The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 126126 THE SCARS OF THE ERASUREmen, with equal pay for equal work; (ii) A decent living for themselves and theirfamilies in accordance with the provisions of the present Covenant; (b) Safe andhealthy working conditions; (c) Equal opportunity for everyone to be promotedin his employment to an appropriate higher level, subject to no considerationsother than those of seniority and competence; (d) Rest, leisure and reasonablelimitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as remunerationfor public holidays.”For the erased persons, all of the above-mentioned was inaccessible duringthe period of their life without legal status. Some of these rights were not respectedeven if an erased person obtained a work visa and was able to retainhis/her job. The erased persons whose employers did not arrange for work visashad no choice but to resort to random illegal jobs, which placed them in a positionsimilar to that of other undocumented migrants. Such workers are not entitled toany rights; their salary is uncertain, their social contributions are not paid, andthey do not have health insurance, which places them in a particularly precarioussituation if they perform heavy physical work in the construction sector. A singlemotherwith the pseudonym Indira talked about her years of working illegally.All this time I was without status, had nothing. I worked 23, 30, 34 hours in arow. Without a pause! I finished at one job and went to the next, and so on. Iwas cleaning, including master cleaning, in companies, apartments, all of that illegally.All of that in order to make a living for my small children. (Indira, 48)Those who were without legal status for several years and worked illegallythroughout this time in order to earn a living also lost a corresponding numberof qualifying years towards their pension. Tomislav told us the following story:I was born in Slovenia and I was living in Slovenia. In 1982 or 1983 I started myfirst business, metal products manufacturing. I had to close the company in 1995,because I was erased by the Chamber of Commerce, because I didn’t have Sloveniancitizenship. I’ve had a regular job only since 2006. I lost 12 qualifying yearsbecause of the erasure. (Tomislav, 59)These are just two illustrative examples that we chose in an attempt toshow how heavy was the blow dealt by the erasure. A detailed assessment ofthe violation of the right to work and labor rights would require scrutiny of eachindividual case, but it is possible to reach the general conclusion that by deprivingthese people of their legal status, the authorities cunningly circumvented theobligation to recognize their right to work; as regards those who were forced towork illegally, their labor rights were similarly ignored. The violation of the rightto work was indirect; they did not have the right to access the labor market becausethey did not have legal status, but they were without status because theywere unlawfully deprived of it. An argument opposing the conclusion that thiswas a case involving violation of the right to work would be an argument non sequitur.For example, one could ask how we can know that it was the erasure that