUF affiliates, is again this year dedicated to combating violence against women in the workplace. It is also focused on the need to obtain, at the next International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2019, an international convention, supplemented by a recommendation, which will give governments a legally-binding framework to enable them to act against and end this form of violence.

Paid maternity leave in the Philippines has been extended from 60 to 105 days under a new law which came into effect on February 20. IUF affiliates NUWHRAIN and the SENTRO Food & Beverage Workers Council played a significant role in winning the additional 45 days.

The IUF and Spanish-based Meliá Hotels International have signed an agreement on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, the first such agreement between the IUF and an international hotel chain.

New legislation adopted by New Zealand's Parliament provides victims of domestic violence 10 days paid leave to allow them to ensure their personal safety. Under the law, which comes into effect in April 2019, victims will not be required to provide proof of violence and will have access to flexible work arrangements to facilitate their safety.

An investigation by IUF affiliate Unia into housekeeping in Marriott-branded hotels in Zürich - one of the world's most expensive cities - shows the brutal consequences of cut-throat outsourcing: extreme speed-up and exploitation of a vulnerable workforce resulting in dangerously unsanitary conditions for workers and guests and multiple violations of the regional collective agreement for the cleaning sector which sets minimum legal working conditions.

Workers worldwide can welcome the results of the first discussion on violence and harassment in the world of work at this year's International Labour Conference. Against the strong opposition of the Employers Group, which was only prepared to support at most a Recommendation, the Standards Setting Committee decided that the fight against harassment and violence require a Convention, supplemented by a Recommendation.

Union members from Marriott hotels in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Americas came together in Geneva on May 29 to voice their demand for global action by the world's largest hotel group to protect workers from the endemic sexual harassment which plagues the industry.

The vast majority of India's waged workforce fall outside the coverage of the government's proposed new Code on Wages. The Self-Employed women's Association (SEWA) is campaigning to bring recognition and rights for informal sector workers, including home-based and domestic workers, within the scope of the legislation.

The IUF and Banana Link have recently facilitated workshops for affiliated unions  as part of the push for more and better jobs for women workers on the plantations. 

In connection with World Water Day, March 22, women workers on tea plantations in the states of Assam and West Bengal held meetings and rallies to highlight their continued lack of access to a fundamental human right: the right to water and sanitation. 

On March 8, International Women's Day (IWD), IUF affiliates around the world took action to demand EQUALITY NOW! They also strongly underlined the need to stop violence against women at work and in society.

On March 9, the state of California officially approved the first ergonomic standard in the United States written specifically to protect hotel housekeepers, capping a 6-year initiative by UNITE HERE.