Wage Theft, The Unheeded Side of Pandemic
The Tragedy of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the Time of Covid-19 by Hadje Sadje, Volunteer - Centre for Migrant Advocacy-Philippines
Source: Filipino Migrant Centre
‘Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.’
Proverbs 31:9 NIV
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic reveals the socio-economic inequalities and deepens human rights violations across the globe. In a briefing paper titled, Power, Profits, and the Pandemic (September, 2020), Oxfam has concluded that: The worsening inequality crisis triggered by COVID-19 is fuelled by an economic model that has allowed some of the world’s largest corporations to funnel billions of dollars in profits to shareholders, giving yet another windfall to the world’s top billionaires, a small group of mostly white men. At the same time, it has left low-wage workers and women to pay the price of the pandemic without social or financial protection. Since the onset of the pandemic, large corporations have put profits before workers’ safety, pushed costs down the supply chain and used their political influence to shape policy responses (Oxfam, 2020). Slavoj Žižek points out that the moral task during this pandemic is to alleviate suffering, not to 'economise' (Žižek, The Guardian, 2020). Instead of making human rights a top priority, many states and corporations save their political and economic interests rather than protect the well-being of its people, especially the poor, vulnerable, and underprivileged groups (UN, 2020; WHO, 2020; Human Rights, 2020). Migrant workers, for instance, is one of the most unprotected and affected sectors by COVID-19 pandemic (European Commission, 2020). In fact, World Health Organization latest report shows that: Migrants – particularly in lower paid jobs – may be both more affected by and vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19 in countries already impacted and those countries where the pandemic is spreading, but migrants also play an important role in the response to COVID-19 by working in critical sectors. As of 3 November 2020, emigrants from the 20 countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases accounted for nearly 28 per cent of the total international migrant stock and they had sent an estimated 37 per cent of all remittances globally to their countries of origin in 2019” (WHO, 2020). Moreover, in the worst-case scenario, many migrant workers are victims of as well of unjust labour practice called, ‘wage theft’. But what is wage theft? Wage theft covers a variety of infractions that occur when workers do not receive their legally or contractually promised wages. (Wage Theft Org., 2020; Centre for Migrant Advocacy, 2020; Wage Theft is a Crime, 2020). The common forms of wage theft are the following (Wage Theft Org, 2020): • non-payment of overtime • not giving workers their back wages and/or end-of-service benefits after termination or resignation • not paying for all the hours worked • not paying minimum wage • not paying a worker at all. 46
INSiGHT | December 2020
