Employmentweb_low

employment relations and health inequalities: a conceptual and empirical overvieW
welfare. The IlO has defined the EPZ as an "industrial zone with special
incentives set up to attract foreign investors, in which imported materials
undergo some degree of processing before being reexported."
(IlO, 2007). EPZs go by many names such as
free trade zones, special economic zones, or
maquiladoras. These zones are intended to attract
foreign investment, and are thus subjected to
preferential treatment as regards fiscal and financial
regulations. Often, this involves exemptions from part or
all of the labour code, including occupational health and
safety regulations. In 2006, there were 116 countries
with EPZs, adding up to a total of 3,500 EPZs. In this
same year, 66 million people were working in EPZs. In
China alone, there were 40 million people working in
EPZs, amounting to about a third of the ten-year growth young worker in a maquila in San pedro Sula (Honduras).
of employment in China or a third of the whole industrial source: antonio rosa (2005)
manufacturing workforce. For many, then, EPZs appear to be an efficient
strategy by which middle- or low-income countries can develop their
economies, create employment and improve their infrastructure. However,
this success typically comes at the price of creating very unhealthy working
environments.
Ironically, it is the very reason that EPZs are so attractive to
investors which often creates these hazardous working and
employment conditions (see Case study 11). The downright dangerous
work environments and the near impossibility of union formation
indicate to investors that productivity is the key concern in many EPZs.
looking at the example of China, we can see that EPZs have created
jobs that result in young women's massive entry into the formal labour
market (Hogstedt, Wegman, & Kjellstrom, 2007). However, workers
suffer from poor work environments and practices there and around
the world (see Case study 12). In these working environments, un-paid
overtime work, sub-human working hours, and deficient health and
safety standards are common. For example, there are factories where
workers are locked into the workplace during working hours. In some
cases, workers have died in fires while locked in their building. Poor
ventilation, failure to provide medical attention, lack of proper
accommodation and the creation of social "ghettoes" in barracksstyle
living quarters are other examples of EPZ employment practices.
The problem is even more pervasive when considering the hostile
employment relations in many EPZs. relentless hostility towards
trade unions is a constant, and is among the arguments put forward
by authorities in order to attract investors (ICFTU, 2003). Threats of
dismissal, physical assault or even death are used to discourage
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