14th July, 1998

Women are regarded as the secondary labour force. Women's work is increasingly on casual and flexible basis. Part-time employment and home work are the common patterns and the number of these workers are growing rapidly.

Part-time employment has been existing and is expanding rapidly in both industrialized and industrializing countries along with the growing employment pattern of casualisation and flexibilization of labour force.

Part-time workers are seen as cheaper to hire, easier to manage and get rid of. It is also hard for the unions or organisations to organise them to bargain collectively for their rights. It is an effort of the employer to take little responsibility to these workers than regular workers but gaining the most profit out of them. It is also seen by unions as part of government policies to spread part-time employment to protect business interests. Therefore, more and more regular workers are forced to become part-time workers and very often women workers are the first target.

Homeworkers, as part-time workers, are used as a flexible workforce. They represent the weak and marginalised group of invisible workers. While working at home to earn on a piece-rate basis, homeworkers have to bear the family responsibility at the same time in the same place. With the rapid expansion of the subcontracting system, homeworkers are increasing rapidly. They are assigned with work through most probably second or third subcontractors that make the exploitation of wages even worse. Women account for the vast majority (as much as 95%) and child labour is often associated with home work.

Both part-time and homeworkers are excluded from benefits as regular full-time workers, such as pension, paid holidays, sick and maternity leave and occupational health and safety protection, with access to little social security benefits, and with no training or promotional opportunities. It is very common for poor women with family responsibility but little education background to take up part-time or home work, the alternative for these women are the least. For employers, they are also the easiest to exploit.

Since 1994 , the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has adopted two international conventions to protect these casual and flexible workers:

• Convention on part-time work (1994): It requires that measures shall be taken to ensure that part-time workers get the same wages, pro rata, as full-time workers. Part-time workers should also benefit from statutory social security schemes, occupational health and safety protection, maternity protection, paid annual and public holidays and sick leave. At the same time, they have the same trade union rights as full-time workers.
• Convention on Homework (1996): It is to ensure the equality of treatment between homeworkers and other wage earners, in relation to the rights to organise, protection against discrimination in employment and occupation, occupational health and safety, remuneration, statutory social security protection, access to training, minimum working age and maternity protection.

We, the undersigned individuals and organisations, are deeply concerned the deteriorating women workers situation in Asia, particularly with the rapid expansion of the casual and flexible forms of employment which includes part-time work, temporary contract work, dispatch work and home work, etc. It is a means for the business sector to exploit workers further and gain the most profit.

We denounce the company to retrench regular workers and replace them with part-time workers or other casual and flexible forms of work pattern. We also denounce the promotion of the casualisation and flexibilisation of employment, that is not by the free choice of workers.

We call on the governments to commit themselves to protect women workers rights, particularly in the reality of casualisation and flexibilisation of women labour force, which women workers are further exploited.

We demand the governments :

• to immediately ratify the ILO Convention on Part-time workers , No. 175; and the ILO Convention on Home Work, No.177;
• to establish national policies, laws and regulations according to the ILO conventions to guarantee the legal rights as part-time workers and homeworkers;
• to implement these policies, laws and regulations at local level to ensure that part-time and homeworkers' rights are protected;
• to set up an effective and active mechanism to inspect, monitor and ensure the practice and protection to casual and flexible workers;
• adequate remedies, including penalties, for violation of these laws and regulations shall be provided for and effectively applied.

With the undersigned individuals and organisations from (which country):

Names, please print (individuals/organisations)	Signature	Names, please print (individuals/organisations)	Signature

(Please photo-copy if not enough space. You can send these signatures to your concerned government authority, but please send CAW secretariat a copy of the signatures by fax or mail, latest by the end of November. After the secretariat collects all signatures, copies will be made to send to the concerned authorities of all Asian countries and those countries' where the signatures come from, as well as the ILO office.)