(7 December 2010)
- Petition ratification UN Convention migrant workers
- European Parliament’s vote Directive single permit and rights for third country citizens
Dear affiliates,
The fundamental rights of migrant workers in the EU remain top of the trade union agenda.
Firstly, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Migrant Workers Convention International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, adopted on 18 December 1990].
This UN instrument aims to fight the exploitation of migrant workers and deter irregular migration
Sadly, so far not a single EU government has ratified or signed the Convention, and very few within Europe have done so.
This highlights the current priorities in EU migration policy.
EPSU, PSI, the ETUC and ITUC have joined a civil society campaign to collect signatures for the ratification of the UN Migrant Workers. Both EPSU and PSI, as well as the ETUC, support the call for the Convention to be ratified at EU level.
Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, Peter Waldorf, John Monks and Sarah Burrows have already signed.
More signatures are needed, please forward this link to your members to sign the petition online at: [www.migrantsconvention.eu
The ETUC will participate at an action organised by December 18, the secretariat of the European Platform for Migrant Workers Rights (EPMWR) to hand out the signatures this coming 15 December, so please send this information as soon as possible.
Secondly, related to the above and equally urgent.
Please find attached an ETUC appeal, in EN and FR, regarding a vote in the European Parliament on a draft directive for a single permit (residency/work) and a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in the EU.
It has been a long-standing ETUC demand to have an EU horizontal directive on migrant workers’ rights, notably the right to equal treatment at work with EU nationals.
Such a directive should have come before other pieces of legislation regulating groups of migrants or sectors of the economy.
The Employment Committee of the EP – Rapporteur Spanish Socialist Cercas (please see attached) has tabled key improvements to the text, including regarding labour and social rights (pay, social security, application of collective agreements..) and ratification of the above UN convention.
Please contact your MEPs expressing support for these amendments at the plenary vote on Monday 13 December in the afternoon!
Thanks.
Kind Regards.
For more information please contact Nadja Salson ([email protected]) or Pablo Sanchez ([email protected])
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