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vulnerable situations such as undocumented, domestic workers, etc. to protect the
worker’s identity and help alleviate the fear of retaliation. For example, Qatar’s new
online platform for whistleblowers enables workers in the private sector as well as
domestic workers to submit complaints without having to enter any personal
identification information (Migrant Justice Institute, 2021)
Enforcing judgments and ensuring workers can collect payment
o Place the burden of proof on employers and create legal presumptions in workers’
favor for wage claims (Migrant Justice Institute, 2021)
o Allow multiple workers to bring grouped claims against an employer (Migrant Justice
Institute, 2021)
o Create meaningful commercial consequences for businesses that ignore wage
judgments such as Labour migration registration and licensing consequences, and
Rapid accrual of additional penalties to compel payment
o Facilitate power of attorney procedure for the repatriated/returning workers at
missions. (CS & Rajan, 2021)
o Extend liability for wage payment beyond the direct employer - treats a host business
as the direct employer of workers supplied by a labour provider, lead firms and
principal contractors jointly liable for subcontractors’ workers.
o implementing joint and several liability against recruitment agencies (Migrant Justice
Institute, 2021)
STAKEHOLDER ACCOUNTABILITY
Collective bargaining should be used to respond to conditions that perpetuate and uphold wage
theft practices. For this, stakeholders need to consider bipartite and tripartite negotiations to
focus on and address the issue of wage theft. Beyond this, there exist several actions
stakeholders may consider in ensuring accountability of self and compliance by other actors to
rights-based governance reform to address wage theft.
Governments of COO and COD:
States need to develop fair, professionalized and rights-based mediation processes in
which employers are compelled to participate. For instance, the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA) can remove the accreditation of foreign
employers and suspend or revoke the licenses of recruitment agencies to facilitate
compliance with approved settlements through the mandatory conciliationmediation process. (Migrant Justice Institute, 2021)
Registration process following due diligence needs to be conducted by missions
before workers are repatriated. If any unpaid wages and other benefits remain
pending, then the missions should be permitted to take the power of attorney from
the migrants and pursue settlements of claims subsequently. (Abrar, Haque, &
Haque, 2021)
Establish government schemes and other funds to pay wages where the employer
will not or cannot pay - government funds that can cover worker wage payments in
the event an employer liquidates, and extend this coverage to migrant workers;
extend coverage of insolvency funds to undocumented workers; Project bank
accounts and swift dispute adjudication to release payments to subcontractors in
Disclaimer: The figures, statistics within the report are based upon the limited documentation of cases
submitted to the JFWT platform or separately to MFA. It does not intend to implicate any country,
government, industry, employer, etc.