Verité Campaign on Foreign Contract Workers

Verité embarked on our campaign on the problems faced by Foreign Contract Workers as an outgrowth of eight years of experience advocating for improved factory working conditions in Southeast Asia. Findings from Verité audits in Southeast Asia identified debt-bonded labor to be a significant vulnerability among foreign contract workers, directly affecting over 10 million workers and indirectly affecting millions more. The presence of foreign contract workers in factories is a strong indicator that other significant labor and human rights violations are present for both contract labor and local factory workers.

Debt-bondage is a common occurrence among foreign workers, with long-term negative effects that extend beyond the factory floor.  The communities dependent on remittances from overseas laborers suffer from illegally reduced wages and other discriminatory and illegal practices.  The high incidence of these problems among migrant workers in the region provided the rationale for the Campaign’s launch in Southeast Asia.  The program explored conditions and practices in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Jordan, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Verité is now working with the governments of Taiwan and the Philippines to create alternatives to the current private broker structure which leads to excessive fees and exploitation of workers.