Australia: Labor Should Implement Its Policy On Labour Rights And Human Rights In UAE Trade Deal

September 17, 2024

“We know very few details about Australia’s trade deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced by the Trade Minister,” Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET), said today.

“We will not see the details until after the agreement is signed later in the year. This continues a secretive process criticised by a recent Parliamentary Committee Report which recommended implementing Labor policy for a more open process, but which is not yet in place.”

“The UAE negotiations were controversial because the Labor Government has a policy to include commitments to enforceable labour rights and to respect women’s rights in trade agreements. However, the UAE has not ratified basic labour rights like freedom of association, the right to organise and the right to collective bargaining,“ explained Dr Ranald.

AFTINET, the ACTU, Amnesty and other national human rights and women’s organisations wrote a letter to the government providing evidence that temporary migrant workers without labour rights form more than 90% of the UAE private sector workforce. Most non-professional migrant workers, including many women domestic workers, are employed under the kafala system, which ties them to individual employers who act as their visa sponsors, with the risk of deportation if they leave, which results in exploitation.

“The letter asked for concrete evidence of improvements in labour rights and women’s rights before proceeding with negotiations,” added Dr Ranald

“The Minister claims that the agreement includes commitments to promoting labour rights, but promoting and implementing are two different things. The commitments will only be revealed after the signed agreement becomes public and faces review by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, which cannot change the text. We will continue to advocate that the government implement its policies on a more open trade process and enforceable labour rights in trade agreements.”

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