In light of International Women's Day, the International Labor Organization's (ILO) recent report findings show that women still face enormous challenges and barriers to finding and keeping jobs. In many regions of the world, women were more likely to stay unemployed: 6.2% of women are jobless across the world compared to 5.5% of men - and often had to accept lower quality jobs.
Men's domination in the Philippine political arena remains. To address this, the Philippine Commission on Women has said there is a need to implement measures on leadership and capability development programs for women, advocacy for shared responsibility in the home, and the full implementation of the temporary special measures of the Magna Carta for Women, as well as other related laws and policies. News story from Manila Bulletin.
A story of resilience and tenacity. Ex-trafficked Filipina domestic worker Judith Daluz is turning her fate around. Judith recently started her own cleaning business, Damayan Cleaning Cooperative, a worker-owned cooperative supported by New York’s city council's Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative, a $1.2 million dollar fund directed to 11 organizations with experience incubating cooperatives in low-income communities of color. News story from YesMagazine.org.
Excerpt: A U.S. appeals court Monday, December 1 upheld a jury’s $4.5 million award to a class of roughly 350 Filipino teachers who accused recruitment companies of demanding they pay massive processing and placement fees or face losing their jobs in Louisiana. A class of 347 Filipino teachers, who came to the United States to work on H-1B guest worker visas, said recruitment agencies and their agents misled them and collected millions of dollars in fees, according to Courthouse News Service. They reportedly paid up to $16,000 each to work in public schools in Louisiana. News story from Inquirer.net.
On October 7th, 2015, Julieta Yang, a Filipina migrant worker employed as a live-in domestic worker filed a complaint in the San Francisco Superior Court against her former employers, tech executives Cameron Poetzscher and Varsha Rao.
The complaint alleges that the defendants, who are executives at Uber and Airbnb, failed to pay Ms. Yang the required minimum wage and overtime for all hours worked and failed to provide the required off-duty breaks. It also alleges that they created and maintained a sexually hostile work and home environment and failed to prevent harassment in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
News story courtesy of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Asian Law Caucus, Winnie Kao, Litigation Director, Senior Staff Attorney. Workers' Rights Program.
Join San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking with The Inter-Faith Committee & Jewish Coalition to End Human Trafficking for a volunteer training session on Sunday, November 22nd. You can help become a part of the SFCAHT Inter-faith Committee's volunteer team formed to engage hotel management and staff in an effort to identify and eradicate human trafficking in hospitality venues and volunteer in the hospitality industry outreach campaign. Pre-Super Bowl Volunteer Training Session will take place Sunday, November 22, 2015 from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm at St. Luke's Episcopal Church on 1755 Clay Street, San Francisco, California.
The Filipino American Educators Association of California is proud to announce the 2015 FAEAC Conference at the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento California. Bringing together educators and supporters to share vital knowledge and create the vehicle for collaboration, as we work together to empower our students and shape the future.
The Conference will feature workshops being conducted by scholars in the forefront of the research and documentation of the history of the Filipino labor movement, as well as experienced organizers who have been promoting the teaching of Filipino American history for over a decade. This conference will be the perfect way to culminate Filipino American Heritage Month and to celebrate the establishment of Larry Itliong Day and the first school named after Filipino labor organizers, Philip Vera Cruz and Lary Itliong.
For many women in their 60s and older, Social Security checks are the all-important means of survival. But for older female immigrants those benefits often don't exist. After spending their working lives taking care of their families or working off-the-books in low-wage jobs, they don't qualify. So what do they do? The answer, according to a recent study by a New York group, is many just keep on working.
News story courtesy of Women's eNews
