The ILO committee recently denounced the Haitian government for its failure to uphold international standards and national laws on working time and freedom of association. Although on paper, Haiti’s garment workers work for only 9 hours daily, in reality however they put in several more hours off the clock to reach their production targets.

The government has failed to uphold international standards and national employment laws, which is giving employers and their multinational customers free reign to steal from the world’s poorest workers. To make matters worse, the government has introduced a new law on working time which repeals existing standards on overtime, weekly rest and Sunday pay and nightime rates.

In May of last year, workers at 22 garment factories went on strike to demand higher wages. Dozens of union leaders and members of GOSTTRA have yet to be reinstated, in spite of very clear recommendations following an investigation by the ILO’s Better Work programme. Not only were they not reinstated, they were also blacklisted.