Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) as a NGO aims at bringing concerned students, scholars, labor activists, and consumers together to monitor corporate behavior and to advocate for workers’ rights. SACOM currently has a vacancy on:

Project Coordinator (International) /
Project Officer (International)

Duties

As Project Officer, the appointee will be required to:

· give aid to compile reports on corporate social responsibilities and labour rights;

· keep communications with international partners and networks;

· provide day-to-day administrative and accounting support to the organization;

· provide secretarial service to monthly meetings;

As Project Coordinator , the appointee will be additionally required to:

• organize and strategize labor rights campaigns;
• write proposal for fundraising purpose.

Requirements

For appointment as Project Officer, applicants should:

· have a recognized bachelor’s degree;

· have good command of English;

· have a good independent working ability;

· take occasional duties in evenings and holidays;

· be willing to take overseas working travel;

· have interest on Chinese labour rights.

For appointment as Project Coordinator, applicants should additionally:

· have working experience in NGOs OR at least 3 years other working experience;

· have a master’s degree (research degree is preferable);

· be familiar with the social and political affairs in China

Remuneration

We offer appointee:

· a competitive salary which will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Applicants should state their current and expected salary in the application;

· a one-year contract with the possibility of renewal;

· 18 days on-paid annual leave;

· five working days per week and 40 working hours per week.

· medical benefits;

· 1 day menstrual leave (female) and 7 days paternity leave (male).

Application and Enquiries

Applicants are requested to state clearly the specific post applied for in your application. In addition, applicants have to write an article on either “Workers Rights” OR “Corporate Social Responsibility”. Please send your application letter enclosing an up-to-date curriculum vitae and the article to us before 15^th June 2009 by e-mail: sacom@sacom.hk . All the information provided will be only used for recruitment and be kept confidential. For more information about SACOM, please refer to www.sacom.hk

Short-Term Research Positions: Asian Cultural Studies

The Cultural and Material life of media piracy is a three-year project carried out by the Sarai programme of the CSDS, Delhi, India in collaboration with the Alternative Law Forum Bangalore, India. The project seeks open a different debates on piracy other than simply that of enforcement and criminality in Asia. We hope to generate discussions of cultural needs, community practices of sharing and circulation in societies of high inequality. We will also look at media industry approaches to piracy and enforcement strategies. In addition, there will be ethnographic and quantitative work on media use in neighborhoods.

The main research node spans South Asia, with comparative work in China and South East Asia. The Sarai-ALF teams of researchers work in tandem with an international project on media piracy with fellow researchers in Brazil, South Africa and Russia coordinated by the SSRC (New York). The project is supported by the IDRC (Canada)

We are looking for bright, energetic and qualified researchers who can work in collaboration with a regional and international team. Applicants must demonstrate abilities to research and write on the subject. A familiarity with the debate on piracy, intellectual Property and the creative commons is preferable. Social science and humanities applicants should have completed postgraduate degrees, law students a four-year programme.

The position is ideal for researchers working on their Ph.d/M.Phil, wanting to combine it with ongoing research and interest in media, law and cultural studies. Independent researchers with a clear, demonstrable research capacity and experience may also apply.

Researcher One: Beijing
The researcher will be media and copy culture circuits in China post video/VCD and the relationship to the international legal regime. Research will be fieldwork based. Researchers must be bi-lingual in Mandarin and English.

Researcher Two: Hong Kong
The researcher will be looking at Hong Kong Media industries after video and the worlds of piracy in South China. Researchers should be fluent and bi-lingual in Cantonese and English.

Remuneration will be approximately USD 5000 for a six-month period. A publication quality research paper is expected at the conclusion of the research period.

Interested applicants may send their CV and a written research sample to researchjobs@sarai.net by April 20th, 2009. Applications without a written research sample will not be entertained.

Links
Sarai, CSDS: www.sarai.net
Alternative Law Forum: www.altlawforum.org

May 1 is coming up. Join the rally with WorkRight Union, for the rights of all workers!!

WorkRight Union took part in the International Human Rights Day Carnival 2008 at the Mongkok pedestrian area (Sai Yeung Choi Street) on 7 December 2008 (Sunday). We put up two exhibition boards to introduce our Best Practice for NGOs and distributed some membership recruitment postcards. See below some pictures of our activity on that day.

The annual Human Rights Day Carnival is coming up this Sunday (December 7).  We hold firmly that workers rights are part and parcel of universal human rights.  In solidarity with all others who put the principles into action, Work Right Union will showcase our stand — that NGO workers who facilitate others to engage in democratic participation and defend their rights should practise what we preach in our own organisation.

Come and take a look at the pedestrian area of Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mongkok between 2pm and 5pm.

For more information, please go to this page: http://www.alliance.org.hk/hrd2006

What is the difference between resignation and dismissal?
This question sounds stupid. But very often, we miss the fundamental difference: Resignation is a VOLUNTARY choice of the workers while dismissal is an INVOLUNTARY action forced by the boss UNILATERALLY. Since dismissal is 100% the boss’s decision, workers have to be protected against
this absolute power which can easily subject workers to absolute control under all kinds of circumstances. Read the rest of this entry »

Do

• Meet and discuss the problem together
• Share information with your colleagues, particularly what the boss/management says individually to you in private
• Consult labour organizations or trade unions
• Know your rights well. Not perfect but better than nothing. http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/ConciseGuide.htm

Don’t

• Talk with the boss/management about your action NO MATTER HOW OPEN they are. Workers have different interests from them. And they have their own interests to defend. Approach them when you, as a UNIFIED group, come up with your position and demand.
• Reach any agreement or promise with the boss/management individually.
• Respond to the boss/management to questions about your colleagues. You may put your colleagues in unfavourable positions. In the end, it hurts everybody, including yourself.
• Act on suggestion from the boss/management. Go back to the Dos – discuss and act TOGETHER with your colleagues.

We are the WorkRight Union, a new-born trade union of workers working in rights-based organizations, including trade unions. We are formed because we see that there are also violations of labour rights in these organizations as well. The point is that, in every labour-management relation, there is always the potential of rights violations just like in profit-making organizations or the civil service.

To protect ourselves against these violations, we have chosen to do it the old way – get together and exercise collective power. If you have the same concerns as us, we are more than happy to talk with you and work out something together with you.

Just make a note of our contacts:
WORKRIGHT – Rights Workers Trade Union Hong Kong
Email: workrightunion@wowkrightunion.org.hk
Snail mail address: P O Box 72587, Kowloon General Post Office, Hong Kong

By Staphany Wong, Executive Committee Member, WorkRight Union

For the unionists and labour activists in Hong Kong, the most inspiring event in 2007 undoubtedly was the ironworkers’ strike, which lasted 36 days during August and September, the longest strike by any group of workers in Hong Kong in more than 30 years.. This largely peaceful action received support from many sectors of the community and stimulated much discussion on the need for a minimum wage and maximum working hours for those in construction and other industries in the territory. Read the rest of this entry »

Survey results

From early to middle 2005, WorkRight Union sent out questionnaires to various rights-based groups, inviting non-managerial staff members from these organizations to describe their working conditions. By late September 2005, 26 questionnaires had been returned, from 14-15 (one unidentified) organizations.

Here are the most eye-catching problems rights-based workers are facing: Read the rest of this entry »