Principal speaker
Dr Samanthi J Gunawardana
Abstract: According to the International Organization of Migration, in 2011 there were 105 million people documented as working in a country other than their country of birth. Approximately half were women, as an historically unprecedented number of households have become increasingly dependent on women for their survival. In countries such as Sri Lanka, local and international temporary and circular labour migration is now a well-entrenched aspect of livelihood and development policy. Approximately 250 000 Sri Lankans migrant annually for employment; the majority taking up opportunities classified as unskilled or in domestic work. While there is growing awareness of, and attention to, the exploitative and vulnerable employment conditions these workers face, as well as the growing realisation that national employment relations systems have offered few protections, little attention has been paid to the way in which temporary labour migrants are organised by labour movements.
This presentation will describe the preliminary results of fieldwork carried out in July 2013. Three Sri Lankan case studies will be discussed: unionised seafarers consisting primarily of male workers; attempts at organising international domestic and unskilled workers into trade unions and; a union of women domestic workers who migrant within Sri Lanka for employment. The links between trade unions and other civil society actors will be highlighted, along with the importance of local and international mobilisation. Underscoring this analysis is a consideration of how migration, work and often, organising, is a gendered process embedded within the broader global political economy.
Speaker: Dr Samanthi J Gunawardana is a lecturer in employment relations in the Griffith Business School. She is a member of the Griffith Asia Institute and the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing. Her research interests are in work, gender and development. She has published on the working lives and organising activities of women workers in Sri Lanka’s free trade zones.
Event categories
RSVP
RSVP on or before Thursday 29 August 2013 , by email wow@griffith.edu.au , or by phone 37353 714