International La Strada Association
LSI
La Strada International is a European NGO Platform against human trafficking, that works from a human rights perspective in support of trafficked persons.
ID: 552173642688-57
Lobbying Activity
Response to Proposal for a Council Recommendation on long-term care
19 Mar 2022
La Strada International is a European NGO Platform against human trafficking, that works from a human rights perspective in support of trafficked persons. The platform aims to prevent human trafficking and to protect and realise trafficked persons’ rights.Together with PICUM and other European organisations La Strada International shares joint recommendations for the European Care Strategy regarding migrant care providers and service users.
Currently labour shortages in care and the lack of available and affordable formal care options are being met by precarious intra-EU mobile or non-EU migrant workers – often working as domestic workers or au pairs, without permits, social protection, or professional support.
Major challenges include exploitative working conditions and pay; abusive recruitment practices and employment arrangements; short-term contracts and work permits; dependence of care workers on employers or agencies for housing as well as employment; and restrictive labour migration policies that do not recognise community and home care work as eligible occupations in general work permit schemes, or provide precarious and dependent permits that tie workers to particular employment relationships.
Undeclared work, underpayment or non-payment of wages, and unpaid overtime and on-call hours are common. The sector is already characterised by low wages, with many care workers receiving below the median wage even when paid according to Undeclared work, underpayment or non-payment of wages, and unpaid overtime and on-call hours are common.
Live-in carers are particularly at risk of extreme working and on-call hours without adequate privacy, rest periods and holidays, as well as isolation. This is particularly the case in 24-hour elderly care provided by live-in care workers, whether temporary cross-border EU workers or third-country nationals, where workers are always on call, with lack of respect for breaks, lack of private life, and on-call hours unpaid. Care workers may also be required to take on tasks beyond their job and training, such as carrying out domestic work for other relatives and certain health care treatments. Private recruitment agencies are often involved in organising the rotation of care workers in and out of these exploitative conditions. Lack of organisation of workers in the sector, in particular those working in the home and/or mobile and migrant workers poses an additional challenge to collective bargaining and improvements of conditions in the sector.
The EC and MS should ensure full application of all employment regulations, including the ‘Working Time Directive’ and proposed Directive on adequate minimum wages, to all care workers, including domestic workers. MS should ratify the ILO Domestic Workers Convention (no. 189) and ensure its full implementation. EC and MS should further facilitate the recognition of mobile EU and non-EU migrant care workers in factual employment relationships as ‘workers’ for the purpose of labour rights and social protection.
MS should ensure enforcement of labour standards to all workers in the sector, regardless of their migration or residence status, work arrangements (live-in, live-out, single or multiple employers), employment relationship (placement agencies, provider organisations, contract with the end-users or domestic workers operating as self-employed). The EC and MS should further promote social dialogue and national action plans to increase freedom of association and collective bargaining coverage to improve conditions and wages for care workers, including home care workers, and ensure that sectoral social dialogue includes migrant care workers. MS should also take specific measures to address the precarious conditions of EU mobile and migrant care workers. See further all recommendations attached.
Read full responseResponse to Preventing and combating trafficking in human beings - review of EU rules
16 Sept 2021
Submission for the ‘combined evaluation roadmap/inception impact assessment “Fighting human trafficking – review of EU rules”.
La Strada International - European NGO Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings, comprising 25 members and 5 associate members in 24 European countries, welcomes the opportunity to provide input for the combined evaluation roadmap/inception impact assessment “Fighting human trafficking – review of EU rules”.
Considering the different policy options proposed by the European Commission, La Strada International favours baseline scenario: Option 2, non-legislative practical (enforcement) action to support EU MS to enhance their implementation of the current legal framework. For the anti-trafficking NGOs in our Platform, the lack of a full and effective implementation of the EU Trafficking Directive is a major prevents the provision of adequate assistance and support to trafficked persons in line with their entitlements under European law. Recent evaluation reports by the FEMM and LIBE committees of the EU Parliament also recognise this challenge.
La Strada International supports further harmonising discrepancies between the laws and policies of different EU Member States and also sees the need to improve cross border cooperation in victim’s assistance, support and protection. However we oppose the revision of the EU Directive (option 3) at this moment for various reasons:
Firstly, we see a risk that a potential revision will be used to renegotiate and limit the scope of important rights provisions of the current Directive and will reduce Member States’ obligations to protect and guarantee victims’ rights and service provision.
Secondly, we are concerned that a legal revision of the EU Directive will undermine its implementation or will be used as a justification by EU Member States for inadequate implementation.
Thirdly, we are concerned that the main reason for such legislative action may be the wish for mandatory rules on the criminalisation of the use of services, which are the objects of exploitation, with the knowledge that the person is a victim of trafficking.
Broadening the scope of criminal liability concerning the use of services that involve exploitation is very dangerous and impractical, especially if - as is recommended by this paragraph, ‘the user should demonstrate that all reasonable steps were taken to avoid the use of services provided by a victim’. This creates a positive obligation on all citizens to examine the working conditions under which goods were produced or service offered. Such a provision may create a situation of legal uncertainty. Anyone can be held criminally liable for buying goods, products or services for everyday use, produced within the global supply chain by workers in extremely precarious and exploitative conditions (and may include trafficked persons). We believe instead, more action should be undertaken through non-legislative measures and resource allocation to improve the implementation of EU legislation at the national level. Structural labour and economic reforms and measures to better regulate business and empower workers are needed to address exploitative labour practices across European economies and global supply chains.
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